I see a lot of hate with certain dispatch companies. I am curious which one is the best and which one is the worst. The criteria are pay, location, and help ( are the willing to help you and how long will it takes for them to help you). I’m curious on the list you can come up with on which is the best to which is the worst dispatch companies in Japan. If you want to add anything to the criteria feel free, please list it in your description.
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I don’t think anyone can make a definitive list, since most people only work for one or two before moving on. And things like location and help are subjective. Some people want to be in Tokyo, others want to be in the smallest town possible. Some people want a company that takes care of everything, others want to have control and be left alone.
The best ones are going to be small/non-chain companies with somewhat exclusive clients, so suggesting one of them would be dangerously close to doxxing yourself for a lot of people. Any chain, any “big name”, any company hiring on entry level qualifications and experience are all going to be in the same tier and will just be differing flavors of bad. They all compete for the same pool of money, and there is no advancement or any “non-entry level” positions.
You could probably list the worst ones. Like borderlink
That’s like asking for a list of the best to worst types of cancer.
The OP is post padding. What’s his next topic? List your favorite kinds of shit sandwiches? Or which bread do you recommend for shit sandwiches?
Such a list would be impossible. Given that most of them have the same issues (low pay, no social insurance, lack of pay during extended school breaks, etc.), the thing that’s honestly going to form 90% of your experiences will be your school. They’ll be the main entity you interact and deal with on the daily, and, if you’re *really* out in the boonies, you might not even see your coordinator/company rep more than once a month or two.
Joytalk is pretty bad
Look, it’s a low-paying, minimum-wage job for tourists who want to play around in Japan and go home after having their cultural experience. None of them are good; some are just slightly less bad.
If you want a job where you’re using your qualifications and experience to contribute meaningfully to childrens’ education, and are paid commensurate with your skills and experience, then you need to come in with a teaching degree and Japanese skills, and get a license and find a job as a teacher in a university or in the school system.
ALT/eikaiwa are equivalent of college students on holiday visas who get a job in a bar and work in the EU for a summer. You can’t come in expecting you’re going to be treated like a professional when everyone knows this is a temporary job that allows you to experience living in Japan, and is not a career.
And just like the tourist who bartends in Paris for a summer, if you mistake it for a career and try staying longer, you’re committing yourself to trying to make a living in an industry that makes its money off hiring people who don’t have the qualifications to do anything else and exploiting them for as much as they can get out them. Sure, it’s doable, but not easy and will never feel secure or stable.
Ok, it looks like this:
The best: None of them
The worst: ALL of them.
Seriously, all dispatch companies only care about one thing: having a warm body to put in a (usually public) school. The pay is always about the same, you may or may not need need the ability to drive, and then you get bare minimal support. They’ll set you up in your apartment and make generally make sure you have a bank account. But the second something happens to endanger their contracts with the Board of Education, you’re out of a job.
The more accurate question is, which Board of Education is the best vs. worst? Of course, the catch is that you almost never get to choose which BoE you’re going to be working under… and also that there’s a heck of a lot more BoEs than dispatch companies.
My advice? Do a dispatch company for a year to get into Japan… and then try to find a direct hire position if you enjoy what you do with a dispatch company. Of course, that usually means you get the year as an ALT to improve your skills, but the unspoken secret is that it any effort you try to put in as an ALT is just for show and no one really cares at the end of the day. You’ll have quite a bit of free time, so use it to improve yourself (whether getting a Master’s or learning Japanese) to have options after being an ALT.
Any dispatch company that imports ALTs from abroad is essentially
“bad”. They are taking advantage of the very low visa/immigration bar and MEXT condoning the use of dispatch staff in schools.
> The criteria are pay, location, and help…
Dispatch salaries are hovering at barely a living wage because there is a revolving door of people whose only qualification is that they meet the immigration requirements.
Location is determined by the school boards the dispatch contracts with. A “good” location is subjective anyway.
What kind of “help” do you expect from an employer? You want clear labor law, tax info, etc.? It’s available from the government in English. Housing? Taxes? It takes a bit of effort but can be done on your own with basic Japanese. Local information? Municipal international associations help new foreign residents.
Dispatch and placement companies that pay decently and respect labor law are small and cater to private schools. Most of them hire from the pool of qualified and experienced people – K-12 subject teachers, TESOL teachers – who already have visas. And even those decent-paying dispatch/placement companies’ salaries are slipping fast.
Japan used to be a great place to get your feet wet in EFL and earn a living wage as an ALT but those days are nearly over thanks to the greedy dispatch companies.
I’m assuming you’re asking because you have no qualifications that would get you into a teaching position with suitable compensation. If that’s the case, the JET Programme (or sister city programmes) are government jobs with good conditions and generous support.
If you need help, do yourself a favor and work on your Japanese. Better that than relying on an overworked “manager.”
Dang we all know the answer is “it depends”, but y’all didn’t even try.
In my opinion, out of all the big name dispatch companies, JET seems to be the only one that’s actually still worth it these days.
They all suck. Thanks for asking.
I’ll take a serious stab at this, and leave the salt behind.
It’s far, far less about what company you are hired on for, and more about what BoE and school you get assigned to. The best company can’t help much if you get a bad school. And if you get an amazing school with great kids and teachers, the dispatch company isn’t gonna matter because after orientation you don’t deal with them much unless there’s a problem.
Still, I’ve done a LOT of research on this before coming over, and my personal ranking is this (your mileage definitely may vary):
– Direct hire (notoriously hard to get, unless you have experience/connections)
– Small, owner-run dispatch companies that are super selective on hiring
– Interac (Biggest player, so can afford to provide a bit more support)
– Borderlink (middle of the road)
– Altia (middle of the road but seems to have problems lately)
– Heart (never heard anything good about them, seem to be the employer of last resort)
In the world of dispatch teaching, the one that pays the best is the best. These are the smaller dispatchers that focus on private schools.