Job Discussion Forums

[Randomlyhopeless]

Hello everyone! This is my first post here, I�ve been lurking for the last year and a half and now feel I must post.


In short, the title says it all: �Why can�t I get hired anywhere in Japan?�


Yes I know that the �market is saturated� as I keep reading. I know it�s competitive. I know the job market everywhere is tough. I know that the whole visa sponsorship is a disadvantage, so thanks for not responding such in advance.


I have what I feel is an impressive resume for a fresh graduate (well not quite so fresh anymore). I have a dual B.A. in Communication and English from a nationally known (I won�t dare say prestigious) US State/Public University, a great deal of which was made up of Linguistics and Pedagogical (not just ESL related) courses.

I have hundreds of academic hours spent student teaching, observing, co-teaching, etc. with classes of all ages. I�ve performed academic studies in and for ESL/TESOL classrooms. I�ve written curriculum. I�ve revised curriculum. I�ve written pedagogical tools/handbooks for people involved in refugee (thus to an extent ESL) work. I�ve evaluated and tested students for placement.

I come highly recommended by a doctorate holding professor who has previously taught in Japan for years and is currently the department head for ESL students at my former University as well (wonderful introduction letter).

I�ve been a tutor and teacher for the local community college�s ESL students (part of my course work for my degree). I�ve been a volunteer tutor for Japanese exchange students through my former university as well. If you add all this up it comes out to about two years experience in and out of classrooms doing ESL and other pedagogical work. All of this is in my resume (which I�ll post for you scrutiny if you�d be so kind as to give it.).

What have I been able to achieve with this background?

I was rejected by JET (not even an interview or Dear John letter). I spent a year and a half applying through Gaijinpot, O-hayo sensei, Dave�s, and other listings and received all of a whopping three interviews.

The first interview (Skype) took a rough 50+ applications. I was told that I was �runner up� based on a decision relating to demographics (1st place was awarded to someone from the UK, they had enough teachers from the USA). I was told I was a marvelous candidate, very qualified, with very strong interview skills, and on and on. It was the nicest �you didn�t get the job� letter I�ve ever received in my life. I almost framed it to preserve the sheer irony.

The second time I interviewed via written correspondence (Q and A, essay) and was again told I was �a perfect fit� for the school and an �ideal candidate,� and was asked to send in some recent pictures while they scheduled a Skype interview. I sent in the pictures. A day later was sent a form letter saying that my �application [had] failed.� I politely asked for them to please tell me why for the sake of my own professional development. I received no response. I�m your average looking blonde haired blue eyed Caucasian male here, larger because I lift weights, but not huge by any stretch.

The third interview (Skype) was with a notoriously shady dispatch company and I told myself I�d take the low paying position just to get my visa and into the country and stick out the contract for the first year. Well, again I got a great letter saying how impressive my background is, how fabulously I interviewed, but I could FO now because there were �better suited� applicants.

That was it for my year and a half plus of trying to get hired anywhere. I think I got three form emails with the typical �nice try� pleasantries, but what good are those?

What am I doing wrong comrades? I have several former professors (all Linguistics professors) that don�t believe me when I tell them how bad things have gone for me. Classmates from my graduating class have all gotten jobs in China, Korea, Japan, and the world over. They have moved on with their lives.

But not me. I�m still here. Rotting away.

So now I have a broken foot and shin and can�t leave my computer really. I�m munching synthetic opiates, feeling spacey as can be, and reevaluating my failure to launch, hence this post.
I need the blessing of an outside perspective here. Help a fellow out?

A final thought. What kills me is that I�m told by professors and people I�ve worked with what a shoe-in I am. These are people who have done what I�m trying to do, people �of the industry.� I constantly see, meet, read about people who have degrees in something totally unrelated to ESL/TESOL (or whatever acronym you may subscribe to) who get good job offers at the drop of a hat and ship off in a month�s time. I can�t fault them, they got the job after all. I must fault myself. But tear myself up as I might, I simply can�t see what I�m doing wrong here.

===================RESUME EDITED================

My Name of Names
My Current address Cell: Number
More address Home: Numbers number
[email protected]

Profile: ESL Teacher, Assistant Teacher and Tutor focusing on Functional Literacy, Communicative Model, and Whole Language Approach Pedagogy.

Education:
 Dual Bachelors of Communication and English, Emphasis in Rhetoric from That One University in that one State USA.
 High School Diploma, that same state in the USA.

Pertinent Academic Proficiencies and Training:

 Pedagogical Linguistics; Teaching English as a Second Language
 Applied Linguistics in Action; Independent Study
 Applied English Linguistics
 English Linguistics
 Historical English Linguistics
 Japanese Culture and Society (instructed by Japanese native)
 Introduction to Japanese Language
 Public Speaking
 Interpersonal Communication

Pertinent Experience:
 Over a year and a half of Academic experience in ESL classrooms for International Refugees in to following roles:
o As Observer and Assistant in ESL classrooms.
o As Assistant, Stand-in Teacher and Tutor to ESL students.
o As ESL Teacher and Tutor.
 Performed independent study consisting of academic and field research on ESL pedagogy and methodology for International Refugee Student classrooms and authored paper on current limitations of existing practices for said classrooms (overseen by Dr. blablabla @myUniversity).
 Member of data gathering team for Applied Linguistics project, observing and assisting in ESL classrooms, the end result a forty-one page manual for volunteers of the school.
 Tutor for College of Eastern Whatever working with refugee students to prepare for High School Equivalency exams and other standardized tests.
 Over a year of independent study of Japanese Language. Competent in a modicum of Japanese speech, familiar with important cultural norms, mores and etiquette.
 Member of Japanese Language Exchange at My University, tutoring and being tutored by Japanese exchange students.

References:
 Dr. Janey Doey of My University Plusheremail.edu.
 Dr. Jannis Doage of My University, heremailtoo.edu.
 Dr. Daney Joage, of My University thislastemailhere.edu.

Prior Work Experience:
Xerox Corp. Contractor for Another Big Company LLC at corporate offices in Where I live, from October 2005 to January 2010. Client Systems Operation.
 Spearheaded account standardization through process and document development.
 Authored training manuals and materials for client equipment, software and mainframe interfaces.
 Served as liaison for and consultant to Big Company to third party vendors.
 Recipient of Xerox �Ranger Award� in national recognition of outstanding customer satisfaction.

Auditor then acting Assistant Manager for Hospitality Comapny LLC, from May 2004 to August 2005.
 Offered promotion to management within a year of employment for adroit and exemplary performance.
 Generated financial reports and fiscal proposals for corporate officers.
 Managed and trained a staff of twelve.
 Responded to guest correspondence and complaints, created SOP�s for management review/implementation.
 Authored training manual for recalcitrant DOS based room booking system.

============END==============

[Glenski]

Some thoughts:

1. Depending on the time of year and your availability (or perceived availability), they may have needed someone when you couldn't go there. Alternately along these lines, perhaps they had someone already in Japan ready to start the next day.

2. Despite a nice "thank you, but no" letter saying you were a good candidate, that may have been a polite way of saying you were good on paper but could not perform to their expectations in an interview. This is a big one to me, because we can look at all your credentials imaginable, but unless we see you in action, we can't give you strong assurance of anything.

3. You can't fight the need for nationalities, so you'll just have to bite the bullet on not being British for that one employer. You may never know for certain whether there was a similar problem with the other 2.

4. Your looks probably are not an issue. If the job was for timid little kids, maybe you looked too imposing, but hard to say what the employer thought.

5. You haven't mentioned visa sponsorship, so I will assume all 3 sponsor visas, but maybe it was a timing issue to them. Not all employers advertise with enough time to process one.

6. They may have needed someone ASAP due to an emergency leave/resignation. You have no control over that.

Take to heart the fact that you got the experience doing the interviews. Review them as best as you can for any possible weak points in what you said or did. Review your cover letter and resume for formatting issues. What you showed here for a resume looks very cluttered, and perhaps someone thought you were embellishing too much. Can't say about the cover letter, but I've seen many that were either too wordy, that used too many academic terms, or that were written from the standpoint of the writer's wants instead of what they could provide to the employer. Your background and experience to date are great, but you might also have given the impression that you would storm in and use all of that to change the set format they have in place.

Keep at it. Best of luck.

[seklarwia]

I was kind of like you when I graduated. I actually had a significant amount of ESL and language teaching experience because as one of the few UK students taking a languages and linguistics degree at my uni I ended up having to take classes aimed at international students and was made to take part in additional activities where I had to teach the non-native students of my class English, interview and communication skills and culture for full credits. I also had to teach foreign languages in a secondary school as part of my degree to learn about the problems learners can face. Had some TEFL studies under my belt. I studied other language related sujects such pragmatics, sociolinguistrics, communication and culture, language aquisition etc.

I had Japanese language ability (I took Japanese as an elective 3rd language), had gleaming references including one from a native Japanese professor, a published and quite famous researcher and even a professional reference from a place I had been working for 4 years where my main job was interacting with foreign visitors and business partners.

I even had a lot of experience living abroad since it was a requirement of my degree.

My family was and still is a host family for Japanese students so since the age of 16 I had been able to learn a lot about Japanese culture and customs and had a keen sense for cultural sensitivity... etc, etc, etc.

Basically, compared to most other graduates at the time, my CV should have stuck out. I, too, didn't even so much as a get a rejection letter from JET until I contacted them. I interviewed with Nova (and luckily didn't get hired - that was back in spring 2007 and I would have been one of the last to arrive just before the company imploded) but at the time was well annoyed that I seemed to be the only one with any related experiences, study or teaching experience and yet everybody apart from me was hired at my interview session, including a lecherous creep who rolled up super late looking extremely worse for wear and made a few rather inappropriate remarks about liking Japanese girls! - I have a couple of theories for why I wasn't hired, including one rather disturbing one, but this isn't the place for it as it's bound to provoke responses unrelated to your post.

I went to China after having been offered an excellent uni placement thanks to some amazing introductions and recommendations from parents of some of the students I'd been working with at uni. I left almost immediately; didn't even attend my graduation ceremony. I had a great year teaching kids, many of whom were my age or older (I was the youngest student in my facultly when I started uni and was still 21 after four years of study and when I arrived in China).

I went back to the UK just after the olympic opening ceremony. Worked for a few months - an ESL position - had the postal system screw over my 2nd attempt at JET and decided to contact some dispatchers. I was contacted almost immediately (by the first and only company I had applied to by this point) for a phone screening (it was something strange like I applied on Xmas day/eve and was contacted on Boxing Day) then offered an interview date at the beginning of Jan. I received a job offer a few days later and came out March of the same year (on one of the first flights to touch down after the Narita plane crash - we only got diverted to Haneda; flights arriving after us started getting diverted all over Japan). I've been here 3 years.

Keep trying. You'll get there eventually. And it has been completely normal for JET applicants to be turned down on the first try for a long time now. These days, with JET being ever downsized and graduates with degrees looking to escape the despair that is the employment situation in their home countries being a dime a dozen, and what seems to seemingly more JTEs staying on for longer, competition has never been so fierce.


Otherwise some advice:

Is that actually how you worded your resume? Interesting that with your English and ESL background you would make such an elementary mistake. CVs should be clear and concise.

- To most native speakers, your wording would seem pretentious and, quite frankly, unintelligible. No word of a lie: you'd have many certified school English teachers running to consult a dictionary. Many English teachers took English lit or another non-linguistic focused degree; they would be stumped by language that should be reserved for only when applying for a highly specialised position. Which leads onto the next point...

- ...you do realise that you are applying for entry level jobs in Japan, right? This means:

a) your resume is probably being read by a non native English speaker at some point who may have, at best, a tenuous grasp of the English language; they are probably giving up on your resume as soon as they reach your profile description.

b)Even if they did manage to understand your CV and think it impressive, I can see why they'd believe others are more suited to the job. You will almost certainly be working with kids in an entry level position; possibly ES aged kids; perhaps even brats still in nappies. After seeing your resume (and possibly some form of essay) they are likely concerned that you don't know how to speak simply and clearly, and adapt your communication style to suit the audience (which may mean using as few words as possible, keeping them extremely basic and supplementing them with big crazy gestures). Your resume screams serious and uptight, which is the complete opposite of the open, approachable, enthusiatic and (at times) silly and bouncy foreigner that many entry level positions require.

And one more question: What kind of photo(s) did you send to the employer who rejected you shortly after receiving them?

[Mr_Monkey]

Depending on who you're applying to, they may consider you overqualified and possibly a bad investment - they may expect you to hightail it off to another, better paying, job at the first opportunity. I suspect there are very few schools/dispatchers in Japan that would be both impressed by your CV and believe they could keep hold of you for the length of your contract.

[It's Scary!]

I fear that you may be under the impression that Eikaiwa's are serious about their yen-fountains actually learning English!

It's an easy trap for the uninitiated to fall into!

[timothypfox]

I wouldn't rot away. That is a waste of time and life. There are some great experiences out there in many jobs in other places than Japan.

But if it really must be Japan, get an MA in TESOL.

If you are short on money, do a teaching fellows program if you are situated in the US in a major urban center. That way you will get a very cheap MA and get about 3 year public school teaching experience and teaching certification in ESL to also wave at prospective empoyers. Then you can either stay or try for jobs in Japan again or another place...

[Pitarou]

The resume you've shown us would be great if you were applying to become a management trainee in an American corporation. For the kinds of job you're applying for, it sucks. E.g.:

[It's Scary!]

Look West...er, Middle East, young man!

It's more down your alley if not the health of your career!

[nightsintodreams]

"Competent in a modicum of Japanese speech, familiar with important cultural norms, mores and etiquette. "

I honestly don't know the meaning of modicum or mores? I'd agree with the above poster; there's no need to use difficult words, it doesn't make you seem more intelligent. All it does is make your CV difficult to read.

I applied for my first job in Japan less than three years ago from the uk. When I first applied, my dissertation had not even been marked yet and i had no experience with teaching or the Japanese language.

However, i made a good impression at my interview and moch lesson. I believe the most important thing to most Dispatch and Eikaiwa companies is that you come across as confident and friendly. If you do a moch lesson at any point try singing a song and not taking yourself too seriously.

[Vince]

The purpose of the resume is to get you invited to an interview. I would start there. You have a lot of great qualifications, so it's probably a matter of presenting them more effectively. A few ideas:

- I'd remove the profile. It doesn't add value and is redundant with the information that follows it.

- I don't think your bachelors' emphasis in rhetoric adds appeal, so I'd remove that. Like the profile, it starts looking like a barrage of buzzwords.

- You don't need the high school diploma entry. The bachelors degree implies that you graduated from high school.

- Consider choosing a few of your "academic proficiencies and training" and listing them as "relevant courses" in a subsection under your bachelors entry. That would be more cohesive than a separate list of buzzwords.

- Instead of "pertinent experience," I'd call it "TESL Experience." Each entry should start with an action word. Include results if possible.

- Most resume guides advise not listing references in the resume or stating that references are available upon request. If they want references, they'll ask. If they do ask, submit them on a separate sheet of paper.

- Instead of "prior work experience," I'd call it "business experience." TEFL for business purposes is a good specialty, so highlight that real-world business experience. I wouldn't try to dazzle them with every business thing I can think of, but would make the point that I bring that experience to the table for EFL purposes.

Again, your resume has a lot of great qualifications. Unfortunately, most of the Japanese EFL industry at this level is about edutainment. Conversation schools typically have canned approaches and prefer their teachers to stay close to that. They primarily want to know if you'll be the kind of teacher who will present the softball (again, edutainment) image that most of these students want. That isn't to say that you should come off as a party clown in your resume, but don't go too heavy on the academic proficiency. You can bring that out later if you want to become a teacher trainer or apply to a masters program.

[Mr_Monkey]

[nimaime]

[OneJoelFifty]

I agree with pretty much everything everyone else has said. Dumb it down a bit, try to summarise all the information rather than listing it, and use the extra space to highlight the best bits. Got a list of ten modules? Delete most of them, choose the most relevant couple and write "Including...".

I'd include a small photo as part of the resume if you can. I have one in the top left. Underneath it I've also got a list of all relevant information that runs down the left side, the usual stuff like date of birth, nationality and qualifications, but also others like visa status, Japanese ability, driving licence...things that I've been asked about by employers and seen mentioned in a lot of adverts.

Some people might disagree but I think a brief personal statement at the top of the page is a good idea. Who you are, where you're from, what you've done, what you're looking for. Particularly for entry-level jobs, where you may not even be asked for a cover letter, it sets a friendlier tone.

[TokyoLiz]

The education section of your resume doesn't seem to have anything to do with ESL. Simply state your major and specify that you have ESOL training. Omit high school.

I agree with others - no Japanese manager has time to look up words like "pertinent" and "dual". Keep it very simple.

When it comes to your non-teaching related experience, the only things an HR person wants to see are the management experience and ability to write manuals. The rest is padding.

Keep you resume to one page. Nobody has time to read more than a few bullet points.

If you include a picture, make sure you're dressed in a suit, standing in front of a neutral background.

Like Glenski says, your timing may not be right on. The time to send resumes is November to January in anticipation of April hires.

Good luck.

[Glenski]