Hey guys, me again, here for another potentially obvious but ultimately burning question: I have developed a tentative idea for the future path I want to take in Japan, and I just was wondering how realistic or doable it is. It’s incredibly barebones right now, so stick with me. As it stands…
-I plan to do ALT work for 3 years. The first year just to get used to things and get settled, the next two years with an additional component.
-That component is to try and get my masters, preferably from an online school, but I’m aware they’re not necessarily ideal, especially for the degrees I’m going thinking of going for.
-I would like to pursue one of these three degrees: Archaeology, Museum studies, or Education. My BA is currently on History, and I would like to build off of it to get a MA in one of the first two fields, but I also wonder if Education is more realistic for having work I the country.
Is this doable, or do I have some major rethinking to do? Do you have any advice which could make it more doable?
As usual, I don’t really know where is best to post questions like this. If there is a better sub, please feel free to chuck me towards it. You’ve all been really helpful and accommodating though, so I thought of here first.
9 comments
Do you have savings? I wonder if you’d be able to afford a degree with a year’s savings from an Alt’s salary. I paid for an MA out of pocket after about 7 years working in Japan and literally went hungry for a couple of days a couple of times.
I know nothing about your non-education fields, but, if your Japanese is good, I suppose docent work would be possible?
Ok but why? You need experience to get the well paying jobs and ALT work doesn’t count. When you finish you won’t be able to do much other than continue on as an ALT or work for a diploma mill making eikaiwa pay.
Is the Archaeology or Museum studies for work in Japan? I don’t see a high demand for those types of jobs here. I assume you need N1 for those types of jobs too.
“Additional component” You mean a part time job? I don’t know if it is realistic it is to be holding a full time ALT job, side gig, and studying for a MA all at the same time.
Depends on your salary with the dispatch company, your living expenses (especially rent), and the cost of the MA. But it’s certainly doable. I’ve pursued further education whilst working as an ALT, but I’m on the JET salary, my rent isn’t too bad, and I don’t really enjoy traveling so I save money there.
You have some major rethinking to do. If you’re serious about archaeology and museum studies, your best plan of action would to get experience in your home country first and then try to find a job in Japan.
ALT work will not get you any respect at all. Despite requiring a bachelor’s degree, it is regarded as unskilled labor. There is little to no room for professional development growth as an ALT. You are not a teacher, but rather just someone who assists someone who is qualified to be a teacher. And being unskilled labor, ALT experience will never be regarded as any kind of legitimate teaching experience if you ever decided to become a real teacher instead of doing museum work.
Unless your plan would be to transition from ALT work to blue collar work (and in that case it would be difficult to find a company that’s willing to take you in over a Japanese citizen), or if you’re using ALT jobs as a way to “get in” to the country when you ALREADY have experience in software development or teaching or whatever field you’re in, this plan that you’ve proposed isn’t even an egg in a basket.
If we entertain the idea of you trying to go down this path, you will encounter many difficult obstacles until you reach the obstacle that is impossible to get over: that you if are looking for a job in archaeology academia, museum work, or in international schools as a teacher, and you don’t already have a lot of experience working in those fields in your home country, your resume will always be at the bottom of the pile. Competition is ferociously fierce, and the ones who are seriously dead set on living in Japan long-term are the ones who realize that you need a practical skill set and ample experience working in their home countries.
The only other options to living in Japan long-term would be to find a Japanese spouse to vouch for you, or to be an ALT indefinitely.
Hey mate,
You didn’t specify which country you’re from, but I’m on JET as a career break from working in museums. I didn’t major in museum studies, but in painting and art history to summarise. Like others, I do recommend gaining experience in your home country, I remember it took me a year of volunteering (and working any jobs to save money) to get into an entry level position in a museum.
I’ve been lucky to be shortlisted for a talent pool for another museum back home and depending on what is offered, – if it’s only casual hours at the of my contract, I’ll bite the bullet and do further museum studies/education for further career options.
That being said, Australia has compulsory requirements that can only be done at home, such as internships and practicums – hence why I haven’t considered doing an online masters at this stage. Depending where you’re from, this might be something to keep in mind if you’re doing the MA online, it might not be finished until you can do the prac part – especially if you’re considering the MA in archaeology.
You first part is doable – as an ALT you have a LOT of free time and can easily do an online MA. Many people do this. I would recommend doing it as soon as possible
The second part is not doable – there are no museum jobs in Japan for foreigners. If you want to work in the museum/archaeology, do NOT come to Japan. Do your MA/PhD (in person) in the USA/Europe so you can make connections with professors, academics and other players to score a job in this field.
You will probably have time to study for and online MA as an ALT, but you wont be able to fund it.
Most Museum Studies programs have a practical component that requires you to actually work in a museum learning about the preservation, cataloguing and storing of artifacts. I can’t see how you’d do that via distance education.
As for archaeology, I don’t understand your thinking here; are you hoping to get a job in that field in Japan? Because if you are you’d have to study Japanese archaeology, and why would any institution here hire a foreign, non-Japanese person in that capacity when there are Japanese archaelogists to choose from? The only way I could see that happen is if you became a world-famous, name-recognized archaeologist (Think Colin Renfrew, Ian Hodder or Lewis Binford-tyoe of name recognition) who has built his career on decades of research. Neither of those degree choices are wise even in other countries; your best course of action would be a degree in Education.
I have one of those. I also happen to teach in a Faculty of Education. Permanent position, the “hired until 65 years old” kind of permanent position. Without a PhD I may add. It also took me 11 years of shovelling shite in every kind of crap job you can think of here before I simply got lucky and landed it. Literally, I’m the one-in-a-million exception, but even that is no guarantee I’ll have this job in five years due to the drastic decline (across all sectors of education in Japan) in students. That’s a fact.
So for the other commenters on here with their false positive comments about how it’s doable and you shouldn’t give up, they are simply aren’t living in reality. Come up with a better plan.