So I’ve been browsing this reddit for a little while and one thing I see often in the comments is how ALT work doesn’t look good on your resume. (Some even saying it’s a stain.)
I was curious if anyone could expand on that a bit. For background, I graduated with a bachelor’s in TESL and I’m an ALT currently after 2 years of working in the US after school due to COVID causing issues. In the future, I would like to go to graduate school either for translation or education (I’m still debating which route to go).
I became an ALT because I wanted to work in Japan and improve my Japanese before going to grad school with the hope of working in Japan longterm. (And I find teaching English enjoyable) But now after seeing comments from past and current ALTs themselves, I am a little worried about my path.
Thanks for time and any answer/advice is helpful!
20 comments
I don’t see it hurting your resume at all. Especially if you plan on going into education. But a lot of places won’t count it as T1 experience at least
it doesn’t. but its not teaching experience either. eikaiwa or alt is neither teaching nor coaching. its like taking an exchange program, actually. you can show off that you’ve lived and experience different culture. its similar to working with mcdonalds. cant be proud of that, won’t tarnish your resume, skills improved is related to diddly dick.
Obligatory not all situations; my ALT experience has helped me a little in my current job (for when I do events for kids or English language events for adults in the city). But the other experiences and qualifications I was able to earn while working as an ALT were much more valuable I think.
I’ve also heard from an interviewer once that “if the only skill you’re trying to bring is being an EN/JP bilingual then forget about it. There are thousands of people like that already (and usually Japanese natives with better English). You need to have more specific skills or relevant experience for the job you actually want to do”
—-
I personally think for a lot of people, their end career goal has nothing to do with education or English teaching; so for them, it can be difficult because potential employers for various other fields don’t really look at ALT experience and count it for much. When you think about the day to day, how you actually spend your working hours, a lot of it doesn’t transfer well to other jobs. I think that’s why some people don’t think it helps build a resume.
The soft skills you make as an ALT certainly do. And of course there are some industries where you can argue your ALTing skills did help you / relate to the next job.
But for a lot of people, they have to be ready to accept the fact that 3-5 years of ALTing might still equal entry level jobs with entry level pay when you try and jump to a new industry.
It’s how you sell the experience to future employers. What skills did you learn? What challenges did you overcome and how? How well did you adapt to life in a society different from your own? Things like that.
Completely depends.
I did it for a few months in 2014 before returning back to the UK. My UK company saw it as an amazing experience overseas that shows a spirit for adventure and being able to adapt. They loved it. That was a bank as well for a decent job.
I did Eikaiwa for 5 years here in Japan before finding my job I do now and they didn’t really seem to care good or bad.
Then again, if I was 50 with nothing but eikaiwa on my resume I’d imagine it could raise some flags.
Really depends on many things.
At my current position (direct hire private JH/HS) I would say it’s more of a benefit than anything (but as someone mentioned, it depends on how you sell it). We have quite a few former JETS (granted, they usually have other qualifications as well).
Many places really do put importance on in-country experience (even if it’s just an assistant position).
If you’re going into education, no. If you’re going into something else, it might just look like a hole in your CV.
It depends on your level of involvement and how you spin that for your next step.
The last couple years I was an ALT (when I was transferred from JET to direct hire at a private school), I still did ALT work in classes, but I also had several solo classes in which I designed curriculum, tests, etc. (only English electives/non-mandatory classes). I was heavily involved in designing/grading and doing English interviews for entrance exams. I was also assigned as ALT supervisor and was in charge of scheduling ALTs in classes and orientation upon arrival.
I could think of a lot of ways to the skills I gained could be applicable to future jobs. But my ability to get these skills was dependent on how involved my school allowed me to be.
In my case, I finished being an ALT in the late 00s and came back to the UK.
For me, it was an *enormous* boon to my CV, because, if nothing else, it acted as an interesting conversation starter in every interview I had afterwards (“oh, you worked in Japan? How did that happen?”). I also found my first post-Japan job at a company who frequently had to entertain visitors from a major Japanese company, and my “office Japanese” came in extremely handy (the CFO believed we landed several contracts due to this).
However, my next jobs were *not* in teaching, translation or international relations. This is important. During my time on JET I (similar to you, I suspect) was told that JET was well-known to people in those fields and *not* respected.
It’s also about how you sell it. How much did you grow or what did you do during your 5 years? Some ALTs do a lot of extracurricular activities, lesson planning, cultural activities, work on a new degree or on their Japanese, and so forth. Others just dial it in at work, then go home and stay home. Either is fine if that’s how you want to spend your time as an ALT.
However if you plan on staying in Japan, it’s worth keeping in mind that a future employer in Japan may ask what you did beyond your ALT work, and that’s when either you can dig into your bag of tricks in what else you did comes into play, or how good your BSing skills are.
Nah.
Of course, relevant skills, experience and credentials matter more, but it’s a conversation starter and there’s some soft skills we can infer from the gig.
It’s fine.
Being completely honest try not to stay TOO long in ALT or eikaiwa work if your intention is to eventually do something other than education within Japan.
Right now I’m in the process of job hunting in Japan after attending language school, and it does feel like a gap in my resume having over 4 years in ALT/eikaiwa work.
From my experience recruiters and companies ask detailed questions about my work before and after and just briefly state “I see you were an English teacher from xx-xx.” Yes you can sell the skills on your resume like presentation skills, planning, etc, but the thing is recruiters in Japan know what ALT / eikaiwa work is so it’s not really fooling many. Only really other eikaiwas / ALT dispatch companies showed interest in the experience.
Also I should mention I did one interview with an international school and they didn’t really regard ALT or eikaiwa work as real teaching experience, more of like related experience.
Yes
We are of the same mind haha, I came to Japan and pretty much did the plan youre proposing (3 years on JET as an ALT and ad-hoc CIR). I dont recommend translation at all as it pays peanuts and is about as dead-end as eikaiwa/juku, but its entirely up to you. Nothing wrong with ALT work if you see it as a stepping stone, itll only become a millstone around your neck if thats the only thing on your resume/done while on the job and you want to go into a different field entirely, as you don’t have a lot of leverage to convince an employer against someone else who speaks Japanese and specializes in said field. Grad school does help if there is a marketable skill you can pick up while youre there (i shopped around my data analysis skills from my masters into my current finance job). Get some extracurriculars/a cert or two/round out your Japanese (N1 for the well paying roles) and you should be fine. Best of luck
My LinkedIn is getting battered by companies in the UK who keep sending me requests to apply for roles even totally in unrelated work!
Most indutries/jobs, the longer you work the better it will be for your resume. For ALT/Eikawa, it’s the opposite. The longer you spend, the worse it is on your resume. 1 year ALT isn’t a problem but the more the years add up, the worse it’s going to be to find a better job.
There is good news. ALT/Eikawa is very easy work, so there’s no excuse to not get credentials, certificates, improve Japanese language etc. This is true whether you want to remain in education or not.
You do **NOT** want to be a 40 year old loser who has been working ALT/Eikawa for 10 years, can’t really speak Japanese and has no other experience on his/her resume. You will be in very sorry shape.
Depends what your ambitions are for afterwards.
I’m part of a process of trying to get teachers to teach maths/science/homeroom, and 3 years+ of doing ALT work is a negative rather than a positive when I get CVs.
I knew a guy who started what is still one of the big ALT companies and sold his stake and went back to America. He told me he’d never hire anyone who had been an ALT for more than 3 years.
I’m sure it could be an unpopular opinion, but if a goal was to enjoy being in Japan that’s great. I would look at it as something you had to explain rather than use to try and get a job later.
In my opinion the best way to explain it is to get N2+ Japanese and show that you were studying while working.
You just have to make the ALT experience into “HR language.”
Most HR recruiters do NOT know about the ALT industry. HR recruiters spend around 10 seconds looking at a resume.
It would be your job to “sell” the experience in an interview.
A lot of foreigners start out as ALTs and some of them go on to have good careers but the hard skill set that enables that wasn’t learned on the job as an ALT. Others love it so much that they become direct hire ALTs and enjoy a pretty enviable WLB in a country notorious for long hours. I don’t think anyone should be ashamed of having worked with energy and dedication, no matter what the job is.
I don’t think it’s particularly an asset to have on your resume but I think people exaggerate how much it “hurts” your resume.
After graduating uni, I moved to Japan and worked in a large chain eikaiwa in Tokyo for a little more than 2 years before moving to bilingual work in my desired industry in Japan after passing N2, which I’ve been doing for a little over 5 years now for a few different employers.
I have done a ton of job interviews/applications in Japan over the years and the time in eikaiwa nearly always comes up in the interviews because its completely unrelated to my desired field. I just always say that it was like a “post-uni gap year” kind of thing like a working holiday because I wanted to experience what it was like to live in Japan and study Japanese, which to be honest is pretty accurate. I speak positively and fondly about the eikaiwa time and interviewers are generally satisfied with that answer. I have never felt that interviewers considered it particularly valuable work experience but I haven’t encountered any interviewers who behaved as if it were a “stain” on my resume
Out of the maybe ~100 or so people I knew from my eikaiwa days, probably less than half or so have decided to stay in Japan long term, but nearly everyone I know has moved into non-English teaching work in Japan. I also have often met English native foreigners who started out in ALT or eikaiwa work themselves, so I expect it’s common enough.
Probably the fact that I was still in my 20s and my English teaching stint was short enough to spin as a working holiday-esque gap year (x2) helped. If I’d worked in eikaiwa for 10 years and was in my 30s I imagine it would’ve been a bit rougher.