Job Discussion Forums

[spinelli35]

I'm not having much luck with opportunities in this area, and Japan as a whole. Either my resume is scrambled when being sent or I am just applying at the wrong time.

I'm not even getting courtesy no thank you's.

I also get alot of mailer daemons when I send e-mails..or long drawn out e-mails asking me to contact aunt sally for a reference. Maybe even shoot a movie!

Basically what's up with Japan?

Is the entire Country on vacation or what?

For a Country not even providing airefare or accomodations they sure expect alot.

[Khyron]

[Khyron]

Either that, or the spelling on your C.V. was of the same quality as your post.

[JaredW]

[Glenski]

Okinawa is known to be a depressed place for foreign workers. I will guess that Fukuoka is about the same.

So, that reason fits, but unless we see your cover letter and resume, we'll never know about the other reason. (Don't post them here! If you want someone to proofread/critique them, ask.)

[cafebleu]

your own country? You are not in Japan?

If so, unsolicited letters tend to be a waste of time in Fukuoka. I lived in Fukuoka some years back and in my first job I was employed without having to go and look for work in Japan. That is now becoming rare, especially in Fukuoka.

In one respect it's a great place to live. A less hectic lifestyle, a tad cheaper than most other cities in Japan, better access to urban life and rural life and their attractions when you want them. The price of this is fewer job opportunities.

The smaller size of Fukuoka and the lower population of Kyushu compared to cities on Honshu such as Osaka and Tokyo means there are far less full time working opportunities.

Those days are gone even for foreigners who travel to Fukuoka to look for work.

The glory days of the 90s which were geared towards foreign men arriving from the US, Canada, NZ and Australia with completely different qualifications than those for teaching English, latching on to the Tenjin (city) and Fukuoka lifestyle, making contacts and getting cushy contracts based on nothing other than being white and knowing somebody are gone.

I was employed from the UK, I am female and I am a qualified teacher. I worked at a private English school in the Kyushu countryside and then moved on to other work in Fukuoka. I met many foreign men of the type I listed - lucky them but they illustrate just why it is hard to break into a decent teaching job in Fukuoka.

These people had the best jobs locked down because they had arrived earlier when the jobs were more abundant and I think it's fair to say that the cliques of foreigners in Fukuoka are male ones - they stay longer and they have access to knowledge that I never had so you certainly won't.

Now that the rubbish part time jobs (few hours, decreasing pay) have set in (they were just starting to become usual a year or two before I left Japan), Fukuoka is not a good place to begin. Unless you have the contacts I mentioned (which you don't), or get employed by a chain school such as Geos, or get started through a program such as JET.

I wouldn't advise you to try and get employed outside, especially if it' Fukuoka or Okinawa. Okinawa has even less opportunities and don't forget that the millitary has members who teach English for free as a community outreach endeavour.

In Fukuoka I would bet that a significant number of the schools you are trying to contact have folded. A fair few just died in my last year there yet some of these dead schools' names are still listed in Japan Townpages.

Go for JET if you meet the criteria - there are posters here who can tell you all about JET. If not, try to teach at Geos - they are the best chain school around and Nova is having so many difficulties that you might end up working for them and get no pay as they are likely to collapse soon for reasons to numerous to mention here.

[alexcase]

Can you request where you go with JET and/ or GEOS? Just in case anyone ever asks me...

[Glenski]

[bluetortilla]

Fukuoka is a great city to live in. That's why it has attracted so many gaijin over the last 20 years. Now there is major glut and I don't know anyone who isn't having a hard time in one way or another financially, and many are leaving (staying are the 20 year olds who don't mind the lousy conditions).

Full time work is very tough to get. If you do, typically you'll be paid around 250,000 a month. Most people string together part time jobs. The going rate is 2500 yen an hour. Veterans use their connections to get more. Colleges are paying between 4500 and 6000, usually on the lower end. Again, you usually need connections and/or have a Master's.

I wonder about Kagoshima. Even nicer in my opinion, and few gaijin.

[Glenski]

bluetortilla,
You say you need connections, yet you have been in Japan 20 years and currently live in Fukuoka, yet are barely pulling down 300,000 yen/month. How long have you lived in Fukuoka anyway, and why do you stay with such poor working conditions?