Sorry, this is going to be a slight dump as my CV is a bit of an odd one.
I a 26-year old philosophy MA student from the UK, due to graduate in summer next year. My background was originally in transport/civil engineering: I already hold a 4-year MEng degree and 3.5 years in the industry. I always dreamed of pursuing a career in philosophy academia, so I used the time in industry to save for the degree I have now. My original plan was to go straight onto a PhD.
But on spending a month in Japan this summer, I realised I could move out there for a gap-year between my MA and my PhD. While this would be a phenomenal experience in itself, it would also give me time to read and research my potential PhD options. The question is: how would be best to fund this doing something that I would enjoy?
As I don’t speak Japanese currently, the English teaching route seems to be the most popular option. However, I’m not sure how much I would enjoy the formulaic nature of the role. What I have loved in my previous work is research, writing and problem solving (numerical and non-numerical). Plus a 40hr week would severely limit the time I’d have for my PhD prep or exploring the culture.
I’ve been looking at the Daiwa Scholarship but I get the impression it’s pretty competitive, so I’d like some other options too.
If I’m frugal, I should still have a million yen in the bank by next summer. Ideally, I’d want to either do part time work where I could have time to research before my PhD proposal; or to do something full-time which could enhance my CV in relation to academia or engineering.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
3 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Work for gap year between MA and PhD?**
Sorry, this is going to be a slight dump as my CV is a bit of an odd one.
I a 26-year old philosophy MA student from the UK, due to graduate in summer next year. My background was originally in transport/civil engineering: I already hold a 4-year MEng degree and 3.5 years in the industry. I always dreamed of pursuing a career in philosophy academia, so I used the time in industry to save for the degree I have now. My original plan was to go straight onto a PhD.
But on spending a month in Japan this summer, I realised I could move out there for a gap-year between my MA and my PhD. While this would be a phenomenal experience in itself, it would also give me time to read and research my potential PhD options. The question is: how would be best to fund this doing something that I would enjoy?
As I don’t speak Japanese currently, the English teaching route seems to be the most popular option. However, I’m not sure how much I would enjoy the formulaic nature of the role. What I have loved in my previous work is research, writing and problem solving (numerical and non-numerical). Plus a 40hr week would severely limit the time I’d have for my PhD prep or exploring the culture.
I’ve been looking at the Daiwa Scholarship but I get the impression it’s pretty competitive, so I’d like some other options too.
If I’m frugal, I should still have a million yen in the bank by next summer. Ideally, I’d want to either do part time work where I could have time to research before my PhD proposal; or to do something full-time which could enhance my CV in relation to academia or engineering.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
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>Ideally, I’d want to either do part time work where I could have time to research before my PhD proposal
Because you’re from the UK you could get a Working Holiday visa which would allow you to spend a year in Japan while working (or not) to your heart’s content.
A WHV is actually the *only* way that you could spend time in Japan working part time, as you can’t get a working visa for part time work.
You could also look into coming as a research student (if there’s a specific prof at a Japanese uni that does something similar to what you want to do for your PhD), which would allow you to work part-time (via the 28 hour student visa permission) while you would also be able to work on your proposal