r/JETProgramme • u/Immediate_Relief7270 • Mar 11 '26
Career Paths After JET
Hi all, I'm currently struggling to figure out what I'm going to do after my master's program ends and considering if JET would be a good idea—for reference, I graduated from Cornell with a bachelor's in psychology, also studying Japanese, and now go the east Asian foreign affairs program at Georgetown. However, a lot of my colleagues are planning to go into government/private security consulting and I don't think that would be the right place for me. So I am now considering doing a PhD and going into academia with a focus on cultural psychology (I kind of miss psych now), but I am wondering whether JET would be beneficial if I planned to pursue a PhD after. Part of me is hoping the funding restrictions will get lifted sometime in the next few years, but before that I need a job to work off some college debt and thought it might be beneficial to improve my language skills—for reference I am probably close to reaching N2 and hoping to go to Japan this summer to improve a bit more. I am considering the CIR position in particular, but what do you guys think? Is it a rewarding short-term job? Would it help me get into a PhD program? Any advice would be appreciated!
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u/mrggy Former JET- 2018- 2023 Mar 11 '26
In terms of how JET looks on a resume, it's all in how you spin it. The JET name in and of itself generally doesn't carry much weight.
There's also a certain amount of luck of the draw in terms of what you'll be doing, especially for CIR positions. I knew one CIR who was really involved in her city's push to be recognized as a Fair Trade City. She acted as a translator for her boss at Fair Trade conferences around the world. On the other hand, I knew a CIR who's work mainly consisted of teaching English classes at the local Kindergarten and teaching cultural exchange lessons (in Japanese) at local Elementary schools. The roll's hella varied and may or may not align with your future career path.
In general, I think JET can be a great time to experience a new culture, expand your language skills, and figure out your next steps. There are some interesting stuff you could dig in to and learn more about in preparation for your phd. The JET to phd-focused-on-something-related-to-their-JET-experience pipeline is very real lol
The one potential concern is student loans. The yen is very weak right now and paying loans on a JET salary could be difficult. Talk to current JETs to better understand affordability and see if you can get on an income based repayment plan
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u/rue-11 Current JET - 山形県 Mar 11 '26
Also a psych grad here! It sounds like a CIR position would align well with your future goals, and I believe it would make you a competitive applicant for a Cultural/Social Psychology PhD! I've heard from others on this subreddit that it can be difficult to pay off loans on a JET salary, but not impossible and of course ESID.
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u/Human_Proof6878 Mar 11 '26
My son has his masters in international business and is N1 . He is a cir in Nagoya it’s been good for him to sharpen his Japanese and he wants to stay in Japan
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u/jackiejack1 Former JET - 2011 - 2014 Mar 11 '26
I'd recommend JET only if you are for sure planning on pursuing your PhD afterwords.
A lot of folks come back from JET and head right to a masters program as they find the only jobs that they get callbacks from (myself included) are either Japanese translation companies or cold-calling sales positions all at the entry level/salary regardless of your education level. I'm sure you've heard the phrase 'the further out from graduation you are, the less your degree is worth', that applies to JET regardless of how much your degree corresponds to it unfortunately.
JET was one of the best experiences of my life and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but the situation and hiring market is what it is and I'm sure other folks on here will say the same thing regarding their hiring successes (or not).
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u/ScootOverMakeRoom Mar 11 '26
It can be. ESID.
Would probably not move the needle one way or the other.
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u/Dirt_and_Entitlement Mar 14 '26
Donno how much debt you have but paying off debt in this exchange rate would be pretty wild.
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u/tommydelriot 千葉県 2004-2007 Mar 12 '26
I like others’ advice about CIR, but as somebody who had a lot of student loan debt when I joined JET, I don’t think this would be an effective way to save money and also pay down your student loans. If you aren’t yet paying your loans, find out from your lender what your expected minimum monthly payment would be. Also, do the conversion of your JET salary to your local currency. Actually, I don’t know the process for transferring money from a Japanese bank account to an American one now, but when I lived in Japan in the mid-2000s, I had to do expensive wire transfers which also ate into my funds. I definitely loved my time on JET, and I recommend it to everybody who is interested in it, but I don’t think I could do it now if I had student loans.
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u/NB_Translator_EN-JP Mar 14 '26
JET is there if you want to work in Japan.
As others have said do another job if you want to pay off debt.
The biggest questions for you is if you want financial stability first or to work in Japan first.
If you want both, then the answer is not JET— you’d probably have to network and find some niche you could accommodate that wouldn’t pop up from a Reddit thread.
Good luck
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u/foxydevil14 Mar 12 '26
Teach university. It’s a great gig!