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Hi,

I have an M.B.A. and a J.D. I have also two years experience teaching ESL in Korea, two years teaching test prep at Kaplan, and one year teaching writing at the college-level. Any chance I could hope for anything more than an entry-level job in Japan. From everything I've gathered on the forum, it sounds like the market there is really right, and that university teaching requires a Ph.D. (preferably with publications). Thanks.

[nightsintodreams]

I have never met nor heard of anyone who has, but at the very least you should expect to be able to quite easily attain at 250,000+ job.

[kah5217]

That J.D. is going to scare off some of the bigger companies from hiring you. They tend to think that the more educated someone is, the harder it will be for them to shove their methods on you.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

University teaching REQUIRES (usually) a related masters degree and publications. They often say PhD preferred. But realistically, people with a PhD in Applied Linguistics usually do it to get into teaching English native (or native-level) students in masters of applied linguistics or TESOL courses.

There are SOME people who have a PhD looking to still teach the language. It seems many of them had university jobs in Japan and wanted to be able to continue to have university jobs in Japan, and so they went the PhD route. Because one or two people have done this, now universities are saying it's 'preferred'. The way they advertise for new hires is a way of advertising how great they are to other schools. Many schools care far, far too much about what other schools think of them, it seems.

With a JD and an MBA you can definitely get a better than bottom rung position- especially if you can add some Japanese language ability to it. A university job (other than through maybe Westgate or something like that) may not really be a realistic option, though. Look into private high schools. Many of them are through dispatch companies (especially in the Kanto region {where Tokyo is}). After working in Japan a while, then look at getting a direct hire position.

There are really great jobs that are ALT positions. You are called an "ALT" but actually you are the same as any other teacher (in responsibility- lesson, syllabus planning, assessing, discipline etc- but not in pay or title!) but you are called "ALT". Likewise, there are language school positions that may be really great as well- and they usually require more in the way of qualifications and pay more as well.

[timothypfox]

I knew of two teachers in Japan who had JDs and they ended up working for Eikaiwa's. One of them changed jobs and managed to get a terminal paid internship at a law office with about Eikaiwa pay and complained that her supervising staff kept stealing her work and taking credit for it...

[nightsintodreams]

If you have no Japanese language ability, I'd be very surprised if you manage to get anything above an entry level, albeit better than average, job.

[marley'sghost]

[qwertyu2]

I agree with the posters above. With some language ability you might be able to leverage your M.B.A. / J.D. into something better than entry-level work. However, entry-level is still probably your best best. Not sure why someone with an M.B.A. and a J.D. would lower himself to that. But good luck all the same.

[Inflames]

[ssjup81]

My former job is hiring again. I left in March. My replacement left after about three weeks (probably because he had such a long commute). It's Eikaiwa work though. There's an ad on Gaijinpot about it.

[timothypfox]

I was thinking about this again. With a law degree, you might have a chance to teach business English. Some of these jobs are reasonably paid. I suggest Ohayo Sensei as another source, and occasionally TESOL.org posts business English jobs (although they largely post academic jobs).

[Solar Strength]

Once in a while you'll see that a specific department in a university is hiring their own English teachers. I remember a few years ago a law department at one university in Tokyo looking for an English teacher. It's not unusual for departments to hire their own EFL teachers and they want them to have a background in that specific field. Most are contract, non-renewable, but some are also tenured. For example, a few months ago, I saw an announcement by Keio University's pharmacy department looking for their own English teachers.

There are no rules here when Japanese universities hire foreign EFL teachers. Just rough guidelines. You throw your name into the hat like everyone else and keep your fingers crossed. More often than not, the type of people hired can come as a bit of surprise.

[arrow]

Thanks for the help, everyone. To answer one question, you have no idea what the legal market is like right now. $40,000 - 50,000 a year job on $200,000 loans just isn't going to cut it. As poor as I would be in Japan, I would be much poorer (and for much longer) States-side.

[rtm]

[qwertyu2]