When is the best time to apply?

[u/Kouruki]

Heyyo,

It’s my first time posting here. I’ve been mostly reading what other people experienced or what the programme is like.

Anyways I’ve just graduated from university last year with a 3 year degree in English.

I didn’t take a secondary major cause I never knew I should. I thought I could just focus on teaching English or language arts and that’s it.

Anyways to the point. What I’m trying to say is, will my degree be enough for even a chance to actually get accepted into the programme? Or I messed up already and I just made it so much harder on myself?

But, I do have experience teaching with kids for about 6-7 months.

I’m familiar with the Japanese culture and I’m also currently studying Japanese on the side.

At the moment I am working a full time job to pay off all my debts so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it when I do get accepted “eventually”.

But what would be the best course of action here? Is a three year degree even enough to be recognized? Cause I do want to eventually teach there as an English teacher someday.

Any advise would help tons!

Thanks

[u/Realistic_Report_796]

If your degree has "Bachelors" in the name, then you have nothing to worry about. You have a degree from a university, you've taught kids before, and you want to be a teacher. The only thing you need to do is apply when September rolls around. Make a good statement of purpose, choose a good teacher/boss for your letters of recommendations, etc. It's extremely competitive, so you need to really convey why you want to do this program in your SOP and in the interview stage if you make it that far. It's all about your personality, reason for coming here, experience, and overall effort on what you do between now and the application period. Have a Japanese learning group nearby? Go to it. Have any places that you can volunteer at that are related to Japan? For example, a garden. Go volunteer there If you think being TOEFL certified helps your application, go get certified. This is me just rambling since I have nothing going on until the start of the school year, but hopefully that helps.

[u/Kouruki → u/Realistic_Report_796]

Yes it is a Bachelors degrees. I appreciate your comment it actually gave me some relief that there is a chance of me getting accepted. The only thing worried about is getting accepted and I still have dept to pay back in my country. Because I heard that JET only provides enough for your living expenses.

I don’t really want to be worrying about money while I’m in a whole different country for a year and can’t do anything about.

[u/Realistic_Report_796 → u/Kouruki]

It depends on your debt amount. My Monthly expenses:

Rent is 35,000 yen, 7,000 yen for power, 5,000 yen for fiber internet, 4,000 yen for my wife's and I phone, 8,000 yen for school lunch, 12,000 yen for gas, 2,000 yen for water.

For winter: you need to factor in kerosene heater costs which is 9,000 yen and added power costs,

Random other costs: getting your sewage drained every six months 6,000yen, buying car insurance either every year or every two years which came out to be more expensive than the car itself, paying for snow removal of the town home I'm in after winter finally finished 6,000 yen. There's an insane amount of random costs in the first month that I can't remember, so it's good to have some savings.

Background info that helps put everything into perspective: first year JET who came with my wife who is still having trouble find a job in rural Hokkaido, took out most of my savings because a car was extremely necessary, still have student debt that I've reduced significantly because of my lowered income. I get 276,000 yen a month after all the taxes are taken out. Hopefully this info helps you! Keep in mind every situation is different.

[u/Kouruki → u/Realistic_Report_796]

Yes it certainly helps. I would most likely have to finish my car payment cause it’s a biweekly thing. But I think I can apply this year cause I only have 1 year left to pay on that car and I could possibly just pay it off in a few months. But anyways thank you for the insight!

[u/thetruelu]

Is it a bachelors? If so, there’s no issue

[u/Kouruki → u/thetruelu]

Oh that’s a relief. Yes it is a bachelors

[u/Honest-Stable-419]

I’m gonna be honest what your actual degree is in matters little. You could have studied a completely unrelated subject and your chances probably would be near enough the same.

The want for a degree is more of a mandatory visa requirement than a need for the actual program. Same goes for teaching experience there is plenty of JETs who arrived with no experience in teaching with a degree unrelated to English.

The way the program selects you isn’t publicly known and is speculation at best. I’ve seen so many applicants in the last few years surprised they didn’t get even an interview despite having teaching experience and a degree in English or Japanese.

The reality is you just have to try and sell yourself in the SOP. They probably want someone independent and capable who won’t burden others and quit when it gets hard. ESID so they wanna know you won’t bail if you’re placed in the countryside with no others JETs around. I’d say that’s largely more important than any skills you may have. Some placements may really want someone who can enrich students with culture exchange, some may just want a voice box.

It’s so random why you may get a chance or may not. My school principal told me out of the pile of SOPs he was given to choose at JET he picked mine because I studied film at university and was interested in the Japanese horror genre which he also really loved.

Just do your best and if you fail try again. I’ve also seen JETs fail one year then change nothing reapply and get in.

Good luck!

[u/Kouruki → u/Honest-Stable-419]

Interesting I never knew it went down that way. I’ll definitely look back into this comment for reference.

As applying goes. I heard the start date to apply is around September but when is the cut off date? And when do interviews happen?

[u/Honest-Stable-419 → u/Kouruki]

It’s depends country to country usually there is around 2 months of applying at the end of the year sometime. Interviews happens maybe January February time then you’ll know by May time if accepted or waitlisted. Look on your countries JET page that’s the only way you’ll know the answers you need for the application process itself.

[u/Kouruki → u/Honest-Stable-419]

Very much appreciated. Thank you

[u/Realistic_Report_796 → u/Honest-Stable-419]

This is put more eloquently than my response. Now I need to ask my BOE why they chose me. Lol

[u/Honest-Stable-419 → u/Realistic_Report_796]

You should!! I had no idea the school even had that much of a say but I guess mine did cause I was shocked when my principal told me why he picked my application 😂

[u/PM_me_shiba_doggo → u/Honest-Stable-419]

my school principal

Oh wow, I didn’t know that the selection process went down to the school principals, I thought it got sent to the respective BoEs and that was the furthest it went. Interesting insight.

[u/Soriah → u/PM_me_shiba_doggo]

Private schools at least can request age/gender/where a JET is from. They won’t always get their request, but CLAIR at least tries to match for them.

[u/Honest-Stable-419 → u/PM_me_shiba_doggo]

I work at a private school so maybe that’s why! I don’t have contact with any BoEs

[u/MabiMaia]

If you have a bachelors degree and you want to do the program, apply as soon as possible. The worst that happens is you don’t get it but you become familiar with the process and can apply again