Job Discussion Forums

[cwinfiel]

Hi! I'm currently teaching in Korea for a third year and would like to move to Japan. I'm looking for a position as an ALT in a public school. I know this is early to post, but I like to plan everything out ahead of time. My contract finishes in January and then I'll go home for a month to visit family.

I plan on applying to dispatch companies like Altia or Interac, but I've heard a lot of negative things about them and other dispatch companies. Would it be better to just go to Japan and look while I'm there?

I'm from the USA, so I can't get a working holiday visa. I will also have enough funds saved up from Korea to be able to survive a few months in Japan and still have enough for start up costs.

I will have three years teaching experience at academies in Korea, as well as a CELTA. (If that's worth anything) I also have a BA in English.

Thank you for your help!

[rtm]

[milkman]

Yeah, get a job first and once you arrive here and get the visa start shopping around for better work. If something good comes up just take off, these places will screw you over the second they can so no sense in passing up a good opportunity for a misguided sense of loyalty.

At the very least, it'll help you get situated and give you some cash while you're searching, I'd imagine it must be quite stressful to have to worry about time and budget along with having an undesirable visa.

[cwinfiel]

[hagiwaramai]

[cwinfiel]

I was hoping to work and live somewhere in the Tokyo area. I know everyone wants to live there, but that's where my friends live.

I also don't want to work at eikaiwas. I was hoping to use the longer break at a public school to visit the US. That way, I don't have to change jobs to travel.

I know I'm being too picky. I'm willing to live somewhere else for the first year. I love Osaka and enjoyed the smaller cities I visited. But the Interac site says that it's mostly rural positions available for overseas applicants. Combined with the fact that I won't know where I'm going until right before, it's makes me hesitant. The hiring season will be over if I need to look for a new job after I come for Interac. I have also heard many stories of teachers having to use cars to get to work and being screwed over with the fees. (One of them is a friend here in Korea.)

If I go to Japan with a tourist visa, would a school be willing to sponsor a working visa? Even if I pay for a visa run, etc.?

[hagiwaramai]

The Tokyo area is massive and most of the jobs are there so it's good you want to go there. Actually what interac says about rural locations is maybe a little erroneous. They don't usually put you in the middle of downtown Tokyo, that's true, but they don't usually go in for JET style ruralness and isolation usually either. If anything they go for exactly what you might want, somewhere in the suburbs of big cities/Tokyo, which is where most people live, and within easy commuting distance into central Tokyo. If you really wanted to live centrally and commute out you could too, but of course the rent would be higher. It's good you'd be willing to live somewhere else th efirst year. The main hiring season is of course before the school year starts but jobs come up all the time. It's a very fluid job market. Start checking OyahoSensei bi-monthly, jobsinjapan and gaijinpot everyday, and see what you can find. If it's a company like interac you just have to hope, or talk to them about the possibility of being placed in Tokyo, otherwise obviously just apply to jobs in Kanto.

I think most ALT companies would sponsor a visa after you were here and most of the Eikaiwas would, it usually says in the job ad. You don't need to do a visa run here anymore, you can change within Japan.

[cwinfiel]

Great! Thanks for the advice! I feel better about interac, but I'm still considering coming here and looking for a job. I think I'll apply to interac and see what they offer me. If it's too rural, I'll just job search within Japan.

[ssjup81]

Just hope that Interac actually have openings in the Kanto area.