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mack4289
Joined: 22 Sep 2005
Posts: 22
Location: Busan Korea
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 Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:20 am Post subject: good jobs for January 2007? |
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I'm working for Westgate from Sep-Dec and then would like to start another job in Japan in January. Here's what my qualifications will be (after 3 months with Westgate):
2 years, 3 mos of experience (one with adults, one with kids, 3 mos with uni students)
BA in English Lit
TEFL Certificate
3 year professor visa
What kind of jobs will be out there for me? Any help would be appreciated
Mike |
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Ai
Joined: 02 Jun 2006
Posts: 154
Location: Chile
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| Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:51 am Post subject: |
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| January's not the best time to look for work. You'll be able to find some sort of eikaiwa work since they hire year round. Most of the good jobs start at the end of march or beginning of april. |
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azarashi sushi
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Posts: 562
Location: Shinjuku
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| Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 3:47 am Post subject: |
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You'll also lose a week at the beginning of the year because everything will close down for new year. I'm just looking at the calendar for next year and I imagine most schools would resume classes on Tuesday the 9th (as Monday is a national holiday)... Make sure you have some savings to tide you over.
As Ai said, it's not a great time to look for work but at least you'll have a visa. Whereabouts will you be? It's usually fairly easy to pick up some sort of part time work in Tokyo. March is the best time to look. |
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Sweetsee
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 2302
Location: ) is everything
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| Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 6:03 am Post subject: |
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Howdy Mack,
What type of job are you after? Where? For how long? Why? |
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Like a Rolling Stone
Joined: 27 Mar 2006
Posts: 872
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| Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 7:23 am Post subject: Re: good jobs for January 2007? |
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| mack4289 wrote: |
I'm working for Westgate from Sep-Dec and then would like to start another job in Japan in January. Here's what my qualifications will be (after 3 months with Westgate):
2 years, 3 mos of experience (one with adults, one with kids, 3 mos with uni students)
BA in English Lit
TEFL Certificate
3 year professor visa
What kind of jobs will be out there for me? Any help would be appreciated
Mike |
Hey there! 
what is Westgate?  Is it a Uni teachng job? 
I thought everyone needed a MA for that? |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 1:55 pm Post subject: |
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mack,
The MOFA web site shows this as a description for duties of people holding a professor visa:
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| Activities for research, research guidance, or education as professor, assistant professor, or assistant, etc. at universities, equivalent educational institutions, or technical colleges (koto senmon gakko). |
This should make it clear that any other work will not be permitted. So, if you cannot find work in those institutions, you'll have to change your visa to that of a Humanities Specialist work visa.
I agree with others that job hunting at that time of year is pitiful. Others may claim that it's good and cite a few exceptional examples, but that's all they are. You will probably have to move out of your Westgate apartment unless you already have one, so that will mean spending some money on setting yourself up.
Your experience is nice for continuing university work, PT or FT, but the degree is not sufficient more most universities FT. That means if you are fortunate enough to land more uni work, you can do so, but it will likely be only PT and only until your visa runs out and you have to decide what to do later. Most universities will have already decided on their 2007 hires by December, so again I have to be fairly negative in any hopes of you continuing in that area. It's not a 100% certainty, but I wouldn't put my hopes on it. Look to the eikaiwas, private high schools (direct hires) and public schools (either through ALT dispatch or rarer direct BOE hire). Even the HS's will often have finished their hiring mode by December, but you could get lucky.
azarashi sushi stated that you will lose a week in January, but I will add that you will lose a week at the end of December as well when places close down for the holidays.
Like a Rolling Stone,
Here's Westgate.
http://www.westgate.co.jp/
Dispatch agency. |
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Like a Rolling Stone
Joined: 27 Mar 2006
Posts: 872
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| Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 1:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks for that Glenski, do you have any experience with them? I don't know waht their reputation is like. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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| I have not worked for Westgate, no. I have 1 or 2 colleagues who have, and they have posted lots of information here about their experiences. If you have a specific question, fire away, and I'll try to answer. |
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Sweetsee
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 2302
Location: ) is everything
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 12:48 am Post subject: |
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| Why not stay with Westies? |
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Like a Rolling Stone
Joined: 27 Mar 2006
Posts: 872
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 4:25 am Post subject: |
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| Glenski wrote: |
| I have not worked for Westgate, no. I have 1 or 2 colleagues who have, and they have posted lots of information here about their experiences. If you have a specific question, fire away, and I'll try to answer. |
Thanks, ok. The OP said he has a BA and two years teaching experience and TEFL but I was under the idea that only a Masters or other higher certiifcates are needed to work in a universtiy.
1. How many people do you know in university work wiht no MA? Not including the OP.
2. I was looking at the website and it looks like most jobs are for three months at a time. this doesn't look very stable. But is it?
that's all for now... |
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taikibansei
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Posts: 811
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 5:32 am Post subject: |
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| Like a Rolling Stone wrote: |
| Thanks, ok. The OP said he has a BA and two years teaching experience and TEFL but I was under the idea that only a Masters or other higher certiifcates are needed to work in a universtiy. |
Westgate positions are not university positions. As a Westgate (or any other dispatch company) teacher, you are usually put in charge of non-credit versions of the old ippan kyouiku classes. Westgate also does all your "handling"--e.g., pays your salary, gives you (very inadequate) insurance, "trains" you (again, a bit of a joke), etc. This way, universities--with little effort and risk--can have an occasional foreign presence on campus. Students can still enjoy the illusion of "real" encounters with a foreign language professional...only, these "professionals" have few (if any) qualifications, no stability, no reasonable insurance coverage or research stipend, etc. Of course, this also reduces the need for credit ippan courses...and the foreign faculty who used to teach them....
In another thread, Glenski asked the following in response to a question I had:
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What do you mean by "OC courses"? Joukyuu eikaiwa courses? Ippan kyouiku courses?
Sorry, but I don't know what you mean by this distinction. By OC courses, I mean that students (usually 1st year) take "communicative English" courses that use an eikaiwa textbook to promote general communication, with the focus being on speaking. |
Glenski is at a science and technology university, so perhaps there is no difference there. However, at most Japanese universities, there is a wide range to the English-related courses on the curriculum. Foreign faculty traditionally have been given the ippan kyouiku (or general English) courses designed usually for 1st year students. A few lucky foreign faculty at some universities also get to teach the upper division "senmon" courses--including classes in literature, applied linguistics, teaching methodology, advance conversation, etc.--but in most cases, these plum courses go only to the Japanese faculty.
By employing dispatch companies like Westgate, universities can get the ippan kyouiku courses covered without having to HIRE full-time, qualified foreign faculty--who'd want such things as decent insurance coverage, research budgets, offices...and the occasional crack at upper division courses (much easier to teach, and much more fun). Of course, for the same reason, it is now much harder to get entry-level jobs at universities these days. Fewer places are hiring full-time (choosing to go with dispatch companies instead), and those that are hiring are asking for the moon (MAs, PhDs, multiple pubs, etc.)...and getting it.
| Quote: |
| 1. How many people do you know in university work wiht no MA? Not including the OP. |
I'm not Glenski, but I've met/heard of only 3 full-time faculty--including one on this list--without either an MA or an inside contact through a sister-school relationship with their degree-granting university. Two of these three are former ALTs and fluent in Japanese (one of them also has something like 100 publications).
| Quote: |
| 2. I was looking at the website and it looks like most jobs are for three months at a time. this doesn't look very stable. But is it? |
All jobs at Westgate are for three months. Then, you'd need to wait three months before being hired there again. The system is intentionally unstable--they don't want you to get settled into your position. |
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Like a Rolling Stone
Joined: 27 Mar 2006
Posts: 872
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 5:41 am Post subject: |
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Thankyou for that. It is very important to know. Sounds like a nightmare situation. So you are only able to work six months a year there and then have to look for other work and no paid holidays  Crazy! |
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Like a Rolling Stone
Joined: 27 Mar 2006
Posts: 872
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 5:42 am Post subject: |
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| Like a Rolling Stone wrote: |
| Thankyou for that. It is very important to know. Sounds like a nightmare situation. So you are only able to work six months a year there and then have to look for other work and no paid holidays Crazy! |
Oh, but do you think it is good experince on the CV or do most other universities see Westagte and say "Bah!"? |
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taikibansei
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Posts: 811
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 6:14 am Post subject: |
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| Like a Rolling Stone wrote: |
| Oh, but do you think it is good experince on the CV or do most other universities see Westagte and say "Bah!"? |
The best things about Westgate: it gets you to Japan and you get that nice visa (important things, actually).
As for putting it on your CV, certainly do so--but realize it counts as eikaiwa experience. I.e., it's better than nothing, but one would hope you have more than just that. |
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Like a Rolling Stone
Joined: 27 Mar 2006
Posts: 872
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| Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 7:22 am Post subject: |
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| Thankyou |
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