Job Discussion Forums

[Aladdin]

Konnichiwa!

I've been poring over old threads here and elsewhere for a while now, and I thought I'd finally dive in and solicit your hard-won knowledge and wisdom.

About me: I'm an almost 31-year old Canadian with dual UK-CDN citizenship and 3 degrees - an Hons. BA in Hispanic Studies, a Spec. Hons. BA in Political Science, and a MA in Global Governance (basically International Relations. I focused on climate change-related topics, as well as international relations in the Asia-Pacific, but I claim no real expertise). I've also signed up to do the CELTA over April (I know is almost certainly unnecessary, but I also know that nothing else compares to it. I'm living at home right now with minimal expenses, so it's a good time to do it. And I like the idea of being able to have the flexibility to have an income stream throughout the region, as well as via online freelancing, or private schools back home. Anything to keep me from working in a bar again as yet another stranded millennial.)

I'm a native English speaker and I also speak French and Spanish. I've been (mostly) self-studying Japanese for about 6 months and I'm finally starting to get some momentum.

What I might construe as English/Teaching experience is fairly limited - a term as TA during my Master's, a couple years on the Editorial Board for an undergraduate journal, and a couple years as a freelance editor, which has given me the chance to do some work for ESL writers. I have one academic-ish co-authored publication with a think-tank, and I'm hoping to have another solo-authored pub. in the coming months.

Why do I want to teach English in Japan with all this "valuable" education? A few reasons. The job market sucks. I've been searching for over a year, with varying degrees of intensity, and haven't managed to nail down anything permanent in my field. I have no real overseas work/living experience, and I increasingly see this as a professional liability. I've always wanted to spend time working/living overseas, and I now find myself single and unencumbered, except for my debts. I figure that I can apply for jobs just as easily from Japan as I can from my parents' couch - and at least have the benefit of learning a new language and having a bit of a long-deferred adventure. I can't imagine that there'll be a better time, and I know that if I blink I'll be 40 and probably too risk-averse to jump.

A former prof of mine brought me in on a project of his, so I've had a little bit of conference-related work in Japan over the past year - enough to give me a taste for the country, the people, and the language. I even know a few professionals / academics now (mostly in Osaka). I like it a lot, and after a number of intense years in school, a year (or more) away doing something other than intense research and coursework is very appealing.

Medium-to-long term, my best-case goal is to use my time there and eventual linguistic competency to crack into the national/regional job market in something closer to my field / academic interests (sustainability consulting/communications, ESG risk analysis, etc), or maybe do a phd if I get really desperate.

As for location, I'd like to be in a big or reasonably-sized city. Other than that, I'm flexible. Tokyo or Osaka would be great, but I'm not too picky, and I'm open to suggestion.

Guh. Still reading? Sorry this is so long - based on other threads that I've read I just thought it would be helpful to give you all as much context as possible.

My questions:

1. I've been looking here, on GaijinPot, on JapanEnglishTeacher, on OhayouSensei, etc, and it seems like the only way to get a visa these days is through a recruiter or one of the big eikaiwa -- but it also seems like these are likely to pay (significantly?) less than smaller schools, possibly work me into the ground, and leave me with less flexibility and time to a) have a life and b) pick up private tutoring work to supplement my income. Is this a fair assessment? Are there better alternatives that might be in my reach? Do any of the big guys stand out for being "better" or "worse" than the rest (I know this is subjective).

2. As a new arrival with minimal Japanese language skills, is it realistic to expect to be able to pick up private tutoring work? Would it be realistic to do so while working for one of the big guys?

3. Does anyone have experience/advice for transitioning from ELT into other work in/with Japan e.g. for big multinationals or international organizations?

4. Are there likely to be wage advantages to locating in a less-popular (with undergraduate gai-jin) city?

5. With my education, should I be trying to land work in a University, or is this likely to be out of reach without a MA TESOL? (I'm also open to teaching e.g. intro-level English-language Political Science, Environmental Studies, International Relations, Global Governance, should I be qualified to do so).

6. Is my non-English MA likely to help me at all? Can I leverage it for higher pay? How can I best maximize the value of my qualifications (assuming that they have any)?

If you've made it this far, you have my sincere gratitude. Looking forward to any and all responses - even the snark.

Arigatou.

[Maitoshi]

If you have your sights set on Japan, but no other way to get a working visa, your only realistic option may be to take whichever job offers to sponsor. Probably Eikaiwa.

[mitsui]

Try Berlitz. If you can teach French, that would help.

In the past an unrelated MA was OK but these days people can get rejected.
Look at Kansai Gaidai. But even there I think they want publications.

[steki47]

ALT work would typically give you more time for private lessons and a social life. Long holidays with lower pay but the 9-5 schedule is more conducive to the above concerns you mentioned.

[Maitoshi]

I have read that Westgate is a sort of dispatch for uni. I don't think they do full-year contracts, but they sponsor working visas for those from abroad. Not sure if it helps your search, but I think someone wrote on Dave's that they aren't too picky.

[kzjohn]

[kzjohn]

[Maitoshi]

[nicenicegaijin]

It's pretty sad that someone with 3 degrees and all that talent cannot get a job in their own country. Why don't you just go ahead and go a PhD while you can live at your parent's place and get a part-time job to pay for it. You can then become an academic like me. If you leave the house to go to Japan and teach at a language school then come back a few years later, you parents will be so angry they might not help you with the PhD. The job market doesn't "suck" the problem is you have all these soft semi-useless degrees. If you have a BA in Engineering and an MA in it, you would have no problem getting a job. You may get lucky at a university teaching part-time, I would hire you depending on the other candidates, but then I wouldn't since you don't have any Japan teaching experience.
You have 2 options.
1. Come to Japan, get a job, get a visa then work your way up to part-time uni work. You won't get further unless you do a PhD in applied linguistics.
2. Get your parents to help you with a PhD and become an academic.
You won't get any other job, you have too many university degrees and no work experience the older you get people aren't going to give you a chance to start fresh.

[Maitoshi]

Nice to see you again MATeacher!

[Aladdin]

Thanks for the responses - I'll certainly look into Kansai Gaidai. Are there any other universities that might be a good bet? I would love to be able to maintain a university affiliation of some sort - even if it's as a part-time contractual English teacher.

I looked at Berlitz, but it seems as though they too are in the "recruiting people already in Japan" group.

Westgate wants 500 hours of in-class experience, which I don't have yet of course.

I sent in an application with ECC and will keep my fingers crossed - from what I can tell they seem to offer the best salary / hours worked out of the big eikaiwa, and they should be in reach with my profile... So long as my MA doesn't scare them off ha.

kzjohn that is very encouraging - if I understand correctly from what folks are saying, it should be possible to find *something* at a university, and would likely be much easier once I'm on the ground. Splitting my time b/w ECC (+/-30 hours) + a class or two at a Uni would be dandy.

nicenicegaijin -- I agree. It is sad. I'd do things a bit differently, given the chance to start over - but here I am. When I suggested that the job market "sucks," I meant for folks with a social science / international affairs background and poor technical/quantitative skills - especially in Canada. Obviously people with engineering, finance, and econ degrees are doing fine. There's not really much of an international affairs industry here. Even the government is a tough nut to crack these days - and I'm really not interested in being another useless bureaucrat in any case, locked away in Ottawa and punching the clock to produce analysis that will be ignored. It's all but impossible to get an internship - let alone a paying job - as a foreign citizen in the US, where the sector is much more developed than in Canada. Europe's economy is on the ropes, you have to be on the ground, and again - there's an entire generation of multi-lingual MAs and PhDs competing for the same unpaid internships or 40k positions. Some people can afford to work 6 months for free to get in the door - if I could, I would too. That's the game nowadays. That's my cynical take anyway. It's not all bad. Most of my colleagues from my program are working. I could stick it out here in Toronto and likely find something, but I need to get some income going right now, and I'd like to learn Japanese and get a sense of the market there. I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels if I stay here much longer. Moving to Japan seems to be the best way to make a commitment to the region and jump out of the crab bucket of North American millennials. North American & European firms increasingly need people who can connect them with Asian markets - at least that's my working theory (I know, I know, I should move to China). I'll never be an econometrician, but I'm hoping that I can sell language skills, in-country experience, MA-level analysis, and a good network.

Frankly, I feel that a PhD is about the worst investment I could make at this point - even though all my profs have encouraged me and I could probably get decent funding (not from my parents though - I've got two younger siblings still on the treadmill - one starting her MA, the other starting his BA). The academic job market is just terrible as well - I made more money working in a bar than most of my young friends who have their PhDs do now. The tenure-track jobs just aren't there anymore - the golden days of academia are over for most - so the opportunity cost associated with 4-5 years of additional hermetic living just isn't worth it. Not now anyway. If I were to do a PhD, it wouldn't be to become an academic producing obscure articles that will only be read by a handful of colleagues (no offence to those who do this, but I think that the model is pretty broken and of questionable social value). I'd do it to become a world expert in something marketable to the private sector / international organizations - but I'm not sure what that would be for me yet, and I'm burnt out from academia right now anyway.

I'm hoping that I *can* safely "burn" a year or two in Asia and still be able to crack into my ideal career track, if the time overseas gets me some linguistic ability and grows my network. If I come back after a year, I don't see how I could be any worse off. I may well be wrong. There's a lost generation growing, and I'm aware that I might get caught in the sand. I mean I'm competing with people who are mid-career professionals as well as with fresh uni grads, FFS. At a certain point, I become the apple that's been on the shelf for too long.

Is it all terrifying and depressing? Yes. Yes it is. I'm trying to stay flexible and hopeful and make the best of it, while still doing some things that I love - i.e. travelling, teaching, and learning new languages.

Didn't mean to rant or go off-topic heh sorry. Still eager and open to advice and suggestions

[nicenicegaijin]

I wouldn't be so down on academia. Jobs exist, just not in Canada and the US anymore. But worldwide there are universities opening up weekly places where a PhD is all you need. I worry that as an intelligent person, who knows exactly what is going on as I can see from your e-mail (you know the score and call it how it is) you will soon get disheartened by the English teaching game.
The second best alternative as I see it since we are talking about absolutes here as in Japan or Canada is to come here with any job or without one and get your visa. You are then free to build a part-time schedule, after 1 year with some Japan experience you will be able to start building up part-time university work. You have an MA so you should be able to get a few part-time classes lined up, I even hired a BA a few years ago based on his resume as he had been in Japan for years and had taught at a multitude of universities. I knew, with a resume like that he wouldn't be any trouble and his student surveys were excellent even without an MA. The only problem you will get is that universities want the MA TESOL. So if there are two candidates and one has the MA TESOL they will get the job and you won't, that is the reality. After you become a part-time university teacher what will you do next? I really doubt you could jump into what you call your field, but without any experience in your field why would anyone in Japan want to hire you. You would need very good Japanese and that would mean reading and writing kanji 3000 of them. I would do the PhD if I was you while I still have a supportive environment to do it in and then get into academia in Canada or abroad. best of luck.

[Maitoshi]

I agree with Nice. Do the Ph.D. now. It's really hard to imagine the kinds of things that will get in the way of completing it later, if it's in your future plans. Publish or perish has its faults, but it does keep you on task and prevent you from spending all the time off in destructive ways, though there's some time for that, too

[Inflames]

[mitsui]

It happens at Kanagawa University too.
Can't be over 40 to work there.