Job Discussion Forums

[tuff gong]

Hello,

I'm a 39 yr old canadian male who recently graduated from university with an honours degree and would like to find out some information about securing an esl job in Japan.

I've recently found out that it might be difficult to secure a work visa and that it's alot easier to find a job if you are already in japan and that my age might work against me.

I contacted Oxford seminars and they told me that it would be easier to find a job if I were to complete the 60hr tesol certificate and that they have established contacts in Japan and they could probably find me a job.

I'm just wondering if this is true, that obtaining my tesol certificate would help me find a job in Japan and that Oxford could actually help in that regard or is it better to just go there with a visitors visa and look for a job that way.

Also what about the language schools, I've already tried the Jet program and aeon and both declined to interview me. Should I put together a good cover letter and include a picture next time? I actually look alot younger than I am and am quite healthy for my age.

Thanks, James. [email protected]

[wangtesol]

Damn good post. Lets just deal with Oxford Seminars here first.

I know of Oxford Seminars. This is a Canadian outfit. They have some information at their info sessions with a "Country Profiles" list. In there is a list of info on ....

[wangtesol]

Okay, so the other thing you are considering is just coming to Japan and then looking for a job - freelance on spec. Love the spirit of this! But this is much harder to do now in Japan than in the past.

So, this is the low down....

If you do this, you enter Japan on a 90 day visitor visa. However, it takes about 6 weeks to process a work visa. So, if you go to a school for an interview they will immediately ask you how much time you have left on your visitor visa. And if it less than 6 weeks they won't even consider you. You might tell them that you are prepared to do a visa run to South Korea and get another 90 day visitor visa, but chances are that they have another candidate with a more stable visa situation, so this really won't matter.

The only time it might work is in March, during the peak hiring season when plenty of jobs are available. July/August is possible as well, but the jobs would mostly be for a private company ALT job and there are only about 1500 of these in Japan, and the private company ALT jobs often depend on a last minute decision by a local board of education. So you might be in a situation where the company says they will hire you, but then you do an interview for the board of education (a violation of Dispatch Law actually but it is common) says they don't like you (they never say why) and refuses you.

Freelance on spec in Japan is very risky. South Korea is probably a better place for this.

Just check the Japanese job websites and apply directly to them. They will probably ask if you have a TESOL Certifacte and that's when you consider turning on your color printer and feeding it with the special paper with the laurel leaves you got from Office Depot.

[wangtesol]

Here's a little info on how recruiters work.

Small and Medium Size Schools
Oxford Seminars supplies teachers to small and medium sized schools in Japan where they might get $2000 for every teacher they successfully supply to a school in Japan. So, if you pay $900 for the TESOL course and then get a job through them in Japan, they make $2900 off of you. But if, for example, you quit your job after 1 month, then that would not be considered a succsessful placement, so they lose out on the $2000, and the school will consider using another recruiter.

So, Oxford is saying maybe then can get you a job in Japan because they don't know if you will be a good employee or not (e.g., seemingly unaware of Japanese Labour Law)

And as I said earlier, recruiters do not have to tell you the truth about the working conditions overseas, and you can see in black and white that Oxford Seminars lies about health care in its information. The FAQ #2 on this forum has a newspaper article about the health care scandal in Japan.

However, some medium and small schools just recruit directly by advertising on ESL Cafe, the Japan Times newspaper and other job websites. A satisfied and decent employee at a small or medium sized school will find a replacement for herself before she leaves (usually a friend of a friend).

Large Schools
The large ones (over 1000 teachers such as Nova, GEOS, ECC, AEON) have their own recruiting offices in Canada and the US. AEON and some others won't even hire people within Japan. You have to be hired by their recruiters outside of Japan (so they can get teachers who are easy to manager since they have no Japan work experience and know nothing about their labour rights).

However, there are unions at most of the large schools anyways such as Berlitz which you can find at the list of teacher union branches at the Tokyo union...
http://nambufwc.org/branches/

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