Job Discussion Forums

[decafdave]

Hey,

I'm sure this has been addressed at some point but I had no luck with the search function. Anyways, I just graduated with a Bsc from an American university this week but my actual diploma will take a good month or two to come in the mail. It seems most employers I've looked into in Taiwan and Japan require a copy of your diploma but I need to get started in the application process as I want to start teaching in August/September.

Does anyone know of ways to get around this? I'm sure plenty of people have had this problem. Also, are certain countries (maybe China or S Korea, etc) more forgiving as far as agreeing to see it later or accepting official transcripts which prove graduation?

I'm trying to go through a recruiter so I can set up a job before I arrive if that matters. I appreciate any advice!

[Glenski]

Japan doesn't always require the original parchment to get the work visa. A certified copy will often do, and if you supplement that with sealed transcripts you increase your odds of it serving as well.

Why does an employer need to see an original diploma during the application stage? I told a very respectable university here that they couldn't have my original degree because (a) I was still just applying and not yet accepted, and (b) if I gave them my degree, no other potential employer who wanted it could see it. They quickly realized how foolish it was to ask.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Glenski,

He's saying he has nothing that he can give them other then transcripts and the letter that says 'congratulations, you finished!'. He can't make a copy of a diploma he doesn't yet have.



OP,

It's a common problem. One of the issues that people face when they do masters degrees in TESOL or Applied Linguistics while living in Japan (they do them off-campus from universities in the UK or Australia, usually) is that they finish classes in October (for Australian universities) but the convocation is in late April- a month into the beginning of the school year in Japan. The actual piece of paper is given more importance here than it is in other countries (it's like the piece of paper IS the degree here, as opposed to being a piece of paper that says you completed the degree).

Most jobs in Japan start in April. If you do a masters degree in order to get a job at a university, then you often end up waiting until the following April before you can start at a university, because you don't have the actual piece of paper. But that's okay, because the masters degree by itself won't be enough to get even a part-time job teaching pretty low level English at a university in Japan- it would be enough for a full-time job at a university in most other countries though (including the US and Canada). You need publications as well in Japan, and it takes about a year from the time you submit the paper to the journal to publication anyway, so it can often be more than a year after you finish that masters before you can really apply for your part-time university job.

[nickpellatt]

I had two China jobs when I was Trinity-less and without a BA. My BA results came out in December last year...two days before I left the UK for my current job...so you can find work in China without the certificate in hand.

Things can and do change quite rapidly...so perhaps my experience a couple of years ago is less relevant...but in terms of my current employer...yes, you can work there without showing the orginal cert. If you need to show something...Im sure some kind of form showing course completion date would suffice?

[tttompatz]

[Glenski]

[decafdave]

Thanks for the help here. I'm going to get an official letter from my school. I also checked with a South Korean recruiter who said that Korean immigration officials are fine with this letter as long as it is notarized and Apostilled.