I have a friend looking to hire contract full time teachers in a major “second tier” city outside the Kansai and Tokyo areas. He’s having trouble finding people within the area. As a favor to him I want to get a feel for what the labor market is elsewhere.
If you have a masters, would the following job persuade you to relocate to a different city?
* 10 classes a week
* 4 day workweek, 30 weeks a year. Not required to be on campus otherwise, unless there is a specific task/reason such as open campus
* 5 million yen a year salary (rent is cheap here)
* Decent research funding
* Initial 3 year contract but can be renewed up to 10 if you meet some basic benchmarks
* Low level students.
If the answer is no, why not? What area are you in, and what kind of work conditions do you have that beat this? (I know lots of people have better jobs, but I want to get a feel for average conditions/expectations by region).
If the answer is yes, maybe DM me 🙂
30 comments
Is there a publication requirement?
Depends on the classes. Is there any anything to build on? 🤔
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Will they pay for the relocation? Is there any curriculum or materials prepared?
I am on something similar, but need to be in the office (not a deal breaker), so it would have to be something pretty good to uproot my life, if I was interested and already had uni work. I would consider my uni job a very good first gig, or a cruisy, but not exactly well-paid longer term gig if you could nail a permanent contract (which is tough).
Overall, it doesn’t sound bad at all, especially for someone starting out, so would be wondering what other reasons there might be for not getting the people.
>”second tier” city
Can we not? This is such a meaningless term.
>Tier II cities are in the process of developing their real estate markets. These cities tend to be up-and-coming, and many companies have invested in these areas, but they haven’t yet reached their peak. Real estate is usually relatively inexpensive here; however, if growth continues, prices will rise.
What’s an up-and-coming Japanese city? What’s a company that has invested but hasn’t “hit its peak”?
There’s already the concept of “bed towns”. It would be clearer to say something like “a bed town of Osaka” or something.
Alright, moving on.
No, I wouldn’t relocate for this job because I already bought a house so unless this is a tenured position, it’s not worth it. If I weren’t tied down – maybe. Are relocation costs covered? Would all of my classes be non-English majors? Is there a separate budget for traveling to present at international conferences? How much freedom is there in implementing your own curriculum?
Thoughts…
– Woulda ~15 year ago when I was in the game. Sounds like a sweet gig.
– Wouldn’t these days as I’ve moved on from teaching and the salary’s not competitive with my expectation these days.
I’m willing, but only if I get to teach my way.
Tbh, I’m happy working part-time at my universities since I get to teach the way I want, and use the materials I want (I write my own). An important part of my methodology is making sure my students do homework (that I design). In fact, I think all textbooks used in low level classes that I’ve come across in Japan are garbage. I can imagine some universities having a problem with that.
With that said, it’d be nice to work in one place and earn that much from teaching just 10 classes. That’d also leave time to pursue writing meaningful papers.
The problem though: I’m not published. And I don’t think I’d have a chance to get any full-time position without being published. But I hate the idea of writing papers that are basically rewordings of other published papers as many others have done.
So basically, I like the idea of moving to work in one university, but I have conditions even though I’m in no position to have conditions, which means I wouldn’t be hired.
Where is extremely important. Is in on Kyushu or Shikoku? Maybe I would take it. Is it around aomori? No chance.
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No, because it’s a contract job and if it’s not in a big city, it’ll be hard to find another good one once the contract is up. They really need to do away with the contract nonsense… it makes the teachers’ lives so unnecessarily complicated and unstable.
“Second tier city” is way too vague for a 5 mil contract job.
It’s definitely an attractive package so I don’t think your friend needs to upgrade it or change it.
Just that, for employers, the current market doesn’t seem great for highly qualified English teachers in Japan who also happen to have Masters. Seems most such candidates have already settled into their current jobs and cities. Might just be my feeling, though.
Furthermore, movement feels very restricted with fewer people changing jobs at the moment due to the pandemic, even if it isn’t actually restricted by law.
But personally I think this hiring task is achievable within several months. Make sure your friend is posting about it where possible (indeed, gaijinpot, jalt, etc.) and also using social media, reddit (as you are doing here, very nice of you), and word-of-mouth.
Consider disclosing the city because there may be people who would consider it more seriously or tell their friends/acquaintances if they knew where it was.
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I think the conditions are fine, but there are 2 issues that i see off the bat that would discourage applicants. 10 classes/ week are a lot, more than most for sure. It makes me think the uni is more like a diploma mill. The location is also the biggest factor I see too. People care about where they work, is it far from a major city? Many of us have families so may not want to uproot for inaka. I have lived in both types of settings.
Heck yea I would. Not currently in Japan but hope to move sometime in the future. Honestly most jobs as long as it’s a liveable pay and no expectations of overworking I’m more than happy to take. Teaching for me is a passion, as I make much more through passive income than I would teaching. I also prefer living in smaller cities or towns (having lived in 3 countries and 4 cities so far). Not a fan of research, even though I obviously had to do it for my Masters lmao.
Not sure what qualifies as “low level students” but sounds a lot like students at my current school and though behaviour management is an issue, I feel it extra rewarding to see them make steady improvements compared to when I taught at a competitive school and the students basically managed themselves and I didn’t have to do much.
Also I realize the majority of this sub leans towards English teaching which is sadly what I don’t specialize in… (nor do I want to lol)
No, I have tenure and make more than double that. I am always open to new opportunities, though.
I’d relocate. I’m not even in Japan and I’d happily move for a 3 year contract.
As a recent Master Degree graduate, yes. 😭
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I would be willing, depending on location. I’m in the US with my MA and 8 years of college ESL teaching experience. Feel free to DM me!
The “3 year contract renewable to 10” doesn’t sound right. I thought the law says if a contract position goes over the five year mark, it becomes permanent.
(Here’s one example: [see page 8](https://knowledge.leglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/LEG-Employment-Law-Overview-2021-2022_Japan_27.03.21.pdf))
If I still lived in Japan I would likely jump on the opportunity, after doing some research. My problem with university jobs in Japan was that I had no publications and had little interest in making them, so a job like that would let me get a foot in the door and work on publications and put something decent on my resume.
I’m back in the states now though, and not planning to return to teach any time soon.
Overall it’s pretty decent for a contract job. The only issue I see is no moving allocation. Might be 300,000+yen just to hire q moving company. That’s a lot of up front costs
That fee is a good grace move by employers.
No. There is a time limit on the job
Would love it if I’m not currently in Europe trying to be a citizen.
No.
Renewed for “up to ten years” means job hunting again at age 58. That’s a big, giant, huge NO.
And it should be a no for everyone, not just older teachers – why do universities think they can use our labor and specialized knowledge to gain something for themselves, and then just throw us out to hire someone with less experience and less knoweldge?
NO.
I’m not exactly your target demographic (have a PhD in a humanity, make more than you’re posting, and permanent employment at a university but do have to teach English for my bread and butter and living in mid-size city).
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on JREC I often see job postings of this sort, compared to the average,
1. this one is better in on-campus presence requirement –> many of these contract things require sitting about in a language lab.
2. this is one is worse than many in teaching requirements at 10 courses / semester.
3. This seems to be par for the course in compensation these days for contract work.
4. The attempt to view this job as falling under the 10-year exception the 5-year rule is dubious and probably wouldn’t survive a court challenge.
5. “Decent research funding” is a bit vague. Tokyo offers 100万円 of startup funds (which is an insanely high amount for contract work). Some universities offer 40万円; others 20万円.
6. I saw you wrote :
>staff join work groups and work out the curricula together, making gradual changes and improvements to a general system already in place.
and at least for me this would be a rather unattractive part of it. Why should contract employees have to design and develop curricula?
I would guess the contract nature / no suggested possibility of tenure but having to move somewhere are the main things clamping down on the application pool.
If I saw such a listing, I would consider applying, if I were currently job searching. However, it would probably rank low on my personal preference list. Here are some questions I’d want answered…
Why don’t you give some example cities? Give a list of 5 similar cities, possibly including the actual city.
That salary is low. Would I want to relocate, knowing that it’s hard to save making such a small amount? Maybe if the salary goes up each year. It’s fine to say “rent is cheap”, but lots of medium-size cities are spread out so people need cars, so the cost of living goes right back up. Even if rent is cheap, if the place is far from an international airport, the cost of visiting family abroad is high, compared with Tokyo or Osaka. Details matter a lot here, but the actual cost of living could be quite high, depending on the person’s desired lifestyle.
How many of those classes are repeats? 10 classes that all have unique preparation would be very heavy, especially considering the compensation. What are the required working hours?
How tedious is the application process? Some universities have listings at similar salaries, and some of them have really annoying forms that take hours to complete. That’s a turn-off to many applicants.
I’m sure if your friend made a posting on a national job listing website, they would receive many applications. Would they like the quality of the applicants? Probably, but it’d be better if the aforementioned information were clarified.
As someone who recently got their masters I would absolutely go for that (if I hadn’t recently started another (and my first) uni job).
That your friend is struggling to find people for the position seems to show that uni teaching is still very much a possibility for people who are qualified. I’ve seen a lot of people be quite grim on reddit about the state of the uni teaching market, maybe they’ve been here a long time and sure it might not be what it used to be, but it seems like full time jobs are absolutely still around.
Or perhaps there’s just a huge difference in the job market between Tokyo and everywhere else?
No. My current job is basically that, but only 8 koma, good students, and full control of what I do in class. We’re also on the uni pay scale, so I make just over 6m now.