EduCareer StaffBlog"Rinjin Blog" | "EduCareer"Supporting your career in English teaching in the Japanese school system

The Hiring Season is Upon Us

2010/01/19

As I am sure everyone who is searching for work at the moment knows, the 2010-2011 academic year hiring season has well and truly started. The job boards of GaijinPot and other such websites are over flowing with job prospects good and not so good.

Here at Global Partners we have noticed a trend of the hiring season getting earlier each year, in fact this year we had an enquiry from a private school as early as October in preparation for the new school year. Having said this, we usually find that like most other companies and schools out there our busiest time is between the beginning of January and the end of February. Right about now.

So what should you do if you have not already decided on what to do from April? Here are my top 5 tips to finding your ideal job during this hectic recruiting season:

1) Sort out your resume. The first thing companies and schools look at is your resume, a messy, incomplete resume is not the way to get an interview. In Japan attaching a photograph of yourself in business attire is standard practice so get your best suit on and get a friend to take a good photo.

2) Write a decent cover letter. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just make sure it is free of spelling and grammatical mistakes as these don't look good on an application to be an English teacher!

3) Do some serious math. It is important that you set a realistic salary base for yourself, after doing the sums you realise you can't live on less than 250,000yen per month, don't take a job that pays less.

4) Be honest. In interviews it can be tempting to exaggerate (lie?) but it is always the people who are honest and open that are remembered favourably. If you want to teach Junior High and not Elementary school, just say so!

5) Decide on a position after you have seen the school. School interviews can be nerve-racking and stressful but they are very much a 2 way process. Not only is it a chance for the school to meet you, it is also a chance for you to see the school and decide if it is a place you think you will fit in or not.

So those are my "hiring season" tips. If you have any feedback it will be greatly appreciated.

Good luck job hunting!

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