If you’re accepted, do you have to reapply to the same process every year?

9 comments

1. No, your school / BOE will re-contract you if you are asked to return.

2. Show that you are trying, want to be a part of school activities and I don’t see why they wouldn’t recontract you…unless you talk back, have attitude, unwilling to participate outside the class, are overall a drag to be around..

3. Luckily you do not have to endure a 7 month application process every year. Unless you do something egregiously awful, you’re almost certainly going to be offered a re-contract for a 2nd and 3rd year. 4th and 5th year are dependent on your placement’s policy. Some placements axe their JET s after 3 years no matter what. In which case, a transfer for the 4th and 5th year may be possible. But if your placement declines to recontract you and it’s not because they have a 3 year rule, then most likely the transfer deadline will have passed and you won’t be able to stay on JET

4. It’s very hard to sack you. You’re guaranteed 3 years at least. The final 2 years are performance based.

5. the way Recontracting works for me (YMMV) is that they ask me “do you like this school? do you want to stay for another year?” I say “yes”, and then I have to sign what amounts to a promise note, then when the recontracting season comes around again (Usually in July) they give me the paper saying “hey you’re here for another year”.

6. This depends on your placement. You don’t have to do the same process every year, but some COs do additional steps, such as interviews, each year before letting you recontract. In almost every case, you can get 3 years with no problem. Getting the last 2 years depends on your COs budget, what your CO has done with other JETs in the past, and whether or not they like you enough.

7. I got here in december. I had a week of introducing myself to the kids. Didn’t even have a real class. Then Christmas holidays. When I got back they wanted me to sign a re contract for the following (second) year. They already asked me if I wanted to re contract for my third year, and I haven’t even finished my first, I told them I wasn’t sure, so they said theyd ask me again in the fall.

   Edit: when I was doing orientation, the guy doing it said that he has never seen someone not get offered a re-contract. It’s just so much less work for them to put up with an even mediocre ALT than it is for them to bring in a new one.
   He said he’s only seen one person get fired. And that was only after they didn’t show up to work for three months.

8. Your first year they may even ask you to reapply within a couple months of you being here.

9. The official thing on the JET Program website makes everything seem a lot more strict than it actually is irl.

   Basically it works like this. Your CO first has the right to decide if they want you to stay on for another year or not. If they decide that they want you to stay, they then approach you and ask you if you’d like to stay. You give them your answer. Your CO then submits the appropriate paperwork to JET. This means there are 3 possible outcomes of recontacting conversations

   1. ALT not offered a contract renewal
   2. ALT offered a contract renewal, but refuses
   3. ALT offered a contract renewal and accepts.

   The COs are allowed to use whatever standards they want when deciding whether or not to offer you a contract renewal. In some places this can take the form of an interview, review of your past performance, surveys from your JTEs etc. This isn’t a required step though, so many COs skip it and don’t require anything from you for recontracting.

   However, we are very expensive to replace. If the CO doesn’t renew our contract or we choose not to accept our contract renewal, the CO has the foot the bill for not only our return plane ticket, but also the plane ticket for the incoming ALT. Most COs would rather avoid this added cost, so in a lot of places, even if you’re not well liked, even if you’re not very good at your job, as long as your haven’t killed anyone, you’re basically guaranteed to be offered a contract renewal. At least in my area, you have to *really* fuck up to not be offered a contract renewal. That said though, some COs are stricter/not as penny pinching, and make the contract renewal process a little more work.

   There are also COs that choose to limit ALTs to 3 years instead of the usual 5. I have no idea why.

   As for when these conversations happen, JET requires your paperwork to be submitted by early January. However, whether you stay or go impacts the CO’s budget for the upcoming year. As a result they might start asking you about recontracting much earlier, like in October or November. Many first years often struggle with feeling like they just arrived and being immediately asked about recontracting.