This is my first post ever so bare with me.
A quick intro about myself, I have a Bachelor’s in Film (haha) from an American university. I’ve been teaching in Tokyo for about four years at an after-school cram school teaching kinder to high school students. I’m currently enrolled in a Master’s program for TESOL that’ll probably take me a couple years to finish because I work full-time. I currently make a fixed salary of 290,000 yen a month, working 35 hours a week, with a bonus of 100,000 yen once a year.
What type of career opportunities could I expect out of finishing up my TESOL, both salary and position wise. Any feedback is welcome! Thank you.
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Its the minimum requirement to work at a university. You will need experience, publications, and Japanese ability to apply to most serious universities. Eikaiwas wont give a hoot if you get one, they have one paygrade. You really need to network, and start attending local JALT meetings to get a feel for your local job market.
> What type of career opportunities could I expect out of finishing up my TESOL, both salary and position wise. Any feedback is welcome! Thank you.
My experience (having moved on from teaching) was…
– It’s aimed at getting you ESL jobs in the west. Basically, it’s the minimum requirement to teach pre-uni English courses or ESL courses at accredited language schools. It was my ticket home as it’s difficult to find work in the west when you’ve just spent 5 years ‘teaching English’ unless you’re qualified to do so. Jobs included things like being a university’s ‘event coordinator’ for new international students (showing them around + organising activities…etc) and delivering pre-uni English programs for international students. I had a job that paid about 700,000 yen a month doing this when I first returned to Australia. Most places offered me ~2000 yen an hour to come in and work casually though (same-same as eikaiwa).
– The highest paid work I got out of it involved teaching literacy programs in Australian prisons. I made around the 1m yen a month mark doing this and it helped me to get some sorta financial stability while deciding what I really wanted to do with my life.
– There’s a few on-campus eikaiwa style gigs that people flex about in Japan as if it’s gonna make them some sort of professor. It’s not gonna do that or provide a way forward as an academic. Expect an hourly rate that might add up to ~400-500k yen a month. I get that to some this is big money but it’s like $3000 USD a month (~$36,000 a year – nothing to flex about) with no real promotion options. While in Japan I did a bit of this and a bit of eikaiwa as I was working in a smallish city and there weren’t enough shifts at the local university. Truely, it wasn’t the panacea that some people think it is. I had far more cash in my pockets working in prisons… no I couldn’t tell my mum I was a ‘professor’, but paying the bills is more important than that IMO.
An MA means nothing outside of academia. That is, if you have an MA on your resume and apply at a language school or ALT dispatch company, you won’t be held in higher regard than the other candidates. They do not care about professionalism. If they did, they wouldn’t list “a degree in anything” as a requirement.
As for academia, everyone starts at the bottom: part-time work, likely for a shitty dispatch company, so that you get some university teaching on your resume.
While doing that, you network, publish, and do presentations to build your academic cred. Then you apply for every uni position that it seems you may remotely have a chance at.
After a minimum of five years of this, you may find a full-time uni position. But it takes a good amount of hard work, contacts, and time.
You can apply for pt jobs at less competitive universities and maybe even a contract position outside of Tokyo. Publish papers while you study and present at conferences (about 3 of each) to boost your chances considerably.
Your current job (Eikawa) is a dead-end job so it’s good you’re working on your MA. There are a couple paths you can take
-Many people like to do the University route with their MA. However, you will need more than just an MA. Networking, publications etc will help you get in. Fortunately, you can do these while doing your MA. You’ll likely only be able to get part-time uni gigs at first but after a few years you will be in better shape.
-If you don’t want to do the Uni route, having an MA will look good on your resume for private school/international schools. If you want to work in an international school, you will need a teaching license. You can also get this while working on your MA.
Assuming OP gets their MA and even a teaching license, what can they expect for a starting salary at a university/high school? Where does the salary start to cap?
Having looked around the job market I’d suggest anything from 2-30,000 yen a month bump to 100,000+ it seems to be highly dependent on what salary the hiring company feels they can get away with. But there really doesn’t seem to be any real difference between someone with an MA and someone without EXCEPT you have more opportunities as you tick the “qualified” box.
One suggestion, dont take a “couple of years” to complete the MA. Do it in the recommended minimum. You’ll give up some free time but having it done quicker is better.
Do you have any desire to do something with film in Japan since you have a Bachelor’s in Film? I’m actually trying to branch out of English teaching and go back to school to study Media Studies and Production. I would like to do something here in Japan with video production, even if I have to do English teaching on the side to stay here.
What university are you pursuing your Masters in TESOL?