I am thinking about to living in Tokyo after I do two years as a ALT in Okinawa. I heard most contracts usually go for 3 years, I’m thinking ahead here. What kind of Jobs do ALTs usually get? What kind of paths did former JETs take to live and work in Japan?
*** I am about N3 Japanese and I’m planning on learning to speak パラパラ. I also have a business degree and experience in marketing.
***** ペラペラ🤦🏻♂️ でも、みんなさんの正直なところを書いてありがとう！
15 comments
More language teaching jobs if you don’t get to N1 or Business Level Japanese, which are prerequisites for working in Japanese companies.
What paths (other than English teaching) will be available to you will vary on your qualifications and Japanese level
If you have no qualifications, nothing good. You’d end up being an ALT.
this question is massively dependent on what you bring to the table. A couple years of ALTing doesn’t really carry value on its own, it’s not useful for other jobs.
Hi if you haven’t already I recommend you join the AJET & JETAA-I Job Listings group on FB (if you use it) I contribute to that group on a regular basis and I think it’s a good resource for people thinking to continue working in Japan after JET 🙂
You can do anything you want, there are jobs for everything.
In order to have that choice, you need fluent Japanese and probably some prior job experience.
Otherwise like others have said you’ll probably be stuck as an ALT again, only this time you’ll be paid less than JET and your expenses will be greater moving from Okinawa to Tokyo.
You’ll need to have other skills than knowing English if you want to do anything other than teach English. Knowing Japanese isn’t really a plus considering the entire native population can already do that better than any foreign person could.
If you want to work for a Japanese company, you’ll likely need at least N2 or N1. You might find a job at a western company or one that does international business where the Japanese language requirements aren’t so strict.
Also, you mean ぺらぺら, not ぱらぱら.
https://youtu.be/bMM1nBzptkE
I think you’re looking at this all wrong. The path you take after JET depends entirely on what you did **before** and **during** JET **to prepare for your future career.**
if all you did was spend your free time casually studying Japanese and being a tourist, than most likely you only have the qualifications to be an entry level teacher (ALT, eikaiwa, part-time work).
If you managed to develop your business skills and bring your Japanese up to N1 (sometimes N2) in a short time, maybe you can start networking and try to gain an entry level corporate position and try to go white collar in Japan.
___Most people who want jobs outside of the ALT/eikaiwa field tend to learn other skills during their term as a JET and network like crazy.___
**Want to be a programmer?**
Make an impressive portfolio of projects you worked on.
**Want to be a private/direct/ or university teacher?**
Get the qualifications necessary: Masters, PHD, publications, certifications, etc.
**Want to get into any other field?**
Study and figure out what it takes to get your foot in the door. Once you’re done being an ALT, the only thing your gaijin-ness alone will grant you is more low level gaijin work: alt, eikaiwa, random background character for diversity, etc.
The key difference is you’ll have to work 2-(infinity) times harder than a native would for the same position since you’ll most likely not want to settle for bottom of the barrel wages. Which means you need to have the qualifications and/or the networking necessary to sell yourself as a worthy in terms of cost/benefit to whatever company that is.
Man people really love downvoting on this website. I have some friends who have done more serious work in Japan after staying here for some time. I think with your background there are some fields you could get into. However, it will be a struggle so prepare yourself.
First off you should aim to get to N2/N1 by the end of your JET stay. Then you should build strong connections within your community and expect that you may not be able to make it to Tokyo on your first shot. Also, I think ALT least three years lived in Japan will be necessary for any communication heavy roles. Also, Id be curious how extensive your marketing experience is. That will certainly be a big factor. Getting into work outside of teaching in Japan can sometimes require a miracle, so you should be prepared for it to not work out, and have to go back to your country. With these kids of skills you may be able to sneak into some field of sales etc such as
海外営業不動産外国人人材マーケティング
Also note that a lot of these kinds of jobs can often fit into the ブラック and more unpleasant sides of the Japanese job market.
*Edit: pretty much saying the same thing u/Polyglot-Onigiri is, excuse me
I was a JET Programme ALT in Nagasaki from 2016 – 2021. I left the programme a month early (end of June 2021), moved to Tokyo to join a full-time coding bootcamp (July – September), and then accepted a job offer as a full stack engineer in October.
Before I was an ALT I worked in the media industry back home, so it just goes to show that if you’re interested, there are ways and opportunities to change careers after JET.
Joined JET as a combo AET/CIR, did that for 5 years, and then moved to Tokyo for a job in tech (not a dev).
I got very lucky with my position because it was a complete career change and the company was willing to mentor me and help me hone the necessary skills for the job.
What are you basing you’re about N3 off?
People are really bad at self-assessing themselves and like other people have said N2 is a big deal and you’d do well to make a study plan to help you get there.
And part of that is knowing where you actually stand now.
I didn’t take a direct path but went back to the US for an MBA.
I had a really hard time finding a job out of JET and thought some extra non-teaching qualifications would pad the resume and help out my transition. I lucked out with very good scholarship options to multiple schools due to good GMAT’s and my “international experience on JET”. Then I lucked out again by getting recruited by Rakuten and had a good four year stint in Tokyo before moving on into international relations.
I’m still on JET, but of the people I know who stayed in Japan, 1 went to language school and then continued on to grad school (program taught in Japanese), one went into translation, one got a job at a hotel (front desk, but with hopes to move into management), a couple worked at international Kindergartens, and one got a job at a juku.
From what I’ve heard, things have gotten more competitive recently and a lot of companies have started requiring N1. N2 doesn’t get you as far as it used to
(Also since you seem open to corrections *書いてくれてありがとう. When you thank someone for doing something for you, you should always use てくれる 🙂 but I’m not entirely sure what you ment by 正直なところ? Honest points? I would probably say 間違ったところを直してくれてありがとうございます)
The standard JET contract is year to year, its typically easy to do 3, and so long as you aren’t a disaster its not particularly hard to get the 4th and 5th year as long as your school(s) like you. Doing at least 2 is a good plan since it takes a while to get started, you can really feel it become easier in the second year. Okinawa is a great placement, I just visited recently and its a very chill place with lots of interesting things to do.
As for post JET, for most people with only ALT experience and background your likely looking at moving in to working for an Eikawa or Language school, or doing private ALT work. But if you build skills outside of the ALT side you can go into any area that suits your experience. In your case if you want to move in to business and marketing there are lots of opportunities, especially in the larger cities like Tokyo if you have higher level Japanese in particular. I’d recommend focusing on improving your Japanese to at least N2 and also consider doing an online MBA course while you’re at it. がんばれ