Job Discussion Forums

[redstanggt01]

I got offered a job for an Eikawa not too long ago, and wasn't sure if I should really take it or not at first. Later on, I called them and accepted and mailed in my degree, contract etc. Yesterday they just sent me an email asking me to reconfirm my information one more time to send the COE to me and want to know when is the soonest I can arrive in Japan. I haven't responded back to them yet. I'm starting to have second thoughts about going and below I'll explain why.

My current situtation is that I'm 26, turning 27 years old. I have a bachelors in International Business. I definitely want to do something related to Japan in my future and I want to understand the Japanese people on a deeper level. Currently, I'm working in an Auto Insurance company in which I'm saving about $1,100 a month working there. I've been working at this company for a year so far. I have about $11,000 USD saved up from this job so far. Needless to say however, I'm still underemployed in this company and although this is something that for me isn't easy to talk about, I still live with my parents in order to save my money.

I've been thinking about my future really hard the past few months on what I want to do for a career. I want to use Japanese language not only as a way to understand the japanese in a deeper sense, but also use it for work somehow. I've done research about people who try to study Japanese and go an eikaiwa at the same time and a lot of people say it's very difficult to do both, unless if you want to live like a hermit (which I don't haha). Also, I just recently did two job interviews with Morgan Stanley and Citigroup financial, which to my surprise, I ended up doing alright on the tests and have gotten into interviews for both of these companies. I'm currently waiting to hear back from both of them.

What my mind tells me to do is try getting a job at a global finance company (or maybe just a job that pays at least 30,000), work for a few years, gain some skills and use the money I've saved up to go to langugage school in Japan for a few years so that I may get something better long-term of what I want to do in the future. What my heart wants is to go back to Japan asap, but at the same time I feel a lot of uncertainty in my future. I have only basic Japanese knowledge, but to be honest I think that having the devotion of studying Japanese by myself would be very difficult, considering the high drop out rates of those who self study and that I won't have a sensei to correct me if I do wrong, and that my chances of mastering the language would be a lot greater if I went to an intensive language school. I'd like to also clarify that I have been to japan 5 times and have studied at Kansai Gaidai university for a year, so I do have a good enough idea of what the country is like. I know that teaching english would allow me to have fun in Japan, but I'm worried about what kind of skills would I be bringing back to employers from doing it, and honestly I dont want to be a guy who just goes there for a year or two then leaves and forgets all about japan afterwards. I want a job in the future which lets Japan become part of my life, at least allowing me to travel there on business. By the time I'm finished working for two more years and saving money, I'll be 29, which will be the time when I go to language school. It may not be as much of a problem if I were able to save $10,000 a year in Japan, but I think the only people who can possibly save that much are JETS.

I'm sorry this post went on for a long time, but this has really been on my mind for the past few months. Am I thinking right for my future? Should I accept the job and just take it for what it is, or do you guys think I should follow my mind, try to find a banking/finance job here in the states and gain experience/skills while trying to save money? Sorry for bothering you all.

[rtm]

If your current job isn't too bad, stick where you are, and keep going with your applications/interviews to financial companies. That is assuming that that is the kind of career you want to have.

You mention that you want to use Japanese "for work, somehow". What kind of work do you want to use Japanese in? Finance/investing?

If you don't want to teach EFL, and you can bear being in your current job a bit longer, I'd recommend you not take the eikaiwa job.

The only reason to take it would be if you can't stand your current position any more, and you are desperate to get to Japan.

[timothypfox]

You probably have answered your own questions - but since you want some feedback, I'd suggest keeping to your business jobs. Sounds like with new interviews - that will lead you somewhere. Teaching ESL in Japan will lead to a career in education, not in business. You will certainly not be able to save the kind of money your are now. At that, if you returned to your country you would later need to up the anti with a master's in education and likely work in public schools. If you follow your business route, and save up a bundle more, you can study abroad until you master Japanese. Then you can check out the job scene in business - not ESL - for someone who is bilingual, or you can start your own import - export business or some other kind of business on your own. Also, what kind of business do you want to do?

[Pitarou]

First, I want to congratulate you on the perspicacity of your self-assessment.

My advice to you is to stay where you are. I don't think you'll achieve your goals working at an eikaiwa school. After a year or two of drudge work you'll probably come home with very little to show for it.

If you were prepared to go all-in and commit yourself to building a career as an English teacher in Japan, that would be a different matter. But who would do a crazy thing like that? It's not exactly the most exciting of career paths.

But keep a close watch on the situation. I suspect that it's going to become much easier & cheaper to study in Japan for a year or two in the not-too-distant future.

[redstanggt01]

To all who have given advice to me so far, thank you very much for your inputs.

I have wanted to be an English teacher for a long time, and if I were younger, maybe 22 or 23, I probably wouldn't have thought twice on taking this job offer. However, what scares me most is that I'll be 30 in a little over three years. I admit that like a lot of other guys, I really do find Japanese women attractive; However, looking at things in the future, if by chance I really do meet my significant other over there, I think it would be hard to support a family on an english teacher's salary. I also wouldn't be happy with myself doing it long-term either, as an english teacher is all I'll ever be and that it would be very difficult to find advancement unless if I had the money to go back to school, which again would be extremely hard to save up from doing those kinds of jobs..

It's strange. I tried for a little over two years just to get a job offer teaching English in Japan and now I'm having second thoughts, trying to reassess my life. It's hard for me to come to terms that this isn't the best career move, because it's the first teaching job offer I've ever gotten after trying for two years. Seriously, I didn't think that any teaching position would be interested in me. My interview skills are crap (I have Aspergers), but recently more employers started taking an interest in me after I held my first full-time job for a year in a corporate setting. I don't have any doubts that I can do an eikaiwa job properly with a little training. I'm just not sure how the job experience would really benefit me in the future. I know that worst case scenario that if I stay at my job for another two years, then I'll still have about $40,000 saved and can go to language school, thus becoming fluent, but I feel that if I go to an eikaiwa then I may end up losing time...Knowing myself, it would also be difficult for me to stay single, which would further drain my savings lol. The $11,000 I saved was money I worked really hard to get.

Finance is one field I was considering because it's one of the biggest fields in Japan along with IT. I actually did pretty well in Finance at my university. I didn't think it was that bad, so I was thinking maybe that would be a possible career path for me. I'd still need to learn Japanese though. As for computer science, I can't go back to school for that degree unless if I went for a masters in it. My credits won't transfer over to a computer science bachelor's degree, so it would take me another 3 years if I wanted to get it. I think that doing this would altogether be a great waste of time and money. Also I'm not super great at engineering math either, and I have no idea how to get experience/education/certifications in IT/computer science without going for a degree in that field, plus I doubt my university would tell me because lets face it, universities are businesses too. Importing and exporting also sounds really interesting to me and after doing research into that field, it's something that actually ties in to my degree lol. Doing research on those kinds of businesses so far, it looks like I will need a language skill. If I wanted to work for an import/export company relating to japan, I have to learn Japanese. I really can't do much though in the world of business relating to Japan unless if I master the language. That's a skill I'm going to need if I want to get into a better career that suits my interests.

[timothypfox]

Hey if you happen to be in a reasonably sized urban center, you might want to consider going to a Japanese language school where you live or see if a university has course offerings. If you keep plugging away, you could work through to level 1 of the JLPT test. Then you could see if you're more in demand for work.

[nightsintodreams]

First of all, what kind of life do you want?

If you want to live in your home country for the rest of your life, have a nice flash car that you drive from work to your nice big house which you then sit in and watch television all evening, every evening for the rest of your life, while taking a holiday once a year with your family then by all means stay where you are. That's fine, Lots of people want that and seem to enjoy living a life that mostly consists of comparing what they have to the guy next door.

I think many of the unhappy people in Japan are the ones that have a similar mindset or who marry a girl who craves such a life.

If however, you put more value on experiences and living a fulfilling life then perhaps Japan is the place for you.

I've lived in Japan for four years now (started with Interac, never worked for JET). I've visited over ten Asian countries, travelled extensively in Japan, saved almost 30,000 dollars, enjoyed my job, dated more women than I ever did at home and got my Japanese up to a pretty high level. If I hadn't spent so much money on partying and travelling, I have no doubt that I would have been able to save even more. (just letting it be known that it's possible). Having said that, I don't drive or buy expensive clothes and have only once made the long expensive trip back to my home country.

Although I do often worry about my future in Japan, there are numerous ways to make extra money; private lessons, part-time jobs, starting a business etc, but you probably wont have the knowledge or contacts to do many of these things in your first year. In the long term the following career paths are open to foreigners in Japan:

*University teaching (you'll need to get a masters degree, be confident in speaking Japanese and write publications every few years for the rest of your life.

*Working lots of small part time jobs/ private lessons/ hussling (how well you can do this will depend on the area in which you live, your networking skills and a bit of luck)

*Opening a school (you'll probably need to marry a Japanese woman to make this a success)

*Starting another type of business

*Working for a Japanese company (you'll need to be very good at Japanese and be prepared to work long hours with very few holidays)

Don't listen to what anybody else says, unless you're a linguistic genius, you are never going to aquire business level Japanese without coming to live in Japan (especially at your age, no offense I'm around the same age).

If I were you (which I'm not) and really wanted to experience living in Japan and learning Japanese (which I did) then I'd stick out your job a little longer to save some money and make the trip over to Japan. Don't bother with that language school idea though, it's waste of money. Come and work as an ALT, you'll be surrounded by Japanese people all day every day. Then find a nice Japanese girl/guy who doesn't speak English see her/him on evenings/ weekends) and study in your free time. That's all you need, and you'll be making money while doing it.

On your death bed, what will be our regrets?

I think most people regret that they didn't spend more time with family and didn't travel as much as they could have. No one sits there wishing they'd been able to afford that flash car or have a bigger house.

[RM1983]

You sound like you have built up something worthwhile or are near to it.

It almost seems like fashionable or standard practice at the moment for people in such careers to take a year off when they get into their 30s. If I were you Id wait and build myself up a bit more. A few years and you will probably be more secure, and possibly in a strong enough position to take a career break with the confidence to know you can go back to something after Japan if you want.

[redstanggt01]

[rxk22]

Nights does have a good point. What kind of life do you want?
I don't care about living it up. I'd rather have time to be with friends, and do stuff that I want to.

ESL/EFl in Japan is not very rewarding, and can be quite stressful. It def isn't for everyone.

As for career wise, once in Japan, it is very hard to just move back home and start working again. I had a lot of trouble when I went back. As many places don't care about Japan, and may view it as a negative thing.

[2buckets]

I agree with nightintodreams, but it depends on your personality.

I spent many years doing ESL in Japan, South America and the Muddle East. Had lots of incredible experiences traveling and on the job. I wouldn't trade my life for anything else, especially being a 9-5er in the home country.

That's just me.

The most lucrative job I had in Japan was private tutoring with Japanese businessmen. $100. an hour (in 1970s), told them to read the business section of Time, Newsweek, and US Word report magazines and we'd discuss that. Very easy. I had a great source of leads as I worked in a nightclub as a host and dealt with businessmen every night. I had more tutoring work than I could handle.

If you want to do stuff "Japanese", go to Japan and do it.

[rtm]

[RM1983]

This hits so close to home for me

I recently lost my grandfather, and we got to see him one last time in the hospital.

He was pretty ill by that point though and had not much energy left.

I started to break down a bit and he turned his head to me and said

"Listen.......cough cough cough.....cough cough....dont make the mistakes I made...."

There was a long pregnant pause, I thought he had gone. But he prised open his eyes, turned his head and with his dying breath whispered

".......Interac"


On a serious note though, most of my friends back home are very jealous of my jetsetting but I recently hit my 30s and am feeling pretty stagnant, while theyre all starting to pull away in their careers and personal lives. I guess that was the choice I made. This is the first time Ive ever really douted or regretted living abroad though in 7 years, which isn't bad. I am quite sure that I wont regret it all that much in the end, especially as I know that if I want to, there will be some boring office job waiting for me.

By the way, this is very personal but, for me anyway, living with my parents always kind of blunted my ideas about life. Perhaps try living alone for a bit? It does nothing for your love life.

[timothypfox]

2buckets, this isn't the 1970s. Times are harder now. You can make money teacher privates, but privates most likely won't pay nearly as much as the 1970s.

[nightsintodreams]

Double post. Deleted.