I recently moved to and found a job lined up that I found through a recruiter. It was a four month contract job with possibility for extension based on performance, and I decided to go for it since I was interested in it. After passing the interviews, I was excited to get started, but a week before the start date, the recruiter told me that my instructor visa would not cut it, and the company would not wait for me to get a visa change processed.
I decided to frantically search for a teaching job and found a direct hire JHS & HS solo teaching job. They said a teacher will be quitting on them and they are urgently looking for a replacement. The working days and hours are listed as Monday to Friday, 8:00-17:00 with 16 lessons a week plus departmental responsibilities and some clubs.
They will be inviting me for a more extensive in-person interview next week which will include a mock lesson. I am not sure if they are going to offer me a salary between now and then, but if it comes to the point where they ask me how much I would be expecting per month, what should I say?
I was getting around 250,000 every month (no August skip or proration) with dispatch and do not know how much English teachers in private JHS & HSs make.
Some advice would be greatly appreciated.
Edit: Forgot to mention that JLPT N2 is considered an asset, which I have. I am not sure if this gives me the right to ask for more.
11 comments
As a direct hire ALT I’d say around 300,000 a month.
From my experience, private school salaries fall into one of three categories
1. Commensurate with age, meaning your salary essentially only depends on how old you are.
2. A two to three tiered salary system where you can get a set amount more per month based on any qualifications you have (such as a proper teaching license).
3. A salary set in stone. Take it or leave it.
Take this with a grain of salt (it is based solely on my own experience, after all), but note that in all three of these options, salary negotiations are nonexistent. They will almost certainly **not** ask you how much you expect per month. That just isn’t really done in Japan, or at least not in the teaching industry. If you get good vibes at the interview and they offer you a salary you would be ok with, I would be very wary about trying to negotiate for more money.
I remember interviewing for a job like this and the starting salary becasue of my age at the time was 230kmonth, which was considerably less than i was already earning. The job sounded fun, but i would have been broke for years.
Whatever it is, stop dealing in months, and start dealing with annual salaries.
I did a job like this for awhile. The monthly salary was around 250,000 before tax and such was deducted, but I got three bonuses a year as well as a housing allowance, heating allowance, and some others. So really my annual salary was closer to 4 million.
However, I think the pay was low for how much work I had to do. I was expected to work as hard as the Japanese teachers, which meant endless meetings, grading, overtime work, weekend work, homeroom duties, etc. I liked the responsibility and freedom to run my own classes at first, but the extra work outside of class really wore me down.
Depends where you’re based, but in Tokyo the going rate for that kind of job is around 300k. Try asking for 320?
You may want to push them a little on the working hours to get a straight answer. Because if you’re working the same hours as a regular Japanese teacher, you might want to expect 300k to 400k per month.
But seeing as it’s a 4 month contract, they probably are expecting to pay you something pitiful from the get go. Remember you could always do eikaiwa for 5 hours less per week at 270k/month so don’t let them rip you off too much.
I found they usually decided it by age when o cost negotiated my wage. So if you’re 30 ask for 30man a month etc
Private school solo-teaching positions really vary in terms of salary, benefits, and responsibilities. Some schools pay no better than shady dispatch ALT companies with no or laughable bonuses despite being hired as a teacher with a full-time schedule and responsibilities while others pay well with decent bonuses and benefits.
To give you an example of a respectable deal, a former coworker started as a dispatch English teacher (not ALT) but was eventually hired directly by the private school where she was being dispatched. Her starting salary as a full-time direct-hire teacher was 400,000 yen a month plus two bonuses a year totalling two million yen. (ETA: full-time position but not homeroom teacher) Her salary and bonuses have only increased since she started working a few years ago as a direct hire.
Yes, she ended up with more responsibilities outside of the classroom, but she actually had fewer lessons per week than she did as a dispatch teacher. She still gets quite lengthy holidays during the spring, summer, and winter breaks between regular PTO, special summer PTO, and other special paid leave allowances throughout the year.
Before getting tenure I was getting 375k/mo plus various stipends and 3 month’s bonus per year at one private school and just under that at the one before.
There’s no room for negotiation. It’s decided by the institution so you either take it or leave it. If it’s a reputable school it will be good for your resume and build your experience.
Use JET as a basic standard when considering how good an offer is, maybe about 350,000/month but it varies. A general range might be 250,000 (young/old , no experience, desperate) to 450,000 (middle age range, experienced, well positioned) The work will tell you what they offer, normally. Only rarely can you negotiate. Btw N2 can get you some decent translation work.