Job Discussion Forums

[Sheep-Goats]

(In this thread I ask for employment advice at the university level in Japan. Sorry about the vague subject field.)

Currently, I'm on vacation from teaching at a large private university in Bangkok. The work's okay and I get a good (and, so far, paid) holiday of three months. But I spend a lot of time in Japanese bars in Bankok, eating Japanese food, wondering if that girl way over there is Japanese or not, etc. So I decide: maybe I'll go teach in Japan.

Now, let it be known that I'm not a person who is interested in EFL in and of itself, but that my primary interest doesn't give me any money back and takes a lot of time out of my days. What this means is that I value generous vacation time and days with a lot of hours free more than I value a generous salary. What this means is that I'm not well suited to a language school, and would prefer to stay in the univeristy environment, where I'd be just as happy as a cliche on the internet.

I will continue to teach here for about six months, but am beginning the application process for graduate school. If things go well, this will be me in two or three years:

MFA Creative Writing, CELTA, 1.5 years EFL experience (China and Thailand), American, 28.

At that time, what would be my chances of landing a teaching job at the university level in Japan? And especially in a larger city which affords some foreign comforts (eg: Tokyo, from what I've gathered)? I'm willing to get a DELTA if that might improve my chances, but I am absolutely not willing to do my masters in TESOL, Applied Linguistics, or education. I would also be willing to teach for a year or two more in Thailand or maybe Italy, if that would fix things for Japan.

Any advice is appreciated, particularly useful adivce, and sorry about the boring post.

[guest of Japan]

I'm sorry, but with that plan I think it is highly unlikely you will get what you want.

Points.

1. Education isn't very relevant.
2. No publications.
3. Easier university jobs to get are not in the cities.
4. Experience is very limited.
5. Presumably, you have no Japanese language ability.
6. A Delta doesn't mean very much in Japan.
7. No contacts.

I think you'd have more luck in a different country. Japan has a tight labor market for foreigners. The jobs that are plentiful, you won't want.

[PAULH]

[Sheep-Goats]

[PAULH]

Coming from Bangkok you wont walk into a full time university job in Japan without previous teaching experience here and knowing someone . Competition is fierce, many jobs are not advertised in English and you have to know some one. An introduction or a referral helps. I have found many people part time jobs as i have some professors at universities send me job leads through my professional connections.

get your foot in the door teaching part time a few days a week, get to know people, develop contacts and publications, network like crazy. Full time jobs come from openings at part time universities and people leaving.

You have to have what the school is asking for or they will not even consider you for full time jobs. part time is where you start off first.

Have a look at the University page on http://www.debito.org/univquestions.html or http://www.eltnews.com/ for hints on job seeking.

[PAULH]

Some Do's and Don'ts for Getting Hired
Don't get a list of schools in Japan and then waste incredible amounts on copying and postage costs sending your resume to all the schools listed. Most schools do not maintain files of applicants, especially not ones coming from overseas in a foreign language. Schools accept applications when they are conducting searches to fill specific jobs in their organisational structure. Do target your job search to those jobs which are available. The key, then, is to be effective in finding out about what jobs are open.

The Web and its many search and directory facilities open up incredible possibilities in finding job listings for Japan, and many if not most schools put out certain job announcements overseas. However, the better publicised an attractive job is, the more likely it is to have a large number of highly qualified applicants. Because of this, one of the smartest ways to do effective job searches is the old fashioned way: personal contacts and connections.

Check in at your undergraduate or graduate school to find job announcements; some of these may be targeted particularly at your school because it has some sort of special sister school relationship with a college or university in Japan.

About Duties and Qualifications
Internationals are often hired for select positions that are meant to complement the majority of staff positions held by Japanese nationals. International ELT professionals are almost invariably expected to teach English speaking and listening skills as a primary responsibility. At the tertiary level, duties may also include English writing and reading skills as well.

Especially at national and public schools, foreign instructors teach the larger, survey-type, "service" courses, while Japanese nationals teach the smaller, so-called "advanced" classes geared towards junior and senior students working to complete their majors. Since university instructors and professors are expected to plan, implement and evaluate their own classes without help or collaboration, it is vital for candidates to show experiences and abilities that indicate a capacity to adapt quickly and teach independently.

Experience
Generally, it is preferred that all applicants have at least two years of experience teaching (in order of desirability) 1) at a Japanese university or college, 2) at a junior or senior high school in Japan, 3) at an overseas college where the subject taught was EFL. Being able to show a successful track record with Japanese students is extremely helpful. The reason is simple: hiring a non-Japanese represents a great investment in time and money; this will have been wasted if the international proves unable (as a significant proportion do) to complete the full-term of his or her contract.

Qualifications
Having a master's degree in either TESOL or applied linguistics has been considered de rigueur (though such a qualification is only now becoming common among Japanese teachers). Recently, however, a significant number of positions have required a degree in another speciality (such as business), either in addition to, or in lieu of, the more traditional TESOL-related degree. Three publications are the usual minimum requirement for employment consideration at many schools, especially for the "kyouin" positions. Having more is helpful, but be careful about seeming to pad your resume with marginally relevant publications.

Age
Age is another important issue: it is often very difficult for foreign nationals above the age of 35 to find full-time employment in Japan at the tertiary level unless they have either a significant amount of experience teaching in Japanese universities or an impressive publishing record. Having both is often necessary. If older teachers do manage to find work, it is often because a particular department really wanted them for a particular speciality.

To be fair to those departments who seem guilty of "age discrimination" here - one thing else must be said: if promotion in many places is still based on seniority, and if departments are under scrutiny and criticism for making promotion too much a matter of course (i.e. ageing), then it makes very good sense for a department to hire the youngest candidate available. Such age bias often applies to Japanese nationals as well as international candidates.

Japanese Language Skills
Finally, there's the sticky question of Japanese ability. Some universities include intermediate to advanced Japanese skills among their minimum requirements; many do not. The general rule seems to be this: Japanese skills are rarely necessary to qualify for short-term, "gaikokujin kyoushi"-type positions; most schools offering long-term "kyouin" positions, however, expect you to be reasonably conversant in the language before applying.

Furthermore, while schools located in the bigger cities (e.g., Tokyo, Kyoto, etc.) rarely ask for Japanese ability, schools located outside these metropolises almost invariably make Japanese skills one of their requirements. As the competition for employment among foreigners is often quite fierce in the major metropolises, learning some Japanese might be just the thing to separate you from the pack.

Conclusions
The fact that even an official at the Ministry of Education thinks that it is a good thing that Japan will lose half of its colleges and universities in the next decade due to demographic decline might make it sound like this part of the ELT job market in Japan is a dead end. To be sure, it is a sector that is undergoing much pressure to adapt to the new Japan.

First, remember, as an international, you do not fit in the Japanese idea of lifelong employment. But second, also keep in mind that many schools will try to hire as many people as possible on short-term contracts and for part-time employment because they want to have a "flexible workforce"-this extends to Japanese nationals as well. Circumstances mitigating the somewhat bleak picture we have painted include:

(1) many universities are altering their curricula to reflect the real world needs of the market place; this often places an increased emphasis on EFL learning, since it is seen as a very practical, marketable skill.

(2) even as school-age populations continue to decline, colleges and universities will keep their enrolments up by expanding standards for admission and offering courses to non-traditional students.

(3) more young women will continue their education on to 4-year and even graduate schools, also thus helping to maintain and even grow enrolments.

(4) 2-year colleges traditionally geared toward young women will become 4-year co-ed schools in order to try and survive, and those that do will surely be offering more teaching jobs.

[Sheep-Goats]

Thanks, PAULH, for those two replys, they were quite helpful. I have a few more questions for you, then. Please understand that I'm serious about getting a job at the university level in Japan, and that I'm not being flippant. I'm a very serious (and, for my age, very experienced) teacher, I just don't hold with some of the largely arbitrary requirements that exist all over the EFL environment:

1) If I were to get a MA TESOL after my MFA (I feel obligated to do my MFA first, to keep the train on the track, as it were...), do you have any reccomendations about where to do it? Does the graduating institution matter much in the eyes of an employer? If it doesn't, do you have any reccomendations on the relatively least "painful" way to get this set of letters attached offically and wholeheartedly to my name?

2) What are some common outlets for EFL publications, so that I can get a refrence point on my publications? I wrote a thesis for my BA already and it should be easy to get three ELF publications over the next five years or so.

3) If I have the MA TESOL and the publications (and the Japanese language skills, all quite possible given that I've got more than five years to get all of this done before I'm 30), do you reccomend I then work from the high school angle or the part time university angle? I mean, which is the surest bet for what I want, and can I survive on part time university work?

Thanks. Most of my other Japan adivce comes from alcoholic whoring burnouts who've come to Thailand to retire...