So I just got my rejection e-mail from Borderlink and honestly I’m kinda
flabbergasted. I’ll admit I’m not deep into the ALT culture but from some
cursory research that seemed to be widely recognized as the bottom of the
barrel in terms of hiring scrutiny. Of course I also know of the deplorable
working conditions and substandard pay, but I thought at the very least it was
something I could fall back on. I’ve worked jobs where I’ve put in 10+ hours a
day, and I don’t get frustrated about working with people (or children, in this
case)—it’s not a walk in the park by any means, but I can deal.
Nevertheless I haven’t been able to attract the interest I thought I could as
an articulate native English speaker. I cast a pretty wide net to start;
registered on the biggest gaijin job forums and applied to every pedagogic
position I was qualified for. Up to this point I’d only received a response
from Borderlink though, and with that avenue now exhausted I’m not really sure
where to go from here.
Some of the things (I thought) I had going for me were:
– Native English speaker w/ an American accent
– Have the required Bachelor’s degree
– No tattoos, don’t smoke or have any other vices
– Extremely flexible with where I work (pretty much anywhere)
– Willing to work long, hard hours
– Affable and extremely cooperative, not one to “rock the boat”
– I have ample funds to support myself once I get there
although I recognized there were also some things that might hinder me,
including:
– I’m half Japanese (on my Dad’s side, so I’ve also inherited the surname), and I’ve been told by some I look full; from my understanding a lot of places want instructors to have the “foreign” look
– My Japanese is practically nonexistent (actively studying)
– And, as I mentioned, I have no prior experience teaching
In retrospect, I did essentially zero preparation for the second interview
which may have been one of the issues. I assumed as long as I showed up early,
was well-dressed, and made my competence apparent that I’d be fine, but I guess
that’s not the case. Of course I bombed the part where they tested my command
of Japanese, but beyond that I also don’t think I handled the demo lesson the
best I could’ve, and I was also unprepared when they asked me what I would do
if I received a competing offer during my employment and fumbled my response a
bit. I wasn’t sure exactly what they expected of me in regards to the former,
so I simply explained my hypothetical process and how I would engage the
students, and then performed a simple nursery song, both of which the
interviewer seemed happy with (of course you can never really tell). The latter
I had to ponder for a couple seconds before I decided to go with saying that
I’d consult my manager or supervisor—a bit of a weak-ass response when they
probably wanted some sort of affirmation of my loyalty. I thought the rest of
the interview went pretty smoothly, but as I said I didn’t have any
expectations going into this so I might be unknowingly omitting some other
gaffes.
Sorry for the long-winded rant; I’ve sorta reached a nadir in life and (as
fucked up as it may sound, considering the supposed treatment at a lot of these
ALT positions) I was hoping this could offer a change of pace. I’m still
optimistic I can find something, but I was wondering if you guys had any other
advice that might be helpful. Working and living in another country,
specifically Japan, is something I’m really determined to do while I’m still
young (24), before I have too many responsibilities and gotta settle down a bit.
Thanks!