Hello everyone!
I’m having a ‘light’ and quite early crisis about my job. I wonder if someone has any advice for me.:(
Background: i work as a preschool teacher here in nara for about 3 years now. Before that, I worked in an international school for 2 years… and before coming to Japan I also worked at a preschool with special needs kids. I studied early childhood education in uni and also finished my degree as a social worker.
Where I’m from, my work is mostly seen as important and I do feel the same here. I love my work and what I do, but recently I have been feeling quite depressed about carrier opportunities.
I understand that I’ll never have the chance of making “a lot” of money (I also knew that from the beginning) and I don’t work just for the money -BUT since my family back home needs support and I’m trying to keep everything together here as well, i was wondering what I can do to earn more money.
I work at a really wonderful school – they are happy to have me there and I’m also already part of the management. But the salary is quite low and it doesn’t seem that I’ll be able to earn more. I’m aware I won’t get to a level of someone who studied IT for example – whenever I check job listings they offer about 250k or less for my position.
I’m thinking of taking a side job maybe or something similar – but I also need time for private life so I’m a bit worried about that too.
Sorry for the long text, i was just wondering – does anyone have an idea what I could do – as a side job maybe? Are there any other carrier opportunities here? My Japanese is N2, so not perfect, but I’m studying. I’d appreciate any advice or opinion.:)
Thank you ♥️
8 comments
Vanilla, unskilled eikaiwa is a commodity. To the student who just wants vanilla eikaiwa, or the school providing it, a 50-year-old industry veteran and a 20-year-old on working holiday are equally capable. So you’re right that the pay ceiling is not too high.
Private lessons are probably the easiest way to supplement your income, but depends on your situation regarding your main employer and taxes.
The most important question is what do you want to do? If you enjoy teaching, and want to do it until you retire, there are 2 ways to make more money. You can do 1 or both.
1. Get more certifications like a masters and find a job that requires that. University teaching, training corporations to make English presentations etc.
2. Use your charisma to get private lessons on the side. If you make good impressions on enough people and learn how to run a business, you can open your own school. There are some people on this subreddit who have done this.
Find a good international school, they pay a bit better.
Are you qualified to teach kindergarten? If so, I recommend getting your IB qualifications and apply for international schools for possible better pay.
On the other hand, if you really want to stay at your current job, definitely look into private tutoring.
What is a Hokushi? My friend did it. Day care from 0 to just before the kids start elementary. You are officially recognized. Everyone is welcome to critique me on this I have only my friends experience to go by.
Sounds legit. Maybe something worth pursuing
My wife teaches kindergarten in a large American international school in central Tokyo and her salary is 7m a year. I would get some IB experience and look in Tokyo, with your experience you could get a job at yoyogi, TIS or somewhere as a decent stepping stone job before applying to ASIJ or st Mary’s etc
Chances = low
In general its not a highly valued skill to work in a preschool or with special needs kids for most Japanese.
So if you want bigger pay, need to go where those skills are valued more especially special needs. That means mostly working with wealthy expats families. Out in nara I imagine these types of jobs are very few. Test prep is easy enough to specialize in or tutoring is another good option.
getting teaching license and certs like IB will help bump your salary. honestly the best is by switching schools/companies is the best way for salary increase. also try for managerial, head, or admin positions – might take some volunteering to start off
If you like your job and want to stay and are happy just supplementing with part time work on weekends or evenings for example, babysitting actually pays pretty well here. I know cause we have a sitter we like and she makes 2000 yen an hour (which is more than i make 😂) She works at a nursery school as well and does sitting on the side and always books up.
Maybe you’d need to work a bit on your Japanese but if you’re bilingual I would think a bilingual sitter would be in demand and make even more than 2000 an hour…
On a related note, thank you for your hard work. I’d happily pay more for my daughters preschool if it meant a direct increase in her teachers salaries. You do life saving work!