Moving and finding a new job at a j/s highschool

[Ember]

Hi all, I need FG advice! My situation -

I have just handed in my notice at my current place in Fukuoka and I`m going to be in Tokyo in six months. Now, I want to pick up a job at a junior or senior highschool so that i have evening time to play music in Tokyo, but I believe that such posistions are usually filled by the JET program? The private highschools that I`ve seen hiring usually require that you have a work visa already, and from next november I will require full visa sponsorship to keep me a legal happy gaijin. So I can spend 5 months on my current visa in Tokyo doing whatever work i can find living where i can whilst simultaneously hunting for a full sponsorship / contract to start in November. Does anybody have any advice? What are my chances of finding a sponsorship from a school outside the jet programme? I`m sure many FGs have done the move from a smaller city to Tokyo and I`d really like to hear how you went about finding your sponsorship, accomadation ect.

Oh, and I can read / speak japanese to a reasonable standard (I will be passing 2kyu next year I reckon) and have a year and a halfs experience to sell myself with.

Any comments appreciated.

[oyajikun]

http://www.jobsinjapan.com/jobs/teaching.html

Jobsinjapan is a good place to start. I found my ALT teaching job from that site back when I didn't know any better.

Here is one ad:

W5 Staff Services Kawagoe City Saitama Pref. Semi-Full time ALT positions at public E.S. and J.H.S. November 1st to Mar 31. M to F 8:20am to 4:15pm. 13,000y per day + 5,000y/month for transportation (E.g. 260,000 monthly salary for 20 days work) Native Speaker & must have B.A. Tokyo@w5ss.com job#324 ONLY (posted 10/24/05)

[AssKissinger]

http://www.jobsinjapan.com/jobs/teaching.html

Jobsinjapan is a good place to start. I found my ALT teaching job from that site back when I didn't know any better.

Here is one ad:

W5 Staff Services Kawagoe City Saitama Pref. Semi-Full time ALT positions at public E.S. and J.H.S. November 1st to Mar 31. M to F 8:20am to 4:15pm. 13,000y per day + 5,000y/month for transportation (E.g. 260,000 monthly salary for 20 days work) Native Speaker & must have B.A. Tokyo@w5ss.com job#324 ONLY (posted 10/24/05)

Those jobs that don't pay anything when school is off or the ALT is not needed are pretty scary.

[oyajikun]

http://www.jobsinjapan.com/jobs/teaching.html

Jobsinjapan is a good place to start. I found my ALT teaching job from that site back when I didn't know any better.

Here is one ad:

W5 Staff Services Kawagoe City Saitama Pref. Semi-Full time ALT positions at public E.S. and J.H.S. November 1st to Mar 31. M to F 8:20am to 4:15pm. 13,000y per day + 5,000y/month for transportation (E.g. 260,000 monthly salary for 20 days work) Native Speaker & must have B.A. Tokyo@w5ss.com job#324 ONLY (posted 10/24/05)

Those jobs that don't pay anything when school is off or the ALT is not needed are pretty scary.

The company I worked for paid year round. http://www.e-c-s.co.jp/

The offices are in Shibuya.

[Charles]

I have just handed in my notice ...Now, I want to pick up a job...

Didn't anyone ever tell you that you're supposed to find the new job before you quit the old one?

[Ember]

Thanks for the replies. I have given six months notice, so finding work in time is not going to be a problem, my main worry is finding a new sponsor for next october that doesn`t eat up my evenings! I already checked out all the main job sites, I was specifically interested in hearing from people who had picked up ALT jobs outside of the jet programme, but thanks anyway.

Ember

[oyajikun]

Thanks for the replies. I have given six months notice, so finding work in time is not going to be a problem, my main worry is finding a new sponsor for next october that doesn`t eat up my evenings! I already checked out all the main job sites, I was specifically interested in hearing from people who had picked up ALT jobs outside of the jet programme, but thanks anyway.

Ember

... I thought that is what I was telling you. I was never a JET teacher. I was a normal? ALT teacher. There are loads of jobs ito be had in the spring. ECS is a good company to work for as I said, they do pay year round.

[AssKissinger]

I was an ALT hired direct from a BOE office. I think it's pretty hard to get a job like that, without a middle man, without some kind of connection. But if they know they can trust you it can happen. It's possible to cut out the dispatch company later on so it's ok to sign with them at first. Just always be really friendly with the school and BOE people and try to communicate with them directly all you can so they feel like they don't need the middle man either. Just remember, that say, if you're an ALT making 250,000 or whatever the school board will be paying your dispatch company like 350,000 or whatever. So you think 'shit, they can give me a 50,000 yen raise and still save money, what the fuck!' But what you don't know is that dispatch company is likely to be secretly giving 50,000 yen back to some fucker on the school board on the sly. So the money for your salary comes out of the budget but some of it comes back to the big chief in hard cash every month. You'll never be able to convince the school board to hire you direct if that's what's going on. And that's what's going on all over the place. It's classic sneaky Japology.

[Ember]

Thanks Oyajikun, that company looks interesting. I`m checking that out and interac atm, which seems to be a pretty big ALT recruiter.

[AssKissinger]

Thanks Oyajikun, that company looks interesting. I`m checking that out and interac atm, which seems to be a pretty big ALT recruiter.

Interac is bad news man. Why didn't you thank me, btw?

[Taro Toporific]

I`m checking that out and interac atm, which seems to be a pretty big ALT recruiter.

Interac is bad news man.

The management of Interac is LDS (aka the Mormons). They tolerate "gentiles" (non-Mormons) as resource to exploit at low wages, non-paid holidays, poor conract conditions, yada, yada...
Unlike some engrish schools, interac does honor their poor-conditions in their contracts and they pay on time, mostly. However, as AK said they're, "bad news" ---if you sign with them...

[AssKissinger]

they pay on time, mostly.

They're actually notorious for paying late.

I didn't know they were owned by Mormons. Utah Mormons or J-Mormons?

[Taro Toporific]

they pay on time, mostly.

They're actually notorious for paying late.

I didn't know they were owned by Mormons. Utah Mormons or J-Mormons?

Interac is owned by tithing-10%, squeak-when-they-walk, Utah Mormons.

Interac Branch Union
Interac, the largest ALT outsourcing company in Japan. Its parent company is Selnate http://www.selnate.com/ which is located in the Mormon heartland of Provo, Utah. It is represented by Orrin Hatch in the US Senate and is where former 2001-2002 TESOL President Neil Anderson teaches at Brigham Young University and sits on the TESOL International Research Foundation.[/url]

Interac is owned, operated and controlled by a prominent LDS family in Japan.
--Christopher Gulbraa - cult kidnapping notice

[Ember]

Interac is bad news man. Why didn't you thank me, btw?

Er, because I`m an obnoxious type who forgets to thank people. Sorry, thanks. :P

Interac sounds scary. But finding an ALT job outside of these big companys orthe JET programme seems almost unavoidable, unless as asskissinger suggested you get one directly through the BOE. Theres another company I`m in contact with called JAL haken but there is f - all info on the web about them, so i am just following a policy of applying for everything and seeing what comes up. I`ll be careful about accepting anything from interac...

[Greji]

they pay on time, mostly.

They're actually notorious for paying late.

I didn't know they were owned by Mormons. Utah Mormons or J-Mormons?

If they're Utah Mormons they are going to be extremely late, say like a 41-34 asswhipping in overtime? hehehe

[samuraiwig]

Interac's not perfect. They do sometimes pay late, and they can a bit disorganized at renewal time (more with BoE contracts than teacher contracts, but one depends on the other). But IMHO that's a price worth paying for being left alone.

W5 is probably worse. They pay less, prefer to pay by the day, and have high teacher turnover.

Another ALT outsourcer is Altia. By all accounts they pay OK and on time, and are generally more relaxed than the other agencies. I'm not really sure how they're organized, but I think Altia Central handles the Chubu/Tokai area and they may have a sister company in Kanto. Worth checking out.