This is an update to this post: [Got 990 out of 990 points on TOEIC test, is it of any worth? How can I make the most out of it?](https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/ua0cb7/got_990_out_of_990_points_on_toeic_test_is_it_of/)
Hey, I tried to put that TOEIC Certificate to use, and trying everyone’s advice from my last post.
Tried teaching English, marketing myself to English Schools as a 990TOEIC big-brain guy, applying and going to more interviews than ever before in my life, slapping myself to be more confident… And here’s the results:
The ups is, I took the JLPT N2 Test hoping to just get the certificate, and surprise, I got full-marks again!
Just… not on the entire test, only at the Reading and Listening sections. How I got full-marks on Reading and 50% on the Kanji/Vocabulary section beats me, but anyway… Got the certificate, and “66% full-marks”. Yay!
And… the ups are over.
I left my job washing Nursing Homes’ pooped equipment to job hunt, and yeah… I can’t find anything.
I have organized my job hunting on Trello, creating one card for each place I apply, then organizing the interviews schedules and etc. I have now 86 cards from the last 4 months, with about 82 negatives and 4 to be decided.
I tried freelance Teaching English through on-line Teacher Listing websites, but no student had me for more than the first free lesson, for which I paid my own transport. Having a Japanese face due to being a Japanese Descendant, or being Brazilian, I can imagine the reasons. I did teach music for 10 years, shouldn’t be my teaching skills. But who knows.
What hurts the most is I have been denied jobs with my Native Language (Brazilian Portuguese) and been told my writing sucks (for Localization and Marketing jobs). Not that I can prove otherwise here, but getting all those full-marks on other languages and being told I suck on my own native language… sucks.
I applied to so many Agencies and Referral companies, even those specialized on foreigners with N2, and nothing. They keep sending me positions for Web Engineers with at least 3 years of experience, or front-desk jobs that need me to sleep at the hotel “for emergencies” while not being paid. It has been a waste of e-mail folder space.
Besides the Portuguese Language weird situation, most of places gave me a “We liked you, but we chose someone with more experience in the field.” answer. Maybe trying to start at 30YO is too late.
Unemployment Insurance is ending next month, then God knows what I will do. I am stuck on a 60k rent apartment from a previous life, but with no income. Back to cleaning pissed mattresses is all my head can picture now.
Probably this sounds like a rant… Maybe it is. But things haven’t been fun lately, sorry for this.
Hopefully, I will have a better update next time.
8 comments
I guess the question is, what do you WANT to do for work? What skills do you currently have? What can you work towards?
Being trilingual is awesome, but isn’t really a job on it’s own (unless you solely want to do translation or interpretation).
If you got full marks on reading and listening you should be able to get N1 this december by studying mainly for Vocab so you could aim for that next which can open a lot more opportunities for japanese jobs.
Regarding your job situation, my SO was going through the same thing where they couldn’t find a good job. First thing you need to do is understand what job type you want, what are your certifications or experiences that show the employer that you can do THAT job. Also even though job searching websites work,think about different companies that are around your neighborhood or that you have seen and who may be hiring people. I’m talking all these 大和アーツ株式会社 might need workers but they are not actively searching for them so if you contact them they might be open to interviewing.
Also get some feedback on your Resume, that might be keeping you from getting better opportunities.
If got 990 TOEIC maybe you could try job hunting in Europe?
Portugal is a good place to start, since they speak Portuguese.
I’m in the same position as you OP, got 990 on TOEIC and N1, going to graduate from a Japanese university next year. But since I’m not a native speaker of both EN and JP, not good enough. Still nothing going on for me in terms of getting a job. This shit really sucks the soul out of you
Have you tried airport ground staff? I know the pay isn’t fantastic but they’re always looking for multilingual staff and the travel benefits are nice. Sounds better than poopy mattresses at least.
this is just my completely random guess, but how does your English actually sound when you speak it? what kind of accent do you use? put differently, have you tried cosplaying as a British or American accent? you obviously have the skills, but is that what you display to those listening to you?
Well, I used to be a hiring manager at Reuters. That was awhile ago, but I can tell you that TOEIC 990 absolutely does mean something. Foreign managers who need English-speaking staff specifically look at the TOEIC and I would not -in fact really could not- look at anyone who had less than an 800 for some roles and 900 for others.
I think your problem is you are thinking of TOEIC in terms of ESL teaching, which probably doesn’t work well because your competition is native English speakers. If you are applying for jobs where English is needed in addition to Japanese (or Brazilian Portuguese for that matter), then you skills are very, very helpful.
In my current company, we had an IT guy that was a high-level English speaker and a business level Japanese speaker. He’s Brazilian/Japanese. He quit for an even better job.
Maybe look into 派遣 type jobs? Especially if you don’t have much office work experience in Japan yet, it’s an easy way to get your foot into the door. It’s what I did, actually. Had N1 and 990 on the TOEIC and really wanted to get a normal office job.