Job Discussion Forums

[rampo]

Those of you who went to Japan without a work contract...

-What type of visa did you have?
-How old were you?
-Did you know any Japanese?
-What was the most difficult thing you encountered the first month?
-How did you find jobs? Did you post ads? How did you network? Any contacts before arriving?
-Problems with working under the table?
-Where did you stay before "settling"?


Thanks

[Glenski]

You also might want to ask these.

How long did it take you to find work?
What kind did you find first?
How long have you stayed since then?

[rampo]

Thanks, Glenski!

[JimDunlop2]

- WHV
- almost none. Few basic words/phrases + the hiragana (more or less)
- lack of money
- Bought a pre-paid cell phone in Akihabara; found a free Internet cafe and started pounding the pavement and calling potential employers and following up on resumes we sent (my wife and I)
- Nothing was under the table
- We were in 3 different backpackers' hotels/hostels in Tokyo before we got our jobs and moved to another prefecture.

Glenski's questions:

- It took 2 weeks total.
- It was an eikaiwa (small chain)
- we both stayed for one year; completed our contracts and after that we both got better jobs -- my wife with a MUCH better eikaiwa, and I got on with the BoE as a direct hire, thanks to networking and some Japanese friends/contacts that we made during our first year. Still with the BoE. We will have been here four years this coming February.

**Edit: (to reflect Glenski's after-thought question:

- We arrived in the middle of February; moved into our first apartment in the first weekend of March immediately after we were hired. Our contract start date was April 1st (to coincide with the start of the Japanese school year) and ran until the final week of March the next year.

Now, having said that..... Do I recommend others doing what we did? No. Everyone's situation/sucess or failure may vary -- I don't want to tell anyone "Yes you too can do it!" nor the opposite. Can it be done? Absolutely. But I also know of many who tried to do exactly what we did but ended up going back home after not being able to find work. That's my disclaimer and I'm sticking to it.

[Gordon]

I came the wimpy way, with a contract in hand. If I was young and single, I'd take a chance and come with nothing but a wallet full of yen.

[Glenski]

One more question would be useful...

What month did you come?

[Synne]

-I came initially on WHV

-I was 18.

-I knew the Styx...I mean what else was there to know!?

-Japanese toilet, Japanese TV...the fact that everything was in Japanese go figure.

-I sort of had a few jobs already open so it wasn't that difficult finding work.

-Under the table work I only did a few times so it wasn't really anything to worry over.

-I stayed in Osaka and Kyoto before settling up in Tohoku.

[kinshachi]

- tourist visa
- 30's
- elementary level, based on a year's worth of fairly half-arsed study - I really wish I'd done more in that department - I had a lot more free time working in Oz
- accommodation - I had an offer to stay with a friend, which disappeared at the last moment, forcing me to stay at a hotel for the first two weeks, and a grossly overpriced monthly mansion for a month afterwards
- spent a couple hours per day scanning job sites and applying, hoping that availability would counteract the lack of visa
- didn't do any under the table work
- had some offers after the first three weeks, but decided to hold out for a better one, which meant waiting around an extra month - got it, though!
- arrived in early March this year
- arrived and stayed in Nagoya - I had some friends here who were a great help!

Knowing what I know now, I don't think I'd do it this way again - it cost me a fortune, going three months without a paycheck and setting up an apartment - I'm still paying off the debts! But on the plus side, I got the job I wanted, which I wouldn't have got from overseas, and I've been able to live it up a bit, so I guess I've been lucky overall...

[c-way]

1. Tourist Visa

2. 23

3. No Japanese

4. The paradox of needing a visa to get a job and needing a job to get a visa. Got sucked into a small eikawa that turned out to be a relatively crappy deal compared to most jobs. Learned the ropes quick working 48 hour weeks for less than most working 30. 5 months stuck at the school altogether.

5. Kansai Flea Market. A great resource for people in the Kansai area looking for work. I didn't post any ads, just answered them. My girlfriend had been here working a year before me and should had a good pulse on the job scene when I arrived. E-mailed a couple schools before I came but nothing really substantial.

6. Technically, I started working for the company that sponsored me before my visa was processed, which is under the table. I also teach private students, but my visa doesn't explicitly allow this. It hasn't been a problem

7. My girlfriend was living at a guest house and she got me a room there also. Very cheap and nice enough that we still live there.

8. It took me three weeks to find my crappy job at a very small eikawa. Once I left that job, I had a visa free and clear and have been in Japan just over 1 year.


6.

[Sweetsee]

1. tourist
2. 29
3. none
4. finding places to play
5. First worked in a liquor shop through an ad. Later, met a small eikaiwa manager at the local bar, got hired. Girlfriend had a job and accomadation here.
6. Never did
7. Her company had her at the Century Hyatt for two months in Shinjuku.
Then, a mansion in the neighborhood where I started working. Later, I took over a crummy place from another foreigner in a building where the owners were cool with foreigners; no key money, bar downstairs.
Stayed there for ever...

There was a guesthouse in the neighborhood and eveyone I knew had lived there. I would say if you are hitting the ground running than that is the way to go. Back then you could share a room for 30,000 a month. Once you get in there finding work is auto, it finds you.
Enjoy,
s

[womblingfree]

I think the term 'maverick' gives rather too much of a romanticised impression to sitting in a Starbucks with a dog eared copy of a not very good text book you nicked from your last job with a grinning Japanese person who is paying $40 dollars just to have a cup of coffee with you.

Especially when you realise you only have four 'lessons' that week and can't afford to eat until next Monday.

[rampo]

[Gordon]

[womblingfree]

[rampo]

Whatever the consequences(and that's not what I'm referring to here), you don't have someone holding your hand as soon you've arrived regarding housing, transportation, setting up utilities, etc. as you do when you're hired by an eikaiwa.

Not my fault that some of you think maverick = macho, cowboy, hero, big man, etc. Your connotation just colors my question needlessly. Apparently you didn't know that the word merely describes someone who goes at it alone, by choice or by necessity (i.e., no sponsor).