Hey everyone,
I’m contemplating applying for the program and have a few concerns about career trajectory coming from the States. For reference, I’m 30 (M) with three years of teaching experience. I’ve visited Japan before and know I’d love living there, but I’m worried it might stifle my career growth.
From what I understand, teaching abroad can be difficult for new employers to evaluate and is sometimes seen as a gap in your work history.
For current or former JETs — is there real upward trajectory? Have you found it easy or challenging to network after completing the program (whether in Japan or back home)? Do you feel the experience helped elevate your career path, or did it hold you back in any way?
I’m just trying to get a realistic sense of what to expect. I don’t want to pass up an incredible opportunity, but I also don’t want to limit my long-term career potential either.
by Comin4YaHBeanIE
8 comments
Commenting bc I’m in the same situation and want to hear from past JETs about how it played out for them lol
Having JET doesn’t mean an auto boost in your career. It is a very unique experience and it depends how you’re selling it on your resume / interview. Attending their career workshops is a must. I found them very helpful.
For me, it’s going great. JET helped me to build confidence and gain experience in many aspects. I’m using this as my advantage and is on track to my dream job 🙂
Same here! Looking forward to hear the perspective form current and former JET Applicants
the job market sucks and JET is highly competitive, so I’d say go for it.
I went in at 32 and came back to the US at 35. I was lucky enough to land a job as a JET Program Coordinator thanks to the connections I made on JET. Now I’m back on JET at 42 and looking to make even more contacts while I’m here so I can hopefully line up another job in Japan once my contract ends.
In no way will it hold you back! You’ve done it in the right order getting some work experience first and then joining the programme. It’s the people that come fresh out of university and then waste half their time here sitting at a desk trying to “upskill” so they can potentially start a career afterwards that struggle.
Plus I don’t think any potential employer at a school would look at a year teaching abroad in one of the top schooling systems in the world as a wasted gap year.. It’s all about how you sell it!
I’ll be as honest as I can: JET really is what you make of it. I’m in Japan on a different path, but I have lots of friends who are JET and its every possible combination of success and failure. Some are super successful as translators for big companies, some have moved on and have a fond memory, many have become jaded after contrasting living here with visiting here, a few I know have even turned full Japan Hater.
The consistent advice I hear across the board is as follows:
Always have an idea of at least a year out, your contract is inly a year and that will fly by, dont get caught off guard.
Make strong connections and as many as you can, you never know who might be hiring for a role.
Temper your expectations, nowadays, there are a lot of unfit JET’s coming in to treat this like a paid vacation and mistreat the culture, so some will have poor views of you and its a coin toss at schools.
Basically: if you know what youre doing and have a good plan to turn JET into your own narrative despite the downsides, it can be an incredible opportunity. Be charismatic, be “genki”, but most importantly, know how to tell a tale. If you can do that, you’ll have a wonderful resume after this.
>is there real upward trajectory? Have you found it easy or challenging to network after completing the program (whether in Japan or back home)? Do you feel the experience helped elevate your career path, or did it hold you back in any way?
This depends entirely on why you’re doing the JET program. If you’re already got a career trajectory, JET shouldn’t be interrupting it. You can take different kinds of job experience from working on JET, as long as you’re being proactive and relevant towards the field you’re pursuing. Don’t force JET into your life if your field of interest is in a completely different direction.
I don’t understand why employers would see teaching abroad as a career break since you were working. The only time I see it as a problem is if they want to contact your employer directly for an employment verification check and they have no way of contacting them except through long distance phone calls, but these days, e-mail is usually sufficient.
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