I’m 23, from the US, graduated from college and currently working for a nonprofit. My position ends in August and I have no clue what I want to do, and am now thinking maybe I spend a year in Japan teaching English. I feel like it would be a really cool experience to spend a year in Japan, and the longer I wait the harder it will probably be for me.
1. Since my current job ends in August, will I be able to find something for this fall? What ALT or Eikaiwa companies should I look at? The JET program looks great but it seems hard to get into and I’d have to find something to do for another 10 months. Also I’m not as concerned about the pay because I have some savings, but I’d probably want to live close to a city.
2. Since I only want to do it for one year I won’t have to think about the longevity of a position or the career path of teaching English. Will this make it easier for me since I don’t have to think about those things?
3. Is teaching for a year in Japan really that bad on a resume? Will it hurt my job prospects? I currently don’t have any long-term career plans but don’t want to shoot myself in the foot.
4. Will it be possible for me to find a place with a good work-life balance? I would want to have time to explore Japan and just enjoy the experience and but don’t want to be worked to the bone.
Thanks for the help!
13 comments
Teaching 1-2 years is fine and will not look bad on a resume. You’re fine.
1. Bad ones. The school year starts in April, and pretty much every organization that employs fresh-off-the-plane English teachers wants them to work from April to March. If you find a job that begins in September, the chances are good that it’s not a good job.
2. No.
3. No.
4. Possible, yes. Likely, no. Your wages are likely to be low, and “exploring” (*i.e.,* travelling around in) Japan is expensive. If you’re employed by an *eikaiwa* (a private English school), your hours are likely to include evenings and weekends, also, which will limit many kinds of social lives.
r/movingtojapan is where you want to be asking, also.
2.
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Dont worry about your resume eapecially at 23 years old, but Working in Japan is mainly for people who either want to live in Japan long term for some reason, or who want to become proficient in Japanese. Traveling around Japan is expensive. You will be making enough to survive and eat out a few times a week but not saving anywhere near enough to travel on the weekends or holidays, let alone save money for a house or retirement. You’ll be able to do one trip at the end with your savings and that’s about it. Or you could just have the one trip straight away as your vacation and skip the working part. Japan in my opinion is a great place to visit but not a good place to work
Hey if you’d like to call or msg with me I might be able to help you out, I went down a similar path 🙂
You’re young. Taking a year or two to try something different *before* you start your career looks better than in the middle of your career.
I’d really recommend JET. It’s easily the best way to be an English teacher in Japan. You’ll most likely be well taken care of, have a community around you and there are expectations that as a JET you should make fun lessons but no one will expect you to do more than you can handle. You will be able to live and work in Japan without all the stress that comes with being an actual Japanese person working there.
Another poster said you would not be able to save or travel around Japan. I suppose this might be true for some people, but it absolutely was not for me. I did jet for four years, saved a lot and traveled around every opportunity I had. I bought a cheap car, rent was way cheaper than back home. JETs salary is decent and depending on where you get placed your rent might even be paid for by the board of education.
I’d really recommend jet but I’d expect to spend more than a year doing it, because you’ll likely not want to leave. I remember being driven to my new apartment by my caretaker thinking, If I make it to the end of the week that will be enough, but that quickly changed.
I’d also recommend being open to a more rural area. You can always jump on a train to get to a bigger city. In a rural area you’ll likely be invited to festivals and bbqs, people are more open and friendly.
And be careful about asking for advice about it on the internet. There are a lot of extremely bitter people who either hate ALTs or hate living in Japan but won’t leave. That goes for my advice too, I had an extremely positive experience which I don’t think is at all out of the ordinary, but everyone is different.
Hey! I haven’t lived in Japan yet (just lurking because I’m curious), but I moved abroad right after graduating college to teach English. If you want to chat about that aspect, let me know, though of course I won’t be able to give advice on Japan specifically.
If you’re at all interested in moving abroad, do it. Worst case scenario, it’s not for you, and you move back home/somewhere else and get a new job. That’s much better than spending your whole life wondering what it’d be like to move abroad, and odds are, even if you have a bad experience there will be good times and you’ll at least learn a lot about yourself, the world, and adulting, haha.
Best of luck to you!
Applications for JET (the best pay and most secure) start in September to leave the following April or July depending on when you want to go. Other teaching gigs won’t give you enough time or money to travel and enjoy yourself.
I will say though you will be forking out an average of about ¥200,000 when you arrive for apartment and set up costs so take that into account.
Don’t worry about how long you spend somewhere. People think they’re “missing out” on careers and moving up when in reality it doesn’t work like that. Plenty of time to study and/or find a job you like.
1. Yes, probably. For ALT, JET is the best; Interac is easier to get into. As for eikaiwa, well … just don’t work for Gaba or Nova, and you’ll do okay. That leaves ECC, Aeon, and Berlitz – aka, The Big Three.
2. I assume so? If you don’t plan to be a teacher, then you’re not likely to sweat over the aspects of the job that make it a bad deal for people who do want to teach.
3. Not likely, and it’s not very hard to spin that year in a positive way that will impress future employers. After all, working abroad gets you exposure to other cultures which is always a good thing.
4. This is hard to predict. Eikaiwa work you pretty hard, 8 lessons a day, and don’t really allow much vacation. ALT is strictly 9 to 5, gets school vacation time, but is lower pay and possibly more work – whether you are asked to do a lot of extras that require overtime will depend on your placement. In that sense, JET is best since it’s a government program so it strictly regulated. There is a subreddit for JET, I believe – go look them up and ask your questions there.
>I have no clue what I want to do
Wow, the poster boy of the current generation.
If you don’t know what to do, how about you seek a guidance councilor who can at least help you define your character traits, abilities, aptitudes, and so on, and so forth…
Later, you can decide what you ‘can’ do, for a better lack of words, and then decide if Japan is right for you.
Being that you are indecisive, I can guarantee you wouldn’t last a month in this era post crapvid, really!!
Don’t worry about Japan hurting your job prospects, you don’t seem that you can last for the period of your contract…
xD You crack me up, boy!! xD
You have more demands than an uptown girl!
Most of us here in Japan are self-sufficient, we learn to take the whims as they come. You seem to be the type that needs a silver spoon. The other types typically flee within the first month, the indecisive ones. They think Japan is Japanimation land. I hope you don’t think this place is anime. Get ready for the backstabbing in the workplace.
Do you know how to shutdown a hostile co-worker spreading lies about you?
Do you know how to be left alone to your own devices?
Do you know how to garner respect from your team members?
No, you don’t….
I don’t care about your sissy ass jobs back in the West, the fight is real here in Japan, another whiny gaijin is detrimental.
You can do your job better than the Japanese, in fact, make it look easy, but then, outta nowhere, there will be a fork in the road, how do you handle it?
How do you set the seeds in for salvation?
The way I look at you now son… You seem to have the capacity of a 13 year-old, you may be 26, but the way you talk it’s like a Jr. High student with no aim.
They gonna eat you up some, they going to gaslight you, and create more self-doubt than you already had.
I haven’t been to Japan (yet!), but I recently returned to the US from a year teaching in South Korea, and I think your plan sounds great and you should go for it!
1. Unsure, because I haven’t taught in Japan.
2. Honestly, probably yes. That was me as well and although there were certainly a number of things that got under my skin, but the thought that I’d be done in a year made it easier to swallow.
3. Noooooo, actually in my experience having a year of working abroad has been a big benefit (my field is arts non-profits). Obviously that depends on your industry, but if you’re planning to stay in the nonprofit sector when you return, it’s probably going to help. Like someone else mentioned, it’s easy to spin it in a very positive way, and it definitely looks better than spending a year as a barista or waiting tables in your home country. It also shows that you’re comfortable with people from different backgrounds, open-minded, ready for challenges, and responsible. I’m also older than you (29), so at your age I think you really have nothing to worry about.
4. Again, I’m unsure about this one too, but based on my own research it sounds like being an ALT might offer the most free time. I could be wrong, though!
Best of luck to you!
Since you want to work only a year, I recommend an ALT dispatch position, especially since you weren’t too keen to wait for JET. I had an interview with Office Global Support in Nagano, and they were lovely. You have to drive and it is countryside though, which is why I ultimately turned it down (driving gives me anxiety, lol). But the office culture seemed really good and they have better ratings than some big companies. Also better pay. Altia has a pretty good rep. Interac hires all the time due to people leaving or going on maternity leave (mostly leaving let’s be honest). Do not go for Borderlink cause there’s too much unpaid time. Interac will be spring break unpaid (anywhere from a week to a month pretty much).
Companies aside: Aichi Board of Education is reallllly good. I worked in Nagoya, and I had so many “work days” (essentially on call days) with Interac. It didn’t effect my pay, but I had more time to explore locally if I didn’t get called into work and to do things like lol laundry. I also was more serious about my work at the time, so I did do professional development. I also loved my schools in Nagoya. Nagoya is rated Japan’s most boring city, but schools are great from what I experienced and you can make day trips to Gifu and other places easily. Highly recommend Nakasendo Road – Tsumago and Magome for a little hike! If you live in a sharehouse like Sharehouse 180 you can save money on rent.
If you work JET, you will have more paid leave, but you will have “Board of Education days.” My friends hate them haha. You can use paid leave to just enjoy going out at those times since from what I hear you do not have much to do in the office…
Whatever you do, you will have more time to enjoy your life in Japan as an ALT than if you go for a conversation school or kindergarten, most likely.
Good luck!