Job Discussion Forums

[guitarhero]

I have a B.Ed, but no tesol. I'm just wandering how hard it is to get a job and what type a job a teacher with no experience could expect, such as classroom teacher or tutor.

[Glenski]

This used to be in the FAQs, but they are gone now.

You have pretty much a generic degree. At least it's not in geology or microbiology, but most entry level jobs don't care.

Entry level means ALT (JET Program or dispatch company) or eikaiwa instructor.

How hard? That's sort of difficult to measure. When and where precisely did you want to work? Sometimes those are factors.

We're in a recession now, and schools are merging or closing, and the birthrate is declining. Couple to that the demise of the largest eikaiwa (NOVA) in Nov. 2007 putting 5000 teachers out of work, and there is a lot of competition out there.

Are you willing to come here with US$4000-5000 in your pocket and look around, or will you stay home and search online? That also makes a huge difference.

[Hoser]

I wonder how much of an effect the Nova closure still has if any? Surely anyone who didn't get a new job shortly thereafter (thank you lord) has starved by now If anything I wonder if the Nova closure actually lessened the competition. After all there is no longer a ginormous company which brings over teachers whose qualifcations are that they're breathing and who then quit Nova after getting the easy visa.

[Apsara]

The thing is, that's 5,000 high turnover positions which are no longer available to people arriving- that had to be a decent percentage of the overall number of eikaiwa jobs available in Japan at the time. If you still have the same numbers of people arriving, the pickings are going to be much slimmer now.

In the late 90s when I first arrived in Japan, anyone could get a job teaching English (with a very few dire exceptions), but that doesn't seem to be the case any more. Something's changed, and I think Nova's collapse had a lot to do with it. Not because the ex-Nova teachers are still looking for jobs, but because most of the jobs they had are now gone.

[Inflames]

[Glenski]

[guitarhero]

I would prefer to be in a rural setting or a smaller city. Tokyo looks too overwhelming for me. I really like Hokkaido. I want to go where there is snow.

Right now, I am not really sure what I am going to do. I am definitely staying home for the summer to earn money. I would like to leave around September or October. I really don't care where in the world I go... well, maybe I am not ready for a developing country - possibly in the future. I like Japan because I enjoy the culture and understand that there would already be a quality system in place for foreign teachers because of the popularity of the country in the past. I am also looking in to Korea. Because of this I plan on applying for jobs over the Internet rather than going to these countries. I plan on doing some more research and then applying in a month or so. I do have several years doing volunteer work in ESL in addition to my full-term student teaching that I got with my B.Ed.

Thank you for your responses.

[Glenski]