Alright, looking at a teaching job in Japan and I have two offers. One is with NOVA and the other is with Borderlink. Gabba also made an offer but it’s Gabba, I’m not fooling myself there as I’m looking at full time work. Which should I go with? I know neither are perfect, but as an entry level job I’m not sure who to go with. I’m kind of paranoid as I never done anything like this before. Been advised to become an ALT or possible just go to a master’s program ASAP.
14 comments
I would do neither and just keep applying until you got an offer from a non-black company.
They’re both bad honestly, but with NOVA you’ll get the humanities visa, which is more flexible and convenient when you try to change jobs . With borderlink you’ll get the instructor visa which has less flexibility.
It really boils down to how you wanna spend your time.
GABA you will teach mostly adults but your schedule is going to be terrible.
Nova is the same as gaba but with kids
Borderlink you will most likely have a M-F schedule each week but you may end up under someone’s thumb with zero autonomy (assuming you have any teaching experience and care).
Personally I would go for borderlink. I’m a credentialed and experienced teacher and despite loving my time with adult students, I would sacrifice it all for a M-F 8-4 schedule.
Also find out if your Nova is a franchise or not. They usually treat you a lot better than corporate. I worked for pretty normal family who owned a few Novas around their hometown.
Borderlink.
Short sleeve or long sleeve?
As someone who has experienced being at one of those companies, the correct answer is neither. The top post says the humanities visa from NOVA is easier to change jobs with, but with either you’ll have a foot in the door if you want to stay longer and most places would rather hire someone here who already has a visa than to go through the entire process of issuing a COE and everything else that involves. I recommend doing the master’s program, since ALT salaries have gone down significantly in recent years and aren’t about come back up any time soon.
I work for BL, you make no money, I’ve been working for them for 4 months and I’ve received 1 paycheck, and it was incorrect. That’s standard ALT life, you work the first 3 months for nothing then they combine 2 paychecks into 1 then pay you for 1 month after you leave.
BL does however care about my wellbeing, they’ve taken me to many medical appointments for some random annoying stuff that has come up.
But yeah, BL higher-ups don’t care about you at all. I never worked for NOVA so I can’t speak on that. But I do have like 4 hours off each day (at work) and I work on my projects there, so I really can’t complain too much.
ALT = tons of time off but broke
Eikawa = not much time off but make 2x as much as ALT
Shit or Piss?
The answer is JET.
I’ve had a bit of a negative experience with NOVA during the interviewing process where I asked specifically to stay at one school which was promised to me but upon my job offer, they requested I work at three schools all quite far from each other. My friend currently works there and while she does enjoy it, she is frustrated by the low pay and is moving actually to Borderlink.
I am currently at GABA and yes, stay far away. It’s not a bad job at all by any means but right now, the demand for student is so tough that I am seeing even experienced teachers struggling to make any lessons which equals any money. I do quite enjoy working there and I totally agree with the teaching style but it certainly is not a job for just anyone.
I think with any English teaching job under any big company, it’s always a risk. Sometimes you will get a good outcome and sometimes it’s bad. If you’re coming with hardly any experience then you probably and honestly need to suck it up for a year and get the process of the teaching English to the Japanese public before you can jump ship and find better opportunities. You will still definitely learn a lot, for example the expectations of Japanese students which honestly is not going to differ too much for any company.
Good luck on your search though.
I read Altia is ok as well, not sure.
Neither. Both are sketchy
Avoid Gaba, they are having lots of issues and owned by NOVA anyway. Take borderlink. ALT work will give u better schedule. Pick up a second job, learn japanese and decide your career path in Japan. If you want to stay in teaching start planning CPD, vary your experience and consider a masters.