It's been awhile!

It's been awhile since I posted last. I spent the last 6 month readjusting to life in the States. Fall 2013 was a very hectic semester filled with 18 credits and a stupid 6 weeks of doing 9 hours/week of night shift library work.

But I have some fun news! I have applied to the JET program and a private ALT company called Interac - and I have passed into the interview stage for both applications. I am now going to go into details about the hiring process with both companies and I will try to keep up with blogging the steps involved with each company. I haven't been able to find adequate preparatory materials for either process, so I will post my experience here.

It should be noted that the JET program is my primary concern, followed by the private company for several reasons. First, the JET program pays for your flight to Japan and I believe they also pay for your return flight once you have completed your time on the program. Second, pay with the JET program is around 50,000 yen/month MORE than private companies. After some research, I discovered this was because the Board of Education that has your contract is paying you directly on the JET program. With a private company, the company pay you after scooping off the top (by around 50,000 yen) of the 300,000 yen/month the BoE allots for the ALTs. Finally, a private company tends to have a lot more rules and "ways of doing things" than the JET program, which I think would crush the creativity of the teacher.

Now onto the processes so far:

JET Program

I spent weeks filling out the very lengthy & time-consuming forms, writing my statement of purpose and collecting transcripts, letters of recommendations and medical forms in October-November. The directions are VERY exact and the applicant must follow them precisely. I think the program uses this as a way to weed out less serious applicants.

On Tuesday this week (Feb 21st, 2014), they sent out an e-mail with a link to the application numbers of all applicants that received an interview. I was one of the lucky 1772 people that made it this far. According to the wonderful lady that visited my university, somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 applications are received for the program, which means applicants have a 11.8% to 17.7% chance of landing an interview. Overall, about 850 JETs are hired from the US each year for the program, although the program brochure sports higher numbers (it includes people on their 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th years). Using these numbers, there is around a 5.6% to 8.5% chance of being accepted into the program, making it very competitive. Once the applicant scores an interview, they have around a 47.5% chance of being accepted. I believe most others become alternates.

The program posts interview results by application number.When you submit your application, you receive a confirmation card in the mail with your application number. This number is also found on the forms themselves, if you wish to make note of it in case you lose your confirmation card. All is not lost if you do, but you will need to e-mail or call the program office to have them give you the results. An example of the result format is linked below:

2014 JET program results

A couple days after the results are posted, you will receive an e-mail from the head of interviews at your interview location. Mine is conveniently the Embassy of Japan and not a consulate (so I was able to hand my application in directly, instead of mailing it). The e-mail will be asking for confirmation that you are interested in being interviewed and of your contact information. It will also state that you MUST interview on the dates they provide (this year has 3 dates - the 18th, 19th and 20th of February) - if you cannot make it on those dates, you are disqualified.

Personally I feel this is a bit harsh, since they give you less than a month to make travel arrangements if you live some distance from your interview location, but I think it's to disqualify applicants that aren't serious about the program and make it easier for them to select.

I will post more about the program after I receive the detailed interview e-mail on Monday.

Interac

In comparison, this company has a much simpler process. The application is very straightforward and rather simple. The most difficult part is writing a cover letter (which I had never done before). You need zero documents other than your cover letter - just detail your previous work experience, put down a couple references and hit submit.

I submitted my application on a Wednesday and received a phone call that Friday. The call is not an interview like I had originally thought - it is a confirmation of the details in your application and asks some questions about where you would be willing to have a rural placement (and drive a car) in Japan. The next step is you have a phone interview. Mine takes place in a week and a half. If that goes well, they schedule you for a seminar/in-person interview a couple months later. If that goes well, you are accepted into the company and you receive your contract/placement around one month before your departure.

I will post more about the company's phone interview after it takes place.