Job Discussion Forums

[jkozera]

so, I am a late 20's white male who will be graduating this June with a BA in Applied Linguistics and a cert in TESL. I want to teach in Japan as most of my friends are Japanese and I have been there a few times to study abroad. I stumbled onto this site for various info on jobs and all that but all I really see is negativity regarding job hunting over there. I gotta ask is it THAT hard for teachers? I have an interview coming up with an eikaiwa and I hope to land a job before I graduate ( I already talked to them and they knew about my graduation before they saw my credentials). I guess I am looking for some clarity to why a lot of the posts here seem to be very negative.

[kzjohn]

I hope I'm not posting too negatively, at least not too often! A couple of folks have opened up here about potential job offers/conditions, and it's pretty easy to be an armchair quarterback.

You've got to start somewhere, so good luck. Keep in mind your first year or two will be a learning experience.

Academically, you've got a good base, but to move into uni teaching you should have a plan for an MA. (There are some UK schools that offer them online.) Also, I'll try to PM you with another idea.

[fluffyhamster]

Well, the job's never been easy in Japan (they aren't exactly the most talkative of races), and prospects and pay weren't rising and have indeed been declining for at least a decade. Throw in a fair amount of disregarding (foreign) workers' rights and viewing them as expendables to be exploited, while holding them to increasingly stricter visa regulations, and the situation is I fear becoming untenable for more and more "old hands" let alone new arrivals. Plus it has never been easy to get hired from abroad anyway (unless you try for with things like the JET Programme or with the big eikaiwa, the competition for especially the former of which has always been pretty stiff).

To help put all that into perspective, from my own experiences, I had a great time on JET ('99-'02), but my return to Japan a year or so thereafter (which only really happened thanks to a former colleague in China having worked at the school to which I was applying) was one of steadily worsening pay and increasingly struggling to meet financial dues. I finally called it quits when I knew I wouldn't be able to afford to even renew the contract on my apartment let alone move somewhere cheaper (the fees to set up and then renew can be pretty expensive), and that health insurance, local taxes etc were going to be a never-ending struggle. That would've been a year or so before the global economic meltdown in '08. I can only imagine the way the cow chips must be flying around nowadays for many in Japan.

But by all means still go for whatever jobs if (IFF) you have the necessary funds to subsidize the potentially too-low or somewhat insufficient pay for a year or two. It will also help if you have absolutely no social life, eat exclusively at home (i.e. cook, no meals out), and never buy any booze, fags, books or DVDs LOL.

It'd probably be more sensible however to look into pursuing say an MA (not that I'd particularly recommend pursuing uni-level work in Japan) while you still have access to friends and family (i.e. the possible support networks), as Japan isn't going anywhere (other than probably further down for the forseeable future).

Anyway, I hope I'm not one of the ones who sounded relentlessly negative! I just try to be realistic and make sure that people are forewarned and prepared.

[jkozera]

I have thought about an MA but working full time and school full time it has taken me about 6 years to get my BA (first in my family to get something beyond an AA) so I am ready to work haha. Down the road I may look into an MA, it really depends on how things go. The weird part is the TESL cert and the MA take the exact same courses so it would be weird to have to a degree in something I have already done :p

[jkozera]

I am from the States and to work here you NEED an MA but you wouldn't be making that much more money. Maybe like $45k a year US max. I am a humble guy so I don't mind a lowering starting income since I enjoy hiking, exploring and stuff that doesn't really cost money. I don't really drink and don't smoke so I will save $ there. I have a friend who owns a few restaurants in Japan and offered me a job helping run one or two once I gain a more stable situation there (IE lets say get hitched and become a resident) as he can't afford to sponser a visa

[fluffyhamster]

Heh, I was thinking you might have had your fill of studying Jkozera, and it's expected (in the context of the UK at any rate) that there be some actual years of experience gained prior to doing an MA. To get a sufficiently distinct MA you'll likely need to consider a different institution to the one where you did the TESL course(s - I'd assumed it was just some generic single month-long course singular. But then, you did co-ordinate the BA and cert right after the bit about graduating in June LOL). It's good that you've secured an interview with an eikaiwa already, I guess it's a smaller one and that the start date would be somewhat flexible. Plus eikaiwa often help supply accommodation (moreso than say AET dispatch agencies like Interac) so that'll be a big worry off your mind if you can get such jobs. I guess it's a more "serious" eikaiwa and that your BA in AL has caught their eye or something? Edit: Oh yeah and the openings that your J friends may be able to at some point offer sound good too! You seem to have better prospects than most. (I made friends with international students at my uni, but they were mainly from Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, so that wasn't a whole lot of help when I got jobs in mainland China then Japan LOL. It didn't really occur to me to network much with them, but then, that was back a few years before the internet really took off, so staying in touch wasn't as easy!).

[jkozera]

well the way the TESL works at my University is that there is a series of classes you take to fit the needs of the cert PLUS making a portfolio that involves having to tutor, teach and obsberve ESL. The applied linguistics Major itself doesn't require a lot other than needing 180 credits total. ( I xfered into this uni with 102) the TESL cert courses actually fit into the linguistic elective requirenments for the BA so it was like killing two birds with one stone. the ONLY difference between what I do and what the MA students do is that their classes cost more and they have a bit more work each term. We actually take the same classes but my course for example would be LING490 and theirs is 590. I have thought about maybe a masters in education since I already have the cert but only time will tell

[mitsui]

I am having a beer at a party. I managed to get the last one.
Hey, where is the beer, you say?
It is all gone but there is some shochu, but it gives you a nasty hangover.
You want to try it?

What about that guy over there? What does he have?
Belgian beer, but you see, he has tenure. He can afford it.

What is everybody drinking?
Sake, shochu, whisky, whatever is available.
But no more beer or chuhai.

I guess I got to the party late.

You sure did. It is 2015, not 1995. Just a BA doesn't count for much.
But down in Shanghai, well they like to party there.

[kzjohn]

There are two part-timers at my small uni that only have BAs, so it is not impossible, just unlikely.

Both teach 12-13 classes/week, and at maybe 10,000/class, that's 480,000/month (before deductions). No, they don't get paid during late-Aug/Sept and late Feb/March, but in contrast to me, they are free during that time (roughly 6 weeks each), and can go anywhere they like without having to submit a leave form (休暇願).

I'm not sure if they have classes elsewhere, but they might.

[jkozera]

mitsui, darn I guess my folks chose to have me in the late 80s vs the late 60s. Well pops, any educated individual would realize that I have the same education as an MA, I just shelled out less money.
gonna give me lip i will return the favor.
It seems that education is becoming like currency, the more people have, the less value it has. what SHOULD matter is experience and the chance to gain it so. My father with his AA degree easily makes $100k a year but with my AA degree I only pulled in around $36k but I hated retail banking. I am not one for money, I am for experience. I have thought about other countries and I may look around. my L2 is Japanese, my pedagogy of lowering the students affective filter to allow a better and more willing learning environment can be used throughout various countries. Sadly too many people seem bitter about where they work.
a good friend of mine worked for AEON for 6 years and loved it. Another friend worked in Chile and loved it. They both want jobs in higher ed thus they are stuck shelling out the extra money for a degree that has the same education as mine.

[mitsui]

These kinds of people tend not to quit, which makes it hard for other teachers to get enough koma.
I teach at three universities and just get 8 koma, but overall get less than 10,000 per class.
Next year I could get ten koma but I thought I should just quit and get something better.

I don't want to wait to get more classes, but some teachers would do this.

After the earthquake some teachers got more hours as they didn't just quit.

Even in 2012 I met a teacher who worked part-time and had 19 koma. He was saving for a house in the US. Thing is, people can get burned out working that hard.

Things are changing. Waseda limits teachers to two koma, and a woman's university in Tokyo limits teachers to 5 years for part-time work.
Things are getting worse. That is reality.

[mitsui]

The days when people just had a BA and could get decent work are over.
I have a MA but find that is not enough.

You (and me), everyone just has to upgrade their skills.
Employers are really picky now, even for part-time work.

[jkozera]

the job market is tight. Sadly if I wanted to work in sale and gave up my ability to care about other people I wouldn't need a BA or MA and I would have stuck in sales. But I got tired of enabling people to ruin themselves financially and I actually care about people. If I have somewhere to sleep comfortable, a wee bit of fun money and eventually a wife, I will be happy. I don't need to be rolling in the big bucks. I have some $ put away and eventually invest in property. I am right now looking to just get my foot in the door somewhere and start there. It has been a bit frustrating looking here for info on starting out and Japan just has a lot of negativity in this forum. luckily a few seem to keep it not, positive but not negative.

[stumptowny]

lotta the same bleah you get on every forum for newbs questioning the big jump. sounds like you are trying to get a job for the money and perhaps a love of teaching(??), though you really are too green to know yet.

regarding the money part: as an american in japan (anywhere abroad in fact), there is a distinct advantage that is a money maker, galore. and you can't do it living / working in america. I'm doing it now.

follow these steps:

1. have no debt. be frugal. make it happen!

2. take care of all your tax matters in both country's, always.

3. learn how to invest and plug away at it. dollar coast average, although sending money home is torrid now. was 75yen:1USD just 4 years ago, now 116:1

4. don't start a family UNTIL you have your money and are set. these are liabilities to the plan. have fun, relax, stay healthy, and make money. J-birds will be there when you are older too. you don't have to marry the second piece you bring home. they are pre-programmed for shopping, marriage, kids, death. not going to change.

then sit back and let the money roll in, assuming you've taken care of all the requisites I mentioned.

the crux of this is: your foreign income made in japan dictates your capital gains tax rate back home (your brokerage account). I paid 7% capital gains tax last year vs. 25% I would pay back home working my old job. how significant is saving 18% on half a million dollars? very. how about a million dollars? get the picture...

as your brokerage account grows, work less, earn less income in japan (on purpose), so you pay less capital gains back home, where your real money is being made. if you got a high paying job then try this method with a high income, well.... oops. you just blew the super tax benefits I described.

NTA will not seek you out while making peanuts. they may check "worldwide assets" on the very person you want to be, a uni professor or a gaijin high wage earner, not a shlep making 250,000 month. stay off the radar.

they (NTA) just started tax sharing with uncle sam and the way japs run things, they are not efficient about something this new, and where non-japanese people are involved. my feeling is, they never will be. too big, considering jp post cant even track a registered letter to the US and follow up with USPS about it. its a big ask for the NTA to enforce. anyway, don't give them reason to. they will go after the big fish they flag as high wage earners who ARE NOT handling their business matters on time, responsibly. (see #2). most likely business owners and other independent tax filers.

take care of your business matters always because the gains, as I've laid out, are too big not to take advantage of at the present time. cap gains tax rates are still a ways away from being reformed back home. luckily, we have a crap congress back home that doesn't want to touch capital gains rates for the next 2 years, minimum (lucky for us!).. so take advantage while you can.

the great irony is, you can work part time or less, like me, and be happy knowing you don't have to sell out for whatever job you think you need in japan for success. it's just so much work for not as great a reward honestly. don't get me wrong, some uni jobs are great compared to ALT, eikaiwa work but they'll never touch essentially free money you can get by doing some solid financial research and execution (i.e. smarts). and my hours, time off, and income are much more than a uni prof.

also, set up your brokerage account before you leave for japan! and don't change your address to japan, ever. they don't really care as long as you are paying brokerage fees for trades and other commissions but you might have a challenge getting it started while you are out of the country.

once you figure this out, you are ahead of the game and everyone in japan stuck on chasing a uni job. you are green enough to start on a different foot... good luck!

ps there are a ton of jobs here. tons. salarys and conditions are getting worse by the year. it's true. the standard 350k - 400k per month for ANY JOB 20 years ago are gone...

[Maitoshi]

If you are doing #2, then you don't have to worry about the NTA. Making less money on purpose would only be advantageous if it always meant working less. If you get paid more and work less, you make quite a bit more, even if you pay more taxes. Don't shy away from higher earnings just because you want a lower tax bracket. Don't forget that it's the amount you make over a specific amount that is taxed higher. Also, if the amounts get up there, you will need to pay the AMT.