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klement
Joined: 15 Jan 2006
Posts: 10
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 Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:38 am Post subject: Careers after ESL teaching |
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I have got two interviews for a teaching in japan job, but my main concern at the moment is how people fared when they returned home and tried to find a job.
I have just finished uni, and graduated with 2 degrees, and will have approximately 1 year of post-uni work experience by the time I leave (hopefully i'll get in!) ...
The only thing scaring me is the ability to grow one's career after ESL teaching in Japan. Any experiences (good or bad) would be great!
... oh and i really only want to go there for a max 1 year - get the travel adventure out of my system before a career 
Last edited by klement on Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:12 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Doglover
Joined: 14 Dec 2004
Posts: 305
Location: Kansai
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:51 am Post subject: Re: Careers after ESL teaching |
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| klement wrote: |
I have got two interviews for a teaching in japan job, but my main concern at the moment is how people fared when they returned home and tried to find a job.
I have just finished uni, and graduated with 2 degrees, and will have approximately 1 year of post-uni work experience by the time I leave (hopefully i'll get in!) ...
The only thing scaring me is the ability to grow one's career after ESL teaching in Japan. Any experiences (good or bad) would be great! |
klement,
Im still teaching in Japan but am contemplating what I will do after a lifetime of living here, when and if I move overseas or to an English speaking country.
The general consensus seems to be that ESL teaching doesnt really lend itself to jobs back home unless you plan to continue your ESL teaching back home. That said people have spent 3 years on JET and gone home and found non-related jobs by emphasising not the English teaching part but what they had become as result of the experience e.g. become more confident, develop team work, understanding people from forign countries and different ethnic groups and culture etc. becoming better at public speaking etc.
If you go home and say you taught 3 years in japan people will generally say "OK so what else can you do.....?"
What career exactly is it you want to do and what kinds of skills do you want to bear on gaining that kind of job? Having a Marketing or a law degree doesnt really help you learn how to teach English and working at NOVA for a year or two doesnt really help you get a law job back home. YOu have to be prepared to re-invent yourself and be creative in how you market yourself to employers.
PS. Consider your career to be starting from graound zero when you return home. A couple of years in Japan wont figure as a postive career move and it will be as if you took a couple of years off and started working later.
I dont know about the US but i come from NZ and its almost a rite of passage for Kiwis to bum around Europe and the UK for several years before coming home and working at a 'job'. Americans etc seem to have this obsession with how a few years overseas will look to employers. I know in NZ its expected that people will have got the travel bug out of their system by the time they come back home.
Last edited by Doglover on Wed Jan 18, 2006 11:21 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:21 am Post subject: |
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I'd say the only time in my life where i struggled to find work was just after I returned from teaching in Korea for 1 year. I was 3 years post uni graduation then and had little to offer employers in Canada.
In 1 year in Japan, there is nothing you can do that will wow employers when you get back UNLESS it is in ESL teaching. Your travel and cultural experiences will count for very very little, sorry. Enjoy the year in Japan, but be realistic about where it will take you. |
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abufletcher
Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 779
Location: Shikoku Japan (for now)
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 11:57 am Post subject: |
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Life after EFL!!!??? Mmmuahahahah!!!!  |
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Doglover
Joined: 14 Dec 2004
Posts: 305
Location: Kansai
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:13 pm Post subject: |
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To re-coin an old phrase, you can take the teacher out of EFL but you cant take EFL out of the teacher.
Those who go back home after a few years to start a 'career' find themselves back in Japan within three years. usually the pull is to great to resist and life back home seems dull by comparison. |
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JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:51 pm Post subject: |
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| When I leave Japan, I plan to live out my lifelong dream of becoming a full-time football (soccer) hooligan. |
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abufletcher
Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 779
Location: Shikoku Japan (for now)
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Look at it this way, what if you were to go tell your boss that you're planning to drop off the edge of the world for a few years -- and would he mind holding your job til you get back... |
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abufletcher
Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 779
Location: Shikoku Japan (for now)
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Gordon wrote: |
In 1 year in Japan, there is nothing you can do that will wow employers when you get back UNLESS it is in ESL teaching. |
Or 10! Even if you ARE planning to stay in ESL. |
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Doglover
Joined: 14 Dec 2004
Posts: 305
Location: Kansai
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:03 pm Post subject: |
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| JimDunlop2 wrote: |
| When I leave Japan, I plan to live out my lifelong dream of becoming a full-time football (soccer) hooligan. |
Jim you will NEVER leave Japan. You will become a gibbering idiot drooling in the corner after one too many bum lessons, just like me. |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Now Now, don't scare this poor guy, it is his first post. Probably his last too but hopefully not. |
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abufletcher
Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 779
Location: Shikoku Japan (for now)
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| Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 2:11 pm Post subject: Re: Careers after ESL teaching |
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| Quote: |
| - get the travel adventure out of my system before a career |
Let's see...it's now 23 years and something like 35 countries after that first "I"ll just see the world a bit" job in Saudi Arabia. I figure that by the time I'm dead I'll just about have it licked.
Seriously though, lot of people have taught for a year or two overseas and survived to live a normal life back home. |
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JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 3:04 am Post subject: |
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| Doglover wrote: |
| Jim you will NEVER leave Japan. You will become a gibbering idiot drooling in the corner after one too many bum lessons, just like me. |
NO way, man. Not me! I've got an exit strategy for leaving Japan. It's umm... well actually, exit strategies are for wusses! But I'll leave... Someday. You'll see!  |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:02 am Post subject: |
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| JimDunlop2 wrote: |
NO way, man. Not me! I've got an exit strategy for leaving Japan. It's umm... well actually, exit strategies are for wusses! But I'll leave... Someday. You'll see! |
Ive been saying that every year for the last 10 years and I'm still here. Maybe this year will be my last. Just maybe. Sigh. |
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JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:46 am Post subject: |
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Look at it this way, Paul. You have gainful employment, a family who loves you and a house to put it all in. You can speak the language well enough, and have survived all the stages of culture shock. Japan, despite its problems, is reasonably first-world, technologically and medically advanced, and there is no social/political unrest, and you can enjoy a fairly high standard of living, as reasonably free from crime, pollution and poverty as you'd likely be in your home country.
Being in such a situation, does it really MATTER where in the world you live? I've asked myself that question many times, and have concluded that dying on a tatami mat wouldn't be the worst fate to befall me -- even if I end up living in Japan two-score more before I leave, I think I will vbe able to look back and be happy with my choice. As long as the "love" in my "love-hate" relationship with Japan stays at 51% or higher, I'm likely to stay in Japan (and my wife is of the same mind as me).
I'm definitely not an old-timer here (yet) but it'll be 3 years in February, with no plans to leave ahead. I'm already budgeting to re-shaken my car this summer, and making plans for next summer and winter vacations, as well as several other medium to long future plans.... Maybe one of these days we can sit down and just chit-chat over some coffee! It'd be cool to put a face to the name.
JD |
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klement
Joined: 15 Jan 2006
Posts: 10
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| Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 10:48 am Post subject: |
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| Gordon wrote: |
| Now Now, don't scare this poor guy, it is his first post. Probably his last too but hopefully not. |
haha he is a she but no, i appreciate the comments. It gives me a little perspective away from the whole fantasy "employers will love me" dream |
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