I've spent most of today and yesterday (when I wasn't puking) job hunting. Mostly I've been looking for teaching positions in Tokyo, and I've found a couple that are really close to where I want to live. They are mostly teaching young kids though, some younger than the first graders that I teach now, and I don't really want to be a baby sitter.
My other option is to try finding a job that is not in the teaching field. This would be ideal because I'm going to move back to the US sometime, and kind of job will I be able to get if the only work experience I have is teaching little kids english? But what can I do? I'm pretty good with computers; I worked for Western's Tech support department for almost 2 years. But I know almost nothing about programing, and my Japanese ability is not quite business level, so I don't see where I could apply it. The only other thing that I can think of is that I'm good at research. Since my major was basically a history degree, I should be at least. But does that mean I'm good at writing? I'm not really a good judge of my own writing. It never seems to come out how I had intended. I think I'd be pretty good at translating though, but I don't have any official experience working for someone as a translator, which every job posting I've seen requires.
Ai's been going through the same problems as me for quite a while now. At first she was thinking about the things that are popular among female college grads; working for an airline or a travel agency. Now she's thinking a lot bigger. So I think her chances of finding a good job are pretty high. She's referred me to a consulting company that helps people find employment in various fields. One thing that I remember a private student of mine telling me is that in Japan, you don't really need to know anything about the job you are going to be doing. Companies expect that you didn't learn anything in University, so they will give you all the necessary training. He started out working for Oracle, and was at the time working for EMC as a computer programmer making 12,000,000 yen ($120,000) a year. He said that his company would probably even hire me after I graduated and returned to Japan. I wish I still had his email address...
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