Career help
April 30, 2009 2:01 AM   Subscribe

I'm 34 living in Tokyo and have been teaching English conversation for the last six years, but I've realized this may be a dead-end career. Need help on figuring out career change options. I have a MA in political science. Any suggestions or advice are greatly appreciated.
posted by Jaebez to Work & Money (10 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
So you must speak Japanese by now? If you do... maybe you could look into translation work in some field that interests you?
posted by Theloupgarou at 2:30 AM on April 30, 2009


I don't wish to be rude but you need to expand quite a bit on your situation to receive a response that may assist you further. TEFL in Japan can be a great experience for people but you are right in the dead-end career remark. A close friend worked for the now defunct NOVA and explained that after two years he knew he had to leave or he would find himself stuck. Now I am not saying you are stuck but I am saying that you need to be clearer about what you want to do moving forward.

Is it your wish to stay in Japan? As Theloupgarou advises, if you speak fluent japanese by now then there are certainly more doors open to you. If you have not stuck to other westerners and have developed a good understanding of Japanese culture over the past 6 years then Cultural briefings for large corporations is one avenue you may wish to consider. That said with an MA in Political Science perhaps you wish to work in politics? NGO? Think Tank?
posted by numberstation at 2:39 AM on April 30, 2009


What level are you on the Japanese Language Proficiency Test? There's a good market for people who have passed the level 1 test, and even with a level 2 you might find something interesting outside of teaching. I had a friend who ended up working in Australia doing import/export work even though he had a degree in education thanks to his level 1 JLPT.
posted by furtive at 3:06 AM on April 30, 2009


If your Japanese is good but you don't particularly mind not living there any more, consider the fact that the skill "knows Japanese" is rarer and therefore more valuable outside Japan than in.
posted by No-sword at 3:07 AM on April 30, 2009


Again, if you speak Japanese, how about a Japanese agency or development organisation that works overseas? Somewhere like JICA. I'm sure there are plenty of other similar organisations and NGOs out there who could use your education and language skills.
posted by tavegyl at 5:50 AM on April 30, 2009


No-sword: that may be true, but the skill combination "English native speaker", "knows Japanese" and "can mediate between the two languages skilfully" is a killer one, no matter where you are.

OP, how's your Japanese? I'm a (non-Japanese) translator and it can be a good (and lucrative, for Japanese>English) area to get into, though I have my suspicions that it might in itself be a bit dead-endish.
posted by altolinguistic at 6:00 AM on April 30, 2009


Are you at all interested in becoming a 'real' certified teacher back home? If you've been teaching for six years you must have an aptitude for it, or at least enjoy it. Becoming a high school teacher back in the states would allow you to build on your existing experience, and would give you enough time off that you could continue to travel. (I'm assuming that's important to you, since love-of-travel is usually a key motivator in working abroad to begin with.)
posted by Kololo at 7:13 AM on April 30, 2009


Best answer: Heh, this was me about 6 years ago, but I had been living in Japan for 10 years.

I've managed to do a complete career change since returning from Japan in 2004. It wasn't easy, but I did it by:

- expanding my network (just email people asking for info interviews)
- knowing what I wanted to do and working towards it
- focusing on achieving quality and excellence, in order to make the most of every opportunity

It has not been easy, and I made things more difficult for myself by returning to a small provincial city on the outer rim of the galaxy. But I did it, and I also managed to, from the middle of nowhere, work on some interesting projects for prestigious clients.

If I can do it, you can do it.

Compared to me, you have a couple of things in your favour:

- time; you haven't made your decisions yet
- internet personal networking; I did my career change before Facebook and before I knew about Metafilter
- you live in frigging *Tokyo*, man!!!!

Tokyo is the commercial center of Japan. If foreign (non-Japanese) companies will hire staff, it will be there. Because Japanese companies all have their head office there, there's also more money in Tokyo for project work, and for potential clients.

I lived out in the sticks, in Fukui Prefecture, about 7 hours from Tokyo. You can just drop by anyone's office in Tokyo if you like. You can attend networking events.

My game plan would be:

- Decide what you want to do. Don't worry about going to school again - I didn't.
- Make sure you have a good skillset you can market as a product. I did this by doing freelance writing for technical journals, and by translating as a volunteer for prestigious projects that appear on online
- Expand your network

Connect with, and attend events at the American Chamber of Commerce, as well as its UK and AUS/NZ counterparts. Attend networking events hosted by J@pan Inc. Follow Andrew Shuttleworth on Twitter to find out more about networking events.

If you do network, make sure you have a coherent message about who you are, what you do, and what you want to do.

That's the tough part that you yourself have to figure out.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:24 AM on April 30, 2009


and explained that after two years he knew he had to leave or he would find himself stuck

yup that's me. The first year was learning the ropes, the second year was settling into the routine, and the third year was digging the hole.

This was back in the 90s before the internet, so to get a job in Japan you had to buy the Monday Japan Times. After two years I was doing that occasionally and saw a great job and went for it.

If I were the poster I'd think about gravitating towards China. I could be entirely off base here but I think this is their century and the socio-economics of East Asia may turn out to be a zero-sum game, to Japan Inc's distinct disadvantage.
posted by mrt at 8:36 AM on April 30, 2009


How's the job search going?
posted by KokuRyu at 7:46 AM on February 15, 2010


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