Job Discussion Forums

[naujokaitis]

I do realize that the Japan school year starts in April, however I have obviously missed this boat. I do know that with some of the dispatchers like ECC and Teachaway, some others, they hire all year round. My question is, how does this work, will I essentially be taking over for teachers who for some reason decided to leave early, or taking unfilled positions? I assume in this case I will not have much say as to where I will be placed? And how about the contract, if it's a one year contract and the school year ends in March, if I start late my contract will not have been fulfilled by March, does it extend or what?

[Riina]

I noticed that when reading about Teach Away (I had applied with them before), if you start in August/September there is a good chance your contract runs until March. However, if Teach Away places you with a private school, then it would be year long. At least that was my interpretation from the information on their website.

[Glenski]

If there are any openings after the first of April, it's for a few reasons:

1. Someone realized the job they were in was an awful situation, so they bailed.

2. Someone had been thinking of leaving earlier, but it took them that long to get hired (or to be let go).

3. An emergency arose at home causing them to bail.

With the large numbers of applicants these days, it is unlikely that a job has just gone unfilled (unless in some rare case where news of a bad employer has prevented filling a slot).

You're not going to have much say in location. Some of the bigger ones take requests for location from their employees, saying they will give them due consideration, but in the end you go where they have a slot. So, in the case of post-April 1st hires, it's less likely that you will get a location you want.

Contracts. Who can say? If you get hired mid-year by ECC or AEON, I think one or both of them give you a 6-month contract with a quasi-promise to renew for another 12 months in March.

[naujokaitis]

That is what I figured, the reasons for open positions in the middle of the school year.

As for the contract situation, might work out to be not at all bad. Stay/work wherever they send me, see how I like Japan and work as an ALT or at an eikaiwa, then in March if they offer to extend my contract I can stay with them or, hopefully having saved up, live off that for some time until I find something else. I would already be in Japan and could search jobs locally as I have seen many jobs posted want people already within Japan and holding a work visa, it would be easier for them to just extend the visa, so I imagine the whole process wouldn't take as long as hiring from overseas. And if anything, I'll have had the experience of living and teaching in Japan and can move on with something else, if I so choose.

[Glenski]