Job Discussion Forums

[haku]

I understand: (quote from FAQ)

Starting-level salaries have a baseline of about 250,000 yen (gross) per month, Full-time teachers at high schools may expect to make about 3.6 million yen/year, while university instructors could start out with 4-5 million per year or higher, depending on qualifications and experience.

I also understand CELTA and DELTA do not seem to be valued by employers (fr topic: Why aren't there more CELTA qualified teachers)

How about if one has
*BA
*DELTA or Trinity Licentiate Diploma in TESOL
*5 years EFL teaching experience (not in Japan, but primarily with a single organisation in several countries)
*DOS experience in a rather well-known and respected international organisation
*Teacher training experience (for a developing country's Ministry of Education, not an internationally affiliated programme)
*IELTS, FCE, CAE & CPE examiner

- i.e. is there a middle ground for experienced and qualified, noting I'm fully aware that without an MA and without being published any middle ground is not coming from a university?


Apologies in advance if this is mentioned in a previous post; my search revealed little and most advertisements seem to be for either entry level or MA qualified. Thanks for any insight you may have..

[ripslyme]

Entry-level. You might get a little extra for having CELTA/DELTA (around 5000 yen a month), depending on the company, but that's about it.

[Glenski]

As ripslyme stated, the odds are that unless you have some strong inside contacts, experience in Japan, or are very lucky, you will still have to start out at entry level work.

A mere BA (you didn't state your major, and most teachers here have degrees unrelated to TEFL) is insufficient in most cases to get you a FT job in a university. It will even be hard in many/most cases to get PT work there! Competition is very fierce. Having zero publications only rubs salt in your wounds, too. Get published if you have any inkling of working in a uni.

[haku]

Thank you both for your feedback. Ripslyme's message had me musing over some somewhat odd facets of our industry - British Council (and I assume International House) require you to do a teaching qualification (DELTA / Trinity dip) to get promoted out of teaching. In contrast many universities accept non-teaching MAs for teaching positions.. Took me back to my childhood to the infamous Mr Squiggle (a pencil-nosed puppet who appeared on TV), who would jump about saying, 'Upside down, upside down,' when the world in his picture didn't seem right.

Sorry if it sounded like I was overlooking experienced non-MA holding teachers in Japan in referring to the advertisements - I was referring to the requirements listed in the advertisements, not to the potential applicants.

In terms of the work I'm interested in, ultimately I'd like to go the university path, but I will not finish my MA (applied linguistics) until the end of next year, which means it won't be awarded officially 'til 2010. While it is by distance, it is with a well-ranked university (17th for Arts in last year's THES).

I've enjoyed teacher training thus far, but really don't know much about teacher training in a Japanese context. I think I need to do some more research; it is definitely an area of interest.

In terms of more work as a DOS, I would do this, albeit slightly reluctantly. I think it is a fairly generic job title which means rather different things to different organisations. If possible I'd like to avoid glorified administration work.

Gosh, I'm being a little vague - apologies. I guess I'm just trying to glean an idea of what is available. I've gained good experience in a relatively short time in EFL, and I'm not keen on ending up in a position without developmental opportunities, or where I've got to teach a billion hours to scrape by.

oh - my BA is from another well-ranked university, in English literature and history. I'm kicking myself now for not doing one extra subject and getting a third major in linguistics. I also have a graduate certificate in journalism.

Thanks again for your feedback.

[Glenski]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[haku]

[quote="Glenski"]

[Glenski]

GambateBingBangBOOM,
Actually, there are eikaiwas and other teaching institutions that pay raises (yes, even to foreigners). People don't have to settle for 250,000 yen/month year after year.
http://www.geoscareer.com/contract/contract.php?nr=2
http://www.aeonet.com/application/contract.html

[haku]

[Glenski]

Offputting? Yup. But we all have to start somewhere. I came to Japan and took a 50% cut in my salary.

I would expect that you've done enough research to know that your working conditions alone are not going to be close to that in Japan. Expect paid holidays (unless you are a dispatch ALT) of about a week for Golden Week, a few days to a week for Obon, and 1-2 weeks around New Year. There may be some national holidays in there, too, but if you work for an eikaiwa, they are a company, not a school, so it's up to them to decide whether to shut down or stay open for available customers. National health insurance here is pretty good, but it is not 100% coverage; you still have to pay 30%. As for annual flights home, forget it.

The choice is yours. Like I said, we all have to start somewhere. I began at an eikaiwa, moved to PT at a HS then FT there, and then to a university. Life is what you make of it.

[phoenixstorm]