Pros
1.Attractive Salary (pretty high for enrichment) 2. Work life balance (don’t contact you after 6pm) 3. Enjoy interacting with children (some kids are pretty cute)
Cons
Let’s start off with the interview process. I applied for the job and was arranged an interview with the director of the company on the same day. Red flags 🚩 1. The interview felt relatively too easy to get through, mostly basic standard interview questions that were not sufficient as a testament to whether the candidate is suitable for the role during the screening process. Given that the center specialises in brain development training and thus has curated a certain set of curriculum. This means that the job would also require certain specific traits, but there was no external test (i.e visual memory or written tests) being conducted to assess the candidate’s level of competency. The interview was pretty much, “if you’re interested in the role, you’re hired” as long as you can come up with a decent answer. 2. Director shared a lot about the positives about the company (Eg. Work life balance, attractive payout) but it could potentially be a misleading factor from all the negatives. Certain things were not really made transparent as well, such as the job requires candidates to speak really fast when teaching, conducting 40 activities in an hour, had a lot of kneeling. When it came to actually working: 3. I’ve seen another comment on this page saying that the gossip culture is rather prevalent. Given that it is an all woman environment, I guess it’s rather inevitable but on my first day, I was sitting in the room and heard the principal of the center gossiping about one of the part timers who had left just recently to all the other Teachers. Honestly it made me feel slightly uncomfortable and should have been a sign as to the high turnover rate that this company has. The Teachers also do form their own cliques, given that some of them have worked in the center for years and they are not really receptive or welcoming to the newcomers which I should have also guessed it’s because of the high turnover rates and they’re so used to seeing new faces that they probably don’t bother making much conversation anymore. During lunch time, they have their own private spots and don’t bother to include the newcomers. Even when they’re conversing in the staff room, as a newcomer I’m always left out of the conversation as if non existent. 4. The on-site training was absolutely HORRENDOUS. Prior to experiencing this, I had the expectation that there would be a full on training being conducted where it would last for several hours in a day for the first week, going through in detail about the curriculum. Yet, the trainers that were assigned to me basically only “taught” me for perhaps 30 minutes? And afterwards I’m left to practice ALL ALONE on my own for the rest of the day. With no guidance on whether or not I’m doing exactly the right thing, and this was even on my first day, I was just left in the room from morning till evening (6pm) with no one to talk to, exactly like a lab rat in the classrooms on repeat. this continued on almost everyday, even throughout the week. And the Teachers who were meant to train, only came in once when they wanted to take something from their own rooms and occasionally asked a question out of convenience before heading out to do their own stuff. 5. A lot of kneeling, this is something to be mindful of because even though they have seats in the classes for Teachers but during the “training”, they would ask you to practise kneeling on the floor instead. Although they are sometimes nice to give you the mats, kneeling on the floor is a big commitment especially if you’re not used to it. I’ve gotten a few really bad bruises after my first few days, and my knees hurt for awhile even after I left. And it’s not just your knees, even if you can make it past those pain, it’s also your lower back and you feeling extremely mentally and physically exhausted at the end of the day. May also lead to potential health problems in the long run if you’re not careful in certain areas. Lastly, I left the company also partially because I don’t agree with the company’s way of education. As much as they are training children to develop skill sets in the right brain through a vigorous learning routine, I noticed that many children often feel restless, sometimes stressed and are not able to catch up with such a fast paced curriculum. After the intensive 40 activities, the kids are expected to complete worksheets within certain timing limits and if they’re not able to do so, they end up not completing them because the teachers often rush them as they need to meet the deadline for classes. I’ve also noticed that the Students are also not allowed to be told where they’ve gone wrong, which doesn’t enable them to learn from their mistakes. After leaving, I’m always seeing the company advertisements and hiring notice which further reaffirms in my mind that there are other individuals out there who feel the same way and I’m glad to have left.
