At the end of July I’m finishing my Day Job teaching English in Japan with the JET Program, and the transition has given me a lot to think about. This is the last post in my series about working on JET, what it’s brought me, how I feel about it, and where I’m headed in the future. If you missed the beginning you can get start with Part 1 here.
The cover photo shows decorations for a festival on a street in my town of Namerikawa, Toyama, sometime in the early- to mid-twentieth century.
Today I had my last day of work, and it was really sad.
There were a lot of goodbyes, a lot of farewell cards, a few presents, a last-day lunch, and one of my old supervisors even came from a different school to say goodbye and thank me for my service. For Japanese-style goodbyes, coworkers will usually gather at the door to wave to someone as they leave for the last time, and that was really nice too.
I also gave a speech during my main school’s end-of-semester ceremony, which was really meaningful as well. I talked about the shock of working in a Japanese elementary school for the first time, how I always tried to make English class fun, and how I was grateful to work with so many great teachers and supervisors who helped me a lot.
In that same speech, I also talked about my future plans: how I’m publishing my first novel next April, and how next fall I’ll be spending a semester teaching English at a university in Kanagawa, just outside Tokyo.
My Next Day Job Steps Explained
When I first thought about coming back to Japan waaaaaaaay back in 2016, I originally looked into English teaching jobs at universities. Back then, though, I was a recent MA graduate with a lot less experience, I hadn’t gotten a TEFL degree yet, and I’d been away from Japan for five-plus years (d’oh!). Needless to say, I didn’t get any of the university jobs I applied for, but I did get the job with JET, which ended up being a really good fit.
In the past year I’ve been thinking a lot about my next steps in terms of my creative work, how I earn my money, and what continent I want to be living on. Teaching English at a university in Japan was still something I was interested in, both because it’s an experience I’d like to have, and because I think it’d be a good resume credential. I was also pretty sure I had the work experience to snag a lower-level lecturer job at a college (a.k.a a non-tenure track job for those of you familiar with the academic lingo ;-)
However, the two main logistical obstacles to my applying for university jobs after JET were:
- Most university jobs in Japan start in April, not September, and
- MFA Thesis Novel is coming out in April 2022, and I definitely want to be back in the States to promote it
So my only real option was to look for half-year jobs for the Fall semester that finish before MFA Thesis Novel comes out. Unfortunately, there weren’t many jobs like that available, and those I did find were only for a single class and didn’t seem worth going for.
The one full-time opportunity I did find was with a private recruiter (whose name I won’t mention here for secrecy reasons) that hires teachers for universities in the Tokyo area. The salary is about the same as a first-year JET salary, and the working conditions seemed…good enough. So I applied for the job, sent off the required documents, and got an interview—which then went really well, and they offered me the job.
My one caveat for accepting was that I needed to make sure I could visit the States in August before my contract started. Travel to and from Japan is still pretty restricted due to COVID, and this particular company had a policy of not allowing current teachers to travel internationally between semesters. In my email, I told the recruiter that I could only take the job if they let me visit the States in August—and they said sure.
And that was that.
What Factors Affected Your Decision to Take the University Job?
In no particular order, here’s a few of them:
The Pros
- I like teaching in Japan and want to do more of it. The thought that I might not get to teach in Japan again makes me feel…well, really sad.
- Ditto for never getting to teach at a Japanese university—that’s an experience I want to have.
- I have a good amount of money saved up to finance my post-Japan creative work life, but a little more couldn’t hurt…
- Living in the Tokyo area (for a little while, anyway) sounds exciting and cool.
- More chances to make connections and meet people.
- Ditto for resume-building and gaining credentials.
- As I talk about in this post, having a Day Job to structure my workweek around brings a lot of energy and forward momentum that keeps me going in my creative work life—and helps me avoid the dregs of depression.
- It’ll be easier to transition into another job in Japan right away (in terms of moving my stuff, keeping my cell phone, etc.) than it will be after living in the States for a long time.
- Jobs in Japan come with good health and dental insurance, as does this one.
The Cons
- I’ve already been having trouble keeping up with my new novel, and with writing in general, so jumping into another Day Job isn’t likely to make this problem easier.
- I’m starting to get to the next level with my editing work—as in, I have more clients, steadier work, and higher-paying gigs than I did before. My ultimate plan is to expand my editing work even more, which a structured Day Job of any kind would definitely get in the way of.
- My goal has never been to settle in Japan long-term. In that sense, any job in Japan I did take would just be a tangent to whatever long-term plan I decide to pursue in the US.
- I’ve been away a long time and missed a lot of important events back home—my youngest brother’s wedding, the birth of my nephew, family Christmases, get-togethers with friends, and more than a few concerts. Being away even a few months longer, I’m liable to miss even more.
- Japan’s been vaccinating people more slowly than other countries, and there are still likely to be restrictions in Tokyo up through the fall
- Part of me worries that taking another Day Job of any kind is just a distraction from the writing and freelance work that I want to be doing more of.
In the end, I decided that I wanted to take the job. Then, starting in February 2022, I want to spend at least a year without a Day Job while I focus on my writing, marketing MFA Thesis Novel, and planning my next steps.
New Horizons Ahead
The past few weeks have been full of big changes for me, with more yet to come. I’ve been living and working in the same place for three years (Fun Fact: My longest-running full-time Day Job ever!), and in that time, I’ve both become frustrated at the sense of stagnation and grown to really love my current setup. This makes leaving both really exciting, and really hard.
In a lot of ways, though, maybe that’s the nature of moving on—it’s necessary if we want to keep growing, but also really hard at times. And when I think about what kind of life I really want, it’s the one where I never stop growing, exploring, and trying new things.
Thanks for reading, everybody, and here’s to the next big steps for all of us moving forward!