Are there no recruiters that deal with teachers from outside the country in Japan? (also a question about something that seems sketchy)

Hi! Got to say that it feels like I am asking something here every 2 days, sorry if this is an inconvenience. 🙂

First of all, I have to admit that I am not really well versed in how recruiting works.

I have my CV up on Dave’s ELS Cafe after people here recommended it to me. Ever since uploading it, I have been contacted, to my surprise, by Chinese and Vietnamese recruiters.

I am not saying that I expect Japanese recruiters to just jump on me once they see my CV, but I seem to be unable to even find them if I am actively looking. Especially the ones that deal with teachers.

I am talking about actual people that I can contact individually. I can find sites, but I think having somebody personally help you is much better since I can’t really check every single school in Japan to see what they have to offer, in anything at all. It seems that other countries do have this practice.

So, do those even exist? Do I have to just deal with sites. What I am saying is that somebody did at least deal with me personally in other places even if they were mostly using automated messages. The problem is that there has to be an amazing offer for me to go to places like China.

Also, I did have somebody contact me regarding positions all across the globe, they said the have contacts in Japan too, and proceeded to send me a basic copy paste of the first teaching job you can find on Google. (funny enough it was in a University so I didn’t even fit the Master’s requirement)

Gabriel Adkins from golden staffing, I keep seeing bad reviews about him, is there anybody who actually got something in Japan through him? Since he is asking for money I am 99% sure it is a scam but I want to check if anybody got help from him.

If anyone could let me know if I have a completely wrong idea about recruiting or if I am searching in the wrong places (such as linkedin) I would appreciate it, Thanks! 🙂

6 comments
  1. The English teaching industry in Japan doesn’t use recruiters. The companies just hire directly. Enough people apply to every single opening that it isn’t worth it for companies and schools to pay a cut to a recruiter when they just have to post an ad to get hundreds and hundreds of CVs.

  2. Unqualified teachers (for ALT and eikaiwa) are a dime a dozen wanting to come to Japan for the lowest possible salary, so no need for recruiting there. For proper teaching jobs, schools are slowly closing over time/cutting costs so the amount of qualified teachers in Japan are fighting for the good jobs already, as far as I’m aware.

  3. You want to teach PE? Do you have a certification to do so? International schools won’t even look at you unless you do.

  4. Aeon and ECC are both Eikaiwas that recruit overseas. The JET program hires ALTs overseas if you prefer that route. JET is generally better, but postings are rural and it’s more competitive.

    Interac is another option for ALT work, but the pay is worse AFAIK.

  5. My school actively uses recruiters, but they would not consider someone outside the country. All sorts of reasons for that (most of which I don’t agree with) but probably the biggest of which is not wanting to risk all the work associated with bringing someone in just for them to hate Japan and leave after 3 months/a year.

    The market for qualified teachers already in Japan looking for work seems to be getting smaller so maybe it will change, but think a site such as Schrole is better than someone claiming to be able to find you a school.

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