Hello! I’m a college student in Tokyo who is planning to start looking for full-time work soon. I’ve been teaching at a small eikaiwa part-time and my employer was kind enough to provide me with a letter of recommendation. I was originally planning to submit it along with other application materials hoping that it would boost my chances and make me more appealing to potential employers (especially since I would be applying for similar jobs). However, I’ve come across some job hunting websites/blogs (not necessarily Japan, nor teaching, oriented) stating that this is generally not the practice and that it’s not recommended to submit extra documents such as references/recommendation letters unless the company explicitly asks for them. So I was hoping to see the consensus here was and maybe hear some of your job hunting experiences.
2 comments
What kind of job? If it’s something English teaching related, you won’t need anything like that. Just a diploma will suffice
If you are applying for eikaiwa jobs, I highly doubt they will even bother to check your references.
The only pertinent questions are,
1. Are you alive?
2. Are you somewhat socially aware and not completely socially inept?
That’s about it. They could care less if you have experience or qualifications, since they aren’t needed.