Hi! Sorry that I am new here and this might sound like a noob question. I did some self-research but was still confused with a lot of things and I am just overall pretty unsure about making decisions. I just graduated from a, I will say pretty descent, American college as a psychology major and I was researching cross-cultural development psychology. I really wanted to start my new life in Japan because it was my long-time dream. I took a semester to exchange in Japan during my junior year and it was perhaps the happiest 4 months in my entire life. However, I got stuck by the fact that psychology-related jobs are not quite big nor open for foreigners in Japan (I was aiming to be a child mentor or counselor). However, I didn't want to just quit my dream like that so I started to search for master's programs in Japan. I am currently preparing my application for Waseda's Human Science Department EDICS program and also for Sophia University's Global Studies program. I am worried that if I will be treat differently when I graduate and enter the job market. Do these programs usually help you get a job in Japan? If yes, are there any other good programs that people will suggest? If not, what else could I do?
Also, I am pretty curious about job-hunting for foreigners after graduate school. Are you still considered as 新卒 like everyone else? Since I took a gap year after graduation from undergrad and am currently doing interns, I will have some working experience (I have been working for law firms as a paralegal and was also doing HR for hotels in China ), but also at an older age (24 if I get accepted next year). In this case, am I still competing with the younger college graduates in Japan? Would my chance or salary be affected by the fact that I graduated from an English-taught program?
I got my N1 last summer and have no problem communicating. But I am super anxious about whether my Japanese skills can help me survive at Japanese-taught master programs, especially writing essays and researching in Japanese. I also speak fluent English and Mandarin Chinese, so being a trilingual might be helpful in case of job-hunting, maybe? In this case, how would you suggest me to choose between Japanese-taught programs and English-taught programs?
P.S.: It would be great if I can also have some suggestions on what kind of jobs do foreigners who study psychology or global study in Japan usually get hired. I really don't want to spend another 2 years plus tuition for a master's program and end up working at the cashier or front desk.
by Sea-Director-3256