Former student Vicky is now working in Japan, and we asked her to share the story of how she found a job, in the hope that it would help other students interested in making a career here! She was kind enough to agree, so here is what she wrote:<\/p>\n
Learning Japanese and Teaching English<\/b><\/p>\n
Last summer I decided to take a break and a year out in Japan. I knew that the only (or easiest) way for me to enter the Japanese labour market would be to teach English. So I quit my job, obtained the CELTA teacher training certificate and looked for a language school to learn some Japanese. I chose GenkiJACS because it was one of the few schools that offers a beginner\u2018s course every month. I tried applying for positions from overseas but was not successful. So I entered Japan on a tourist visa and gave myself three months to find a job. I studied Japanese to structure my day and, of course, to exchange with other people. There were some people at GenkiJACS doing similar things. And the atmosphere was very energetic and motivating \u2013 which was supportive to my endeavour.
In the evenings I researched job listings, the JALT website, the Ohayoo Sensei Newsletter and the blogs of other English teachers. There\u2019s loads of experience posted out there, although some stories are a little discouraging \u2013 I tried to ignore them. In general, I followed a simple rule: To do something every day: research, send a few applications, rephrase my CV or the cover letter. Some applications took 15 minutes, others 3 hours. Another strategy was to always have a few applications in the pipeline \u2013 so I was never just waiting for one school to answer. Most places I applied to I never heard back from. Here I reminded myself that I only need one job, not all the jobs I was applying for. However, after 3 weeks of little response I decided to set up a backup plan \u2013 teaching in China. So I also started applying to English Schools in China. I received encouraging feedback which lifted my spirits \u2013 I knew I could always find a job there. And then a lovely English Language School invited me for an interview and offered me a job. I am now settling down in Kumamoto \u2013 just over an hour from Fukuoka. <\/p>\n
When to come: The academic year starts in April and most teachers are hired in Jan\/Feb\/March.
Must have\u2019s: A bachelor degree, being a native speaker and a diploma in teaching (CELTA or TESOL). Oh, and some stamina.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
| Former student Vicky is now working in Japan, and we asked her to share the story of how she found a job, in the hope that it would help other students interested in making a career here! She was kind enough to agree, so here is what she wrote: Learning Japanese and Teaching English…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Genki Japanese and Culture School - Working in Japan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/working-in-japan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Genki Japanese and Culture School - Working in Japan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/working-in-japan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GenkiJACS Japanese School\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/genkijacs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-04T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/genkijacsfukuokaschool.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/working-in-japan\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/working-in-japan\/\",\"name\":\"Genki Japanese and Culture School - Working in Japan\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-01-04T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-01-04T00:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/working-in-japan\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/working-in-japan\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/working-in-japan\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Working in Japan\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"GenkiJACS Japanese School\",\"description\":\"The latest news from Genki Japanese and Culture School\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Genki Japanese and Culture School - Working in Japan","description":"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/working-in-japan\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Genki Japanese and Culture School - Working in Japan","og_description":"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan","og_url":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/working-in-japan\/","og_site_name":"GenkiJACS Japanese School","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/genkijacs","article_published_time":"2010-01-04T00:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/genkijacsfukuokaschool.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/working-in-japan\/","url":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/working-in-japan\/","name":"Genki Japanese and Culture School - Working in Japan","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-01-04T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-01-04T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"description":"News and commentary from GenkiJACS, a Japanese language school in Fukuoka, Japan","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/working-in-japan\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/working-in-japan\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/working-in-japan\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Working in Japan"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/","name":"GenkiJACS Japanese School","description":"The latest news from Genki Japanese and Culture School","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}