I’m on a student visa about to graduate and I landed a job at a small eikaiwa (no prior professional work experience). The owner was (is) very kind, and the eikaiwa perfectly fit my personal needs, as they also offered a furnished apartment close to the school, visa, help with move-in, all that. They wanted me to start training a week after the interview (tomorrow).
Cut to today, I get a phone call from the owner saying that the current native teacher canceled their plans to move back home and now the best he can offer is a part-time position (no housing, no visa support)… I was very clear with him that I canceled several job interview offers after accepting your job offer because you and another Japanese worker (his wife?) offered me this job… (I didn’t say:) I understand that the native teacher’s plans changed but come on. You guys have apparently been on a search for a month for a new native teacher. You set me up to think that everything post-graduation is set. Now, on top of finishing up my MA thesis, I have to worry about my university who’s gonna be up my a** asking when I’m changing my student visa/when I’m moving back home.
I literally have nothing back “home”. I’ve been in Japan since 2019, have no savings and no (financial, emotional) support from family. I have a partner in Japan who is going through their own financial binds in a separate prefecture (we were supposed to move in together eventually).
I really want to stay in Japan. I don’t know what to do. There was nothing in writing stating that I got hired, but I feel like they really put me into a F-ed situation. I already interviewed with 4 other (larger, well-known companies), and canceled 3 other interviews, but ended up choosing the school which no longer needs me, of COURSE. I feel so lost. I don’t know what to do. I already emailed the “good news” to my MA advisor who has been worried about my job situation and now I have to tell him that I’m back to square one, +burned bridges with several other companies who supposedly “hire anyone”.
Dude I’m so dumb. I feel so stupid and worthless. I feel like my future took a dark turn and there’s no hope.
9 comments
Since you’re in a bind already, it can’t hurt to reach out to the people you cancelled on. The worst they can say is no, which doesn’t worsen your current situation.
This kind of shit happens. Nothing is for sure until you sign the contract. Hope something works out.
Well that was a pretty shitty thing that they did. I am thinking the current teacher gave notice a long time ago, so why do they think it’s ok to do this to the person they chose to replace them?
I had a similar to thing happen (although not quite as devastating). My school told me – after I bought my airplane ticket – that they just didn’t need me till a month after we had originally agreed upon. There was not a whisper of this before, and I actually told them I bought the ticket two days before they told me that they no longer needed me. Anyway if I was you I’d just try to get a couple of part- time jobs if you can until you find a full- time gig. The housing part sucks the most though. You’ll have to rent an apartment at a guest house or something, which is what I did for almost two months. Going from place to place and living out of a suitcase. Good luck to you, I really feel for you.
Lesson learned … never quit a job or stop interviewing until after you’ve signed the contract. Otherwise, you’re on shaky legal ground to sue (no evidence in your favor) and there isn’t much you can do about it.
I’d reach out to the interviewers you cancelled on and be honest about why you’re contacting them again.
I’m sorry this happened to you. Good luck finding another position.
Isnt there a visa extension for students who want to stay an extra 3 months to job hunt?
> I literally have nothing back “home”
It sounds like you have family, a citizenship, native proficiency in the local language, an intuitive understanding of the culture, presumably you still have friends you can rekindle things with from high school… and in Japan you have a student visa that’s about to expire and a partner who was apparently counting on moving in with *you* in an apartment that’s tied to an eikaiwa job.
Those two are not equal.
I could be wrong, but I’m assuming you’re white and American because you sound white and American. You have that complete cluelessness about the value of social resources and that sense of self-victimhood that white Americans just seem to ooze with.
You’ve just completed a Master’s degree and you’re making a multi-paragraph rant about how an Eikaiwa dicked you. Of course they dicked you—they’re an Eikaiwa. Outside the corporate ones (which are their own breed of hell) these are mostly bottom of the barrel mom and pop shops with barely enough resources to stay afloat. The furnished apartment is probably a 20,000/mo single-room concrete bunker mansion across from a noisy train station and the “furniture” is a single kotatsu and a camping cot with a futon on it, and some hand-me-down appliances if you’re lucky, and they’re just subletting it to you off the books.
You’re applying for *that* with a Master’s. Come on. If you undervalue yourself that much right out the door from college, no one will ever take you seriously.
Either line up an actual Teacher job at an international school or line up work with your university, or go home, make up with your family and friends (it’s not that hard, I promise), and explore your options from the safety of a nice warm bed (even if that bed happens to be your second cousin’s couch). You have no concept of how much worse off you will be with no resources and no connections in a country you are not native to than in your home country with people you’ve had years-long relationships with.
This is coming from someone who did exactly what I’m advising you not to do.
There’s plenty of Eikaiwa jobs, don’t worry. They need you more than you need them.
I think you can change your visa to a “Designated Activities” visa. This visa will allow you to stay in Japan for 6 months and can be extended for an additional 6 months. [https://we-xpats.com/en/guide/as/jp/detail/10950/#3.%20For%20Graduates%20from%20Japanese%20Universities%20&%20Graduate%20Schools%E3%80%8C%E7%89%B9%E5%AE%9A%E6%B4%BB%E5%8B%95%EF%BC%8846%E5%8F%B7%EF%BC%89%EF%BC%89](https://we-xpats.com/en/guide/as/jp/detail/10950/#3.%20For%20Graduates%20from%20Japanese%20Universities%20&%20Graduate%20Schools%E3%80%8C%E7%89%B9%E5%AE%9A%E6%B4%BB%E5%8B%95%EF%BC%8846%E5%8F%B7%EF%BC%89%EF%BC%89)
Are things that bad that the only job you could find after graduating from a Japanese university is at an eikaiwa? What did you study?