Job Discussion Forums

[guest of Japan]

Has anyone else noticed that position requirements keep getting higher but the salaries are going down?

[Wolf]

It seems that way. At the company I worked at last year, many of my co-workers were going on about how it would be sooo easy to find a new job anywhere else. But they hadn't job hunted in years. I had. Competition is getting nasty.

This month's Ohayo Sensei has some pretty nice jobs, but of course they have high requirements. I aslo notice a lot of jobs below that magic 250 000 range. Now I've heard the law had been changed on that, but still it can be nasty trying to live on that much - especially if you have a family.

[ryuro]

Yeah,

I've totally witnessed this. I left Japan for about a year or so and when I came back things had completely changed. Just from my own experience I've seen the kids market explode as the adult market has been drying-up. In this ecomony parents will shell out the dough for their kids, but not for themselves.

Consequently because teaching children doesn't necessarily require the same calibur of teacher, a lot of companies have been willing to hire many more teachers who might only have a TESOL certificate and a WHV. That's not meant as a slight against anyone out there who falls into that category- it's just a fact as I've experienced it when I've been recruiting over the last couple years now.

Companies can pay less thanks to changes in immigration and the fact that these new generation of teachers seem to be less demanding. In addition when you add to the equation the fact that kids don't get all antsy when the teacher changes, schools are more willing to rotate in new teachers and start 'em at the low end of the pay scale every year now once the previous teacher's WHV has expired.

I've seen the average stay for the teachers I've recruited drop from a minimum 2-3 years when I was here quite some time ago, to one year.

This seems to have pushed a lot of higher degree holding teachers into seeking other postions somewhat flooding the market and allowing other institutions (high schools, colleges, uni's, etc.) to demand more in terms of qualifications and experience while leaving their salaries' rather stagnant.

Anyway, these have been my own personal experiences- of course they're not universal, but things are definitely not what they once were!

Cheers,
ryuro

[shmooj]

Wolf,

got more details on the law change re the 25man a month thing? I'd be interested and I guess this forum is the place to have that kind of info.

Cheers