Job Discussion Forums

[Charlie123]

I have been a university instructor in several Asian countries, and I also have a business background with some very recognizable multinational companies. However, I don't have Japanese skills, so I probably am not going to try for a uni position. I want to teach business English. I don't want to go through a recruiter. I would greatly prefer a direct hire. How should I approach this? I am outside the country.

[TokyoLiz]

This thread is somewhat related to your question -

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=112731&highlight=business

[/quote]

[Charlie123]

Thanks Liz.

Is anyone here teaching Biz Eng?

[TokyoLiz]

I don't now, but as you can see from that thread, most of us here could only get part time work doing business English.



In the last 15 years here in Tokyo, I've met only two people who work full time teaching business English inside big corporations. The job you're looking for is rare as frog hair.

[mitsui]

Pay is often 3500-4000 yen. 10 years ago teachers could make 7,000 per hour.
Classes tend to be early in the morning or early evening.
It helps to live in Tokyo so as not to have a bad commute.

It is not easy to juggle business classes with ALT or other work, but some can manage. Business classes can also be scheduled when teachers are on vacation, since companies just get Obon off.

[Charlie123]

I have heard that it is possible to work for corporations on full-time status. Sounds a little more dignified than shuttling around for 3K an hour.

[TokyoLiz]

IIRC, the outsource company I worked for paid ¥5000/hour for a typical business English lesson. At the time I worked at a high school in Tokyo, and the corporate HQ where I taught the business course was a 15 minute walk from the school.

There were two of us scheduled at that location for evening sessions. We hardly ever actually taught lessons because our students came late or not at all. When they did attend, they couldn't concentrate since they were dead tired. None of them improved in the few quarters I taught there.

I gave it up because it was not helping the students or me, and the academic schedule at the school and the quarter system with the outsource company didn't line up well. The mismatch made taking holidays very difficult.

I miss my old job in Canada - teaching Business English, General English and LINC. I also miss working with a team of TESOL teachers.

[currentaffairs]

Almost all the Business English classes are run through contractors and outsource companies now. Pay is fairly average for the time, effort and commuting that you put into it. I had a two hour block at a few reputable companies but it made my day long and the commute was around 90 mins altogether (on top of what I was already doing in the day). Also, the sessions are often run over 20 weeks so you don't get paid for a large part of the year.

[Charlie123]

Can you make a decent wage teaching business English in Canada? maybe I ought to move there.

[Charlie123]

Sounds pretty grim.

Are there any bright spots in the Japanese ESL market, these days?

[mitsui]

Unless you like teaching kids.
Generally no. Fewer young people than in the past.
More part-time jobs than before.
Wages are flat.

[TokyoLiz]

Charlie123,

In the 90s, TESOL teaching was a stable profession in my city. However, with changes in economies around the world, and stagnating wages in Canada, it's hard to find openings for teaching jobs, and difficult to get a decent salary in big centers.

Note that if you are not Canadian or have a right to work in Canada, you won't be able to compete with Canadians who have TESOL backgrounds.

[kathrynoh]

I worked teaching Business English a few years ago. I think it'd be difficult to get a full time direct hire position. I've seen a few advertised but they seem to be outside of Tokyo, in places like Shikoku. I guess if a business is the main employer in an area, they have to direct hire someone rather than have contractors.

Otherwise, you'd need to combine it with other work or be on an alternative visa (that didn't require employer sponsorship), especially starting out. I was on a student visa so working part time was ideal for me.

I worked for two companies and found I'd get one class a week from them and then, after I proved myself, would be offered more work as it came up. But most of the work was 6-8pm Mon-Thurs. I did get one Saturday morning class. I also found my pay rate went up every time I got offered a new class.

Unlike TokyoLiz, I found most of my students were very switched on. I never had classes run overtime either. I did have a bit of outside class but it wasn't that time consuming, just writing reports on students at the end of each block of classes.

I was already in country when I applied for jobs.

[milkman]

I worked in-house at one of Japan's biggest multinationals for awhile, there were a few of us native teachers and they also outsourced a lot of things like TOEIC courses to ALC. Overall a comfortable position but incredibly busy, along with teaching 3-4 classes a day to different departments we also had to sit in on conference calls and make notes on what the Japanese side did right and wrong, translate business reports, and be the generic "token foreigner" in some meetings to make the company look more international. The job was secure but by working in-house you also get all of the crap that comes with working in a Japanese company, lots of overtime, bureaucracy, and ass-kissing. It was a contract position and they were incredibly demanding, sometimes having unrealistic expectations with progress (most of the employees were too busy to study English and wouldn't do any kind of reviewing, but the higher-ups would blame us if their skills didn't improve as planned). Even if you were a good teacher, if the company didn't like you, they would just get rid of you for very vague reasons. I remember an amazing teacher who had measurable success, his students constantly got higher TOEIC scores and gave excellent presentations at conferences, but for some reason the management didn't like him and he got the cut. If a teacher made it long enough to reach the contract length to become a seishain by law, they would simply not be recontracted when the time came, that's what happened to me. My superiors liked me and seemed to want me to stay on considering how rare it was for a teacher to make it that long, but it was simply company policy and there was nothing they could do. At least it was incredibly easy for me to find another business English teaching position with the company on my CV. I now work for a factory in Saitama which does business overseas and the atmosphere is the opposite, the management just lets me do anything I want as long as the students improve and get higher TOEIC scores, it's a smaller business and I work with the same few students so can really develop a personal connection with them and make lessons that are directly relevant to their needs, no stress or BS at all, and management are fantastic people to work with and really make me feel like a valued member of the company.

At least part-time positions are kind of shielded from all of that, but indeed business English is much more professional, people expect results from your classes and it isn't the kind of job a person can land in without knowledge of teaching, and I'd say that teaching skill and experience is far more important than business skill, but of course having both will make you a far more attractive candidate. Even doing something like ALT and Eikawa is a very different world since for the most part you can kind of be a mediocre teacher and still survive in those industries, and the people in HR know that.

[nomad soul]

Charlie123:

You've never mentioned your specific background/experience, but instead of focusing on Biz English, why not look into providing professional public speaking/presentation skills training? In other words, market yourself as a Corporate Public Speaking Skills Trainer, Presentation Skills Trainer, Public Speaking Skills Coach, Executive Speech Coach... something like that.

It moves past teaching English L2s how to use English in business contexts; it also emphasizes cross-cultural communication, style, body language/nonverbal cues, persuasion, and so on. Additionally, presentation skills are crucial in just about any profession or situation where public speaking, interpersonal communication, and group communication skills are essential. There's career potential worldwide. In fact, check out this short clip from House Hunters Int'l: Moving to Malaysia.

Anyway, there are courses you could take to boost your own skillset. Take a look at MOOC offerings from:

edX
Coursera
Udemy

.