9 Reasons I won’t Hire You After JET: A Response
So this article showed up in my circles on Facebook and of course with a title like that, why wouldn’t I click and read? I immediately regretted my choice.
To start, points 3 to 9 have a tangential relation at most to any sort of ALT position (JET is one of the most recognizable ALT programs but their name can be substituted with any other program in this case). In fact, points 3 t 9 have a tangential relation to ANY position. These are not issues exclusive to ALT participants in Japan. I could title this “congratulations on getting your MBA now here are 7 reasons why I won’t hire you” and nothing changes.
But let’s focus on points 1 and 2. “You had the easiest job on the planet.” I can’t speak for everyone, but based on articles like this, this, this and this, teachers are underappreciated, underpaid, and with several shortages of late, overworked. Couple that with teaching English in a foreign country where you most likely have an imperfect grasp of the Japanese language (if you grasp it at all) and STILL try to teach to students of often varying levels (though generally poor) of proficiency with coworkers of varying levels of proficiency, within a rigid educational system at a school you had little to no say in being placed at and one might think that a statement such as “You had the easiest job on the planet” is not only insulting, but a blatant lie. My friend Kome has 12 schools she teaches at of varying distances away from her home. I asked her if she could negotiate to balance her schools out with the new ALT that just entered mid-year. She said it is balanced; the new ALT has 13 schools. I won’t go into details on the numerous problems that causes in teaching in general but I believe I’ve given adequate evidence to debunk the point.
Continuing, the article questions how anyone who’s immersed themselves in the culture could come away from the program without being able to pass at least N2. I would love to meet the person who can pass the N2 after a year or two of living here. Hell, I’d love to meet the person who lived in any country for two years with no prior experience and can pass that language’s equivalent test while still working five days a week and trying to deal with the intricacies of everyday life in a language you don’t speak. And unless you speak Chinese, the sight of kanji should be enough to make you visibly cringe. I studied Japanese for four years at a reputable college. My speaking ability is at a comfortable enough level, but figuring out the shape, usage, and reading of a kanji is not something that shows up regularly in my day to day outside of students’ names. And even that’s not always accurate.
The most bothersome part of this article however, is the flippant tone the author takes. This was never meant to be some advice to ALTs looking to stay in Japan and work after their session. This, I believe, was written as an attack against their profession, weak as it may be. I would honestly characterize the tone as some middle-aged adult frustrated and lashing out against the up-and-coming millennial crowd and actively trying to keep them down. The question I have though is “why?” Why as a website that promotes itself as the place to go for jobs in Japan would you attack the one group you most rely on for jobs in Japan? In my idle time on the site, I saw about ten jobs pop up on their “Latest Jobs” feed. 9 of those 10 were for English teaching positions of some degree. Too bad I think of myself as a unique person. I suppose I’ll go back to preparing my students for university.
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Would you happen to know if there's other types of job opportunities for someone who wants to work in Japan but has no interest in teaching yet isn't fluent in Japanese for any Japanese-speaking jobs?
Before I get into it, how many of you are interested in this kind of info such as moving to Japan, visas, job searches, etc? I was thinking of doing a podcast for this kind of thing since I clearly like talking so much. Drop me an ask! And I've done a lot of research on visas so feel free to ask me about more details.
This response is kind of for everyone so there might be some info that doesn't really apply to you, anon. I'm assuming you're from the US or for some other reason can't get a working holiday visa in Japan, in which case, I sympathize.
Unfortunately there's nothing I can tell you that you're gonna like. If you're searching from overseas, you'll have to be extremely, extremely lucky to find a non-teaching job that will hire you from outside Japan. Of course, if you have experience in something like programming or engineering, that might be a different story--search in your own field if you have one (I'll link some job search sites I've used below but I can't help too much with info for specific fields). The trick is still going to be getting hired from overseas--sponsoring a visa for a foreign worker is a hassle for a company, and, if the rumors I've heard are to be believed, quite expensive. The good news is that you only have to get sponsored once. After that, you can renew or change jobs much more easily, even if your new job is in a different visa category.
If you're like I was a few years ago and you aren't living in Japan and don't have experience in a highly sought-after field and you don't have another road to a visa (such as a Japanese grandparent), here are the best two options.
Option one
suck it up and get an English teaching job, since it's the only industry I know of that's likely to sponsor your visa. Once you get hired, start looking for another job and leave asap. Like ASAP. Here are some options if you're desperate enough to try teaching:
the JET programme--first just because it's widely known. The application process is lengthy and a huge pain in the ass, as well as quite competitive, and working conditions are supposedly hit or miss but I've heard far more less-than-favorable stories.
Nova--the company I worked for for a year. Offered me a job within a week of the interview with very little teaching experience. Unquestionably the worst job I have ever and will ever have. Unfortunately other private eikaiwa are not rumored to be much better.
Gaba--slightly longer interview process and I guess a bit more competitive since I applied twice, once with no experience and from outside Japan, once with 1 year experience and from inside Japan, and was not offered a job either time. However they will hire English teachers who are not necessarily native speakers, for anyone out there who this might apply to.
Interac, ECC, Berlitz, etc., there's tons of other big eikaiwas.
option two
get a student visa, which obviously requires a bit of money. I imagine a university student visa is not likely to be in your plan, anon, but you can also get the other category which includes technical schools and language schools. If you're interested in learning Japanese, try gogonihon--they have a variety of Japnese schools and if I remember correctly will give you some amount of support. If you're interested in some other vocational school, you might have to do it on your own. You can legally search for a job once you're in japan with a student visa. You can also work most part-time jobs with a student visa as long as you apply for the permit at the airport when you land in Japan (applying later is still possible but takes a few weeks). I would highly recommend a hotel job or something else that might be able to sponsor a visa--I know a person or two that was offered a full-time job after working at a hotel part time for a while, but idk how common it is.
If you do go one of the two above routes, the best industry to get a job in from within Japan without much Japanese, and assuming no other marketable experience (in my opinion), is tourism, specifically hotels and guesthouses.
Some sites I used when job searching:
Gaijinpot--well-known, has support for jobs as well as apartments and such. Some jobs may offer visa sponsorship.
Yolojapan--another fairly well-known one
indeed--tons of jobs but a bit of a tossup. Includes all jobs so you'll have to search for ones that don't require Japanese.
gogonihon--another kind of catch-all service that will help with housing as well. I didn't personally use them for job searching but I attended a language school through them.
jobsinjapan--don't remember much about them but I did search on there occasionally
nipponshigoto--the website seemed to have changed hands halfway through my job search so I don't know if this is still true, but they had the most non-English-teaching options that I can remember. I ended up getting my current travel agency job through them.
Keep in mind
a job visa requires a 4-year degree (or equivalent?) That's a requirement for the visa, not the job. You might not be totally out of luck if you don't have a 4-year degree though, so just do some research.
a non-university student visa is good for two years total, in your whole lifetime. Not two years at a time, two years, ever. Don't dilly-dally if you go this route!
finally, a warning
I doubt I'm the first person to tell you how difficult it is to move to Japan, but it's really something you need to keep in mind. There's a lot of processes and laws you have to know about that no one is going to help you with--not even the company that hired you or the school you're enrolled in. Not even the services that claim they will. These processes and laws are not just when you first move to Japan, but will haunt you as long as you live here. Staff at the immigration office don't even seem to speak much english, let alone local city and tax offices. Really think about why you want to live in Japan and make sure you aren't going to regret it when you're sitting outside the tax office in tears because you've explained your situation six times over two visits, both of which you had to take time off work for, but they still can't help you and can't even point you in the right direction but if you don't figure it out you're in trouble. Yes, that did happen to me and I speak N2 level Japanese (if your eikaiwa has a direct hire contract and an independent contractor contract like nova does, do NOT pick the Independent one even if you'll get paid more, please I'm begging you, I promise it is not worth it and also its legality is questionable.) I cannot stress enough how much you need to really think about this.
If none of these options appeals to you
don't give up! These are only the options that I personally know of. Also, Japan has a population time bomb on their hands, so they're more motivated to let in foreigners so that the country doesn't just collapse when they don't have any young people left. it's gotten easier in recent years to get certain types of visa and it's not unlikely that it will continue to get easier in the future.
Good luck anon! Tell me how it goes and feel free to ask me any more questions!! I didn't go through moving to Japan to not help others have an easier time than I did!
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Hey, I'd like to bug you about your job, if possible. How did you find your job at a private company? Did you search while overseas or did you apply once you were already in Japan? Thank you, and good luck with law school!
Hi, not a problem! I found my job through Ohayo Sensei, which is a twice-monthly newsletter for (mostly) teaching jobs. Some you need to already be in Japan for, some you don’t (I also had some luck getting interviews through jobs on Gaijinpot and JobsinJapan).
I was searching from Australia, and although I have a TESOL certification I had no actual teaching experienced before this. A lot of schools will be perfectly okay to go through the proper visa procedure with you, but I came over legally on a working holiday visa (side note: I don’t think people from the US can have those) that was later changed to a work visa because I only had about two weeks between getting the job and moving over here.
My job also came with an apartment so I’m no help there lmao.
Right now is also going to be one of the best times to find a job in Japan, because most teaching positions will start between Feb and late March (as the Japanese school year starts at the beginning of April)
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As per reports, Japan is making preparations for launching a new 2-year start-up visa for international students.
The new visa will allow international students graduating from specific universities in Japan to stay on in the country for up to 2 years for setting up a new business.
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