Hi everyone,
I just wanted to ask people’s experience about their transition out from JET to a new job that you have found within Japan.
As of right now, I’m in my 4th year and will be starting my 5th year in JET from next month. I had a talk with my BoE a couple of months before, to see if there are any possibilities of getting directly hired. However, despite them wishing to keep me here, it seems like their budget won’t allow them so I won’t be able to get directly hired.
So, I had a another chat with them yesterday, about wanting to break my contract midway through my 5th year (I’m thinking around April or May of next year) as I was planning to start job hunting from this year December and try to find a new job in Japan. However, they told me that I have to go back to my home country as apparently, they talked to the person in charge of the program (which is CLAIR I assume) and it’s against the rule? They also said it will be “troublesome” for them breaking my contract midway. They also didn’t have experience in dealing with this kind of situation as they never had ALTs breaking contracts midway (since all of the ALTs that they had, fully finished their contracts and went back home).
I’ve already asked a couple of my friends who broke their contract midway after finding a job and they didn’t seem to have an issue with it, which puzzled me. One of my friends said to just leave and break mid way after finding a new job and a company that will sponsor my visa, but I don’t want to burn any bridges as I will need them for a job reference in the future.
I have tried searching online and reddit and there doesn’t seem to be anyone asking about this yet.
Have any of you experienced this kind of thing? What was your situation like when transitioning out?
3 comments
You can break contract and find another job. There is no rule requiring you to go back. They are full of it.
Four years of good work and they won’t even let you break so you can go through with looking for jobs with everyone else. Sad but not uncommon.
Tell them you are finishing in April and that they can contact Clair for a request for an early departure ALT.
Your visa allows you to stay in Japan to teach, your school has no say on that.
At my BoE my contract actually goes from August (start of JET Programme) to March (end of fiscal year) and I sign another one from April to end of July. If I wanted to leave I technically don’t even need to “break” contract.
This is a standard question. Tons of information is online. Yes, you can break contract. No, you don’t have to leave the country.
Job search, and only after you sign a contract for your new job should you tell them the last day. Well, realistically, April is the start time for many jobs. April postings start showing up in June of the previous year. Make a Japanese resume if you have free time.
It is almost impossible to get direct hire at the same organization after JET because if you work there over five years consecutively, you can get permanent hire, which is a major concern for the organization.