Hello everyone,
I am in a hard place and looking for advice.
I have been living in Japan for a little over 3 years and I have been looking for a job for about a year now. During job hunting I have been bouncing around from haken, factory, and restaurant jobs. I have applied to over 120 different jobs, mainly in sales, marketing, logistics and US military base jobs(due to my prior military service).
Over the last year or so I have applied to 1-3 jobs a day, tailoring my resume and cover letter to fit each and every position I apply to. I have been on LinkedIn, hays, Michael page, Robert Walters, careercross, Glassdoor, indeed, and every other job site I can find. I have visited 3 recruiters, hello work multiple times, my prefectural job consultation person, and my local international centers job consultation specialist. I did a workshop to learn to properly build an English and Japanese resume, and all of the recruiters have told me that my resume looked good.
I have had 3 interviews, 1 for US military job, 1 for sales, and 1 for logistics. The sales and logistics jobs both told me to my face that they would rather hire a Japanese person. The military job told me no(after 3 interviews) because I didn’t already live in Okinawa and because I’m on a spouse visa and not SOFA. I have been turned down by 56 positions (I track everything in a spreadsheet).
I am 30 years old, bachelor’s in English Lit and Classics, 6 years experience as a logistics manager in the army, 1 year experience in Hospitality Management, and around 2 years teaching English. I’m on a spouse visa, my Japanese is upper intermediate(all of the job consultation and such was done in Japanese), and I have a driver’s license and car.
I know my experience is not the specialized experience that most companies want a foreigner to have, but I’m at a loss here. I have even been trying to rejoin the military, but have been unable to get a recruiter to properly respond to me.
I do believe my location is probably an issue here as I live in Kyushu. Truthfully I want to return to the US, but I’m married and my wife and I are both working random jobs and we have just enough to pay bills and can’t save up money to move back to America (I don’t have any family back home, so I would have to have enough money to line up a job, apartment, plane tickets, visa for me wife, car, etc and it doesn’t seem feasible.
This is also kind of me venting, I’m sorry if it’s a lot, but I don’t have any friends here and I don’t have any family to talk to so I’m just feeling flustered. I am feeling quite depressed and miserable lately.
If you read this, thank you and any advice would be appreciated.
20 comments
All I can say is keep trying. Market might be limited as it’s not Tokyo but just don’t give up. Takes time given the current climate in certain industries. Also use LinkedIn.
And depending on what you wanna do , study and get some certifications to build a portfolio if you don’t have professional experience in that field .
I know this may not be the best suggestion of a Job, but have you looked at guide work?
Sadly, the best time to file for your wife’s visa was when you were active duty. USCIS is backed up badly.
Im assuming you’ve tried USAjobs?
Just keep trying man, someone will potentially hire you.
Can you save some money on an English teacher salary? If so maybe go back to teaching while you keep looking for a better job. You need to have something that allows you to save a bit while continuing your job hunt. By the time you save enough, if nothing has come up here, you can make the move to the US. Recruiting might also be a choice. I know a few people who make decent money.
Might consider relocating? If not to Tokyo or Osaka then one of the larger cities in Kyushu?
DM me, I can provide you some tips that corporate Kool aid drinkers might not like
I’m not sure about the other jobs, but I can say for for a fact that whoever was the hiring manager for USAJobs, straight up lied to you about why they couldn’t hire you, they probably already had someone already lined up for the job, but by law they have to give everyone interviews to those who are qualified, I live in kyushu as well and I’ve refused job offers because I didn’t want to leave kyushu
I can understand how frustrating and difficult it can be to look for a job, especially in a new country. It’s natural to feel frustrated and depressed when you’re facing such challenges. Here are a few pieces of advice that might help:
1. Keep applying and networking: It’s important to keep applying for jobs and expanding your network of contacts. Even if you don’t get a job offer immediately, you never know who might be able to help you in the future. Consider reaching out to people in your field or industry through LinkedIn or other networking channels, and ask for advice or introductions to potential employers.
2. Focus on your strengths: While it’s true that specialized experience can be helpful in certain fields, it’s also important to highlight your other skills and accomplishments. Think about what makes you unique and how you could add value to a company, and make sure to highlight those things in your resume and cover letter.
3. Consider alternative industries: If you’re having difficulty finding a job in your preferred field, it might be worth considering other industries or roles that might be a good fit for your skills and experience. For example, if you have experience in logistics and customer service, you might be a good fit for a customer service or operations role in a different industry.
4. Seek support: It’s important to take care of your mental health during this time. If you’re feeling depressed and miserable, it might be helpful to talk to a therapist or a counselor who can help you work through your feelings and develop coping strategies. You can also reach out to friends and family members for support and to talk through your thoughts and feelings.
I hope these suggestions are helpful. Remember to take things one day at a time and try to stay positive. It may take some time, but I’m confident that you’ll find a job that’s a good fit for you.
Hey buddy, I’m hiring for a few analyst roles and could take a look at your resume and maybe give some pointers at the very least. DM me.
Your ship will sail again. It’ll just take a little more time. In regard to SOFA, ever since the nastiness caused by ex-military guys getting hired in Okinawa and then committing terrible crimes things have really tightened up. Even for us SOFA civilians it has become very difficult to re-apply once our contracts are up. Keep at it. You’ll get there.
If you are on a spouse visa maybe look at online jobs out of the US like in sales or customer service that would accept someone abroad.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any way to help and I think others have given you good advice so far.
I just want to send you good vibes and wish you the best of luck and happy holidays!
You’re living in a rando place applying for thousands of jobs. You gotta move. It’s not gonna happen when you’ve had 3 interviews in 1000 applications for any job, the statistics are telling you that it’s not working.
Also, you’re light on skills. Degree is random, logistics has potential, hospitality and English are a bit thin. Can you consider more training? A certificate will give an employer *something* to work with. As it stands, you’re a total blank slate who is also a foreigner who is also living in a random location, which means employers will always go for someone with a certificate who’s younger and more Japanese. You gotta move.
Also, network: it’s easier to meet influential people than it is to be a number in a spreadsheet. Look for a way to access juicy middle aged/older people, be it volunteering or some kind of local group.
Hey man Im pretty much in the same boat as you. Luckily I joined the reserves after getting out of active duty and thats been keeping me afloat. I don’t even remember how many applications Ive thrown into base jobs/ japanese jobs. Its gotten to the point Ive been looking to go back to active duty. Have you looked into the reserves? That might be a way to network to get a base job. If you want some information you can dm me.
Just a few thoughts. Completely random with no rhyme or reason to the order and to be taken as nothing more than words from an internet rando.
・I wish you the best of luck and hope you find something fulfilling soon.
・Don’t get yourself down by saying you’ve applied to 120 jobs. In actuality, you didn’t make 120 applications but rather 120 application *requests*. If a recruiter knows you’re not qualified enough, they won’t send your CV to the company. Sending your CV is the actual application.
・It might be your Japanese level but you seem to be looking for jobs through services that mainly cater to gaijin. Try services that cater to the Japanese audience (your wife should know these). The simple fact is that English ability in corporate Japan is so low that some companies, including mine, try to find gaijin through services geared for Japanese because HR depts think those Japanese sites are where all the candidates are (and rightly so).
・Those gaijin-friendly recruiters are focused mostly on Tokyo and a little Osaka.
・Recruiters get paid by commission based on salary. As such, recruiters are often tasked in finding positions of strategic importance to the company. You sound like you’re looking for entry level positions. Companies won’t ask recruiters to find such positions. You have to go to websites of companies you’re interested in, look for open positions, and apply. You’ll probably need to do this in Japanese.
・Prepare Japanese 職務経歴書 and 履歴書 if you haven’t done so already.
・Try proofreading jobs.
・Consider learning coding.
・Try the embassy of your country for their open positions, especially if there’s a 福岡 consulate. If you’re not in commuting distance to 福岡 and you can’t move, you’ll be looking at much reduced prospects.
・Your wife should also be looking to create a stable career. Being Japanese, her options are infinitely more than yours. If she can find something in Tokyo or Osaka, your family can move, allowing you to consider many more options.
I’m sure everything i’ve written is obvious but I wrote it just in case. Good luck and I wish you the best!!
Kyushu is a huge logistics hub for many major shipping companies AND a huge tourism destination. Have you applied to jobs at shipping companies/centers (or even Amazon) OR at resorts in the region? I know for a fact many of the major upscale resorts all over Kyushu hire bilingual staff, and with tourism reopened, you could leverage your previous hospitality experience and native English skills. Of course, this is all dependent on location. Most shipping hubs are in Fukuoka/Saga, and the resorts that will be best to check out will be in places like Aso and in onsen towns in Oita (ie: a new luxury resort just opened in Yufuin).
America is simply too expensive right now. We priced out a move back, and we’d have to spend a minimum of $30k on plane tickets, pet cargo fees, rent a place (security deposits, setting up internet and utilities) in LA (average rent is about $3500/mo and a lot of places are asking for 2x rent deposits), daily expenses while we find a job, getting at least one crappy used car for both my husband and I to use while looking for jobs, etc. This doesn’t include putting things in a shipping container. While we have both sets of family there, neither set of parents can host us due to space (my parents) and pets (his parents) — so it might as well be like moving without family. $30k is half of our savings, so it’s not worth it.
Staying in Japan is financially more feasible for sure. However, you might need to decide whether your current location (Kyushu) is what’s holding you back more than your resume.
Hate to say it but you are probably limited to ether English teaching or hospitality jobs that require English. If a company can hire a Japanese person instead of a foreigner for the same job they probably will. It’s just easier in terms of visas, etc to hire and there isn’t exactly a shortage of Japanese people.
6 years in logistics sounds like a shoe-in for most eCommerce companies here. I know a manager at Amazon Logistics who definitely doesn’t have that much experience with it.
Do you mind working in a factory? There are tons of factory jobs that pay alright