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Should I use graphic resume for ALT jobs?

divprn

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17 Feb 2015
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Hello,

I'm in quite a bit dilemma right now. I'm going to apply for English teaching position in an Eikaiwa and for various ALT jobs. It's my first time applying for a teaching job and I'm quite serious about it. So my question is, should I use graphic resumes or a plain standard resume?

Graphic resume can make me stand out as it is visually appealing, but at the same time the hiring manager might not like it as graphic resumes tends break all the conventional resume formats. On the other hand, standard resumes tends to include lots of details/info about the applicant, but might not be too appealing to the hiring manager as it doesn't stands out from the crowd, and might get overlooked.

Both having their own pros and cons, I'm very confused with which one to go with. I'll mostly be submitting my resumes through gaijinpot.com or online.

Also, not to forget the mentality of the Japanese people. They are know to stick with the conventional rule and don't handle changes quite well.

What do you guys think? Which one should I go with, graphic or standard? If there are any professional hiring managers over here, I would like to hear your honest opinion.

Here is my current resume (I hid my personal information, hope you don't mind). It's not too graphic, but not too standard as well. What do you think about it?

Resume: http://bit.ly/1AN1hxS

Kind Regards
 
Nothing wrong with a designed resume, it shows that you have other skills that a potential employer could be interested in. However, there are spelling errors in it! Doesn't matter how good it looks if it's badly written - especially for an English teaching job!
You also need to list your nationality and country you are living in.
Be careful as listing English and Hindi as native languages - you can only be native in one language and if you are applying for an English teaching job this will raise flags. Also, you are calling yourself an ALT/English teacher but you have no experience. Show you are eager to learn, approachable, genki and flexible. List anything you have been involved in in the past demonstrating possible transferable skills - customer service, leadership/training/mentoring, working with international coworkers, etc. if offered an interview always research the position and company. If you do not have a native English accent and passport from English speaking country you will have difficulty getting a job here.
 
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I just read your resume properly. You are not a native English speaker and your resume is full of mistakes. What makes you think anyone will hire you to teach English? Honestly, look for a different way of coming to Japan. You can not teach English. Employers will not be able to submit a visa application if you are not from a native English speaking country.
 
Nothing wrong with a designed resume, it shows that you have other skills that a potential employer could be interested in.
Be careful as listing English and Hindi as native languages - you can only be native in one language and if you are applying for an English teaching job this will raise flags. Also, you are calling yourself an ALT/English teacher but you have no experience. Show you are eager to learn, approachable, genki and flexible. List anything you have been involved in in the past demonstrating possible transferable skills - customer service, leadership/training/mentoring, working with international coworkers, etc. if offered an interview always research the position and company.

Thank you so much for your comment.

Few things I would like to clarify that I think you got it wrong.

1.) 'ALT/English teacher', that I mention below my name is the job position I'm applying for. Here I'm not stating that I'm a ALT or an English teacher.

2.) I never mentioned that I have two native languages. I mentioned my 'Language skills'. In other words, the languages that I speak and I'm fluent at.

Show you are eager to learn, approachable, genki and flexible.
I guess, the proper place to show these are in my cover letter. Is it not?

List anything you have been involved in in the past demonstrating possible transferable skills - customer service, leadership/training/mentoring, working with international coworkers, etc. if offered an interview always research the position and company.
I believe, I have already mentioned one in my 'achievements' section of my resume. While I have others, like winning a photography contest or an art contest in my school days, I think they are quite not relevant to the job position I'm applying for. Therefore, I thought not to include them and keep it clean. If you suggest otherwise, I would love to hear your thoughts on this issue.

Question: I gave private lesson to student while I was in college, and also gave presentations on web development in seminars as a freelancer. I have teaching experience and I can handle quite a large group of people, but as you can see these were unprofessional/personal work. Do you think I should include them in the resume, as I don't have any solid proof that I did these things on the side?

Kind Regards
 
Thank you so much for your comment.

Few things I would like to clarify that I think you got it wrong.

1.) 'ALT/English teacher', that I mention below my name is the job position I'm applying for. Here I'm not stating that I'm a ALT or an English teacher.

2.) I never mentioned that I have two native languages. I mentioned my 'Language skills'. In other words, the languages that I speak and I'm fluent at.


I guess, the proper place to show these are in my cover letter. Is it not?


I believe, I have already mentioned one in my 'achievements' section of my resume. While I have others, like winning a photography contest or an art contest in my school days, I think they are quite not relevant to the job position I'm applying for. Therefore, I thought not to include them and keep it clean. If you suggest otherwise, I would love to hear your thoughts on this issue.

Question: I gave private lesson to student while I was in college, and also gave presentations on web development in seminars as a freelancer. I have teaching experience and I can handle quite a large group of people, but as you can see these were unprofessional/personal work. Do you think I should include them in the resume, as I don't have any solid proof that I did these things on the side?

Kind Regards

Honestly it doesn't matter if you are not a native English speaker. You cannot be hired for an English teaching job here - you will not qualify for a visa.
 
I just read your resume properly. You are not a native English speaker and your resume is full of mistakes. What makes you think anyone will hire you to teach English? Honestly, look for a different way of coming to Japan. You can not teach English. Employers will not be able to submit a visa application if you are not from a native English speaking country.
Yes, I'm not a native speaker. And I know my resume is full of mistakes because it's not a final version. I haven't proofread it. Right now, I'm asking for weather graphic resume is okay to submit.

There are companies that hire non-native. There are many companies that only asks you to be fluent in English. Yes, it's going to be difficult, but not impossible. I can easily get Specialist in Humanities/International services visa.
 
Yes, I'm not a native speaker. And I know my resume is full of mistakes because it's not a final version. I haven't proofread it. Right now, I'm asking for weather graphic resume is okay to submit.

There are companies that hire non-native. There are many companies that only asks you to be fluent in English. Yes, it's going to be difficult, but not impossible. I can easily get Specialist in Humanities/International services visa.

No, you cannot get a humanities visa to teach English if you are not a native English speaker. Immigration will not accept your application. Good luck if you think you can.
 
Honestly it doesn't matter if you are not a native English speaker. You cannot be hired for an English teaching job here - you will not qualify for a visa.
I have done my research mate. I'm not that ignorant.
 
No, you cannot get a humanities visa to teach English if you are not a native English speaker. Immigration will not accept your application. Good luck if you think you can.
Have you heard about the company called GABA? Here's their site: Teach English in Japan | Gaba

They have mentioned clearly in their FAQs section that you don't need to be a native speaker.
 
Anyways, why are we even talking about 'if I can get a teaching job in Japan or not'?

We should get back to the main question.
 
Have you heard about the company called GABA? Here's their site: Teach English in Japan | Gaba

They have mentioned clearly in their FAQs section that you don't need to be a native speaker.

Yes I know Gaba. You need a visa to work in Japan. You dont need to be a native speaker of you have a visa (marriage, student, etc.) If you don't have a visa they may be able to sponsor you IF you are from a native English speaking country that has a visa programe with Japan. Immigration will not accept your application for a job teaching English if you are not from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, etc.
 
Yes I know Gaba. You need a visa. You dot need to be a native speaker of you have a visa. If you don't they can sponsor you IF you are from a native English speaking co
Mate, they never said that you need to be from an English speaking country to qualify for visa sponsorship. As previously said, I have done my research and have been doing since last one and a half years.
And, it's widely know that GABA has many non-native instructors.

Welcome to 2015 mate!
 
Don't listen to these comments. I am a professor at a university in the middle east and I can tell you first hand that the best, most eager and smartest students in my class are Indian. They are also respectful and can write essays better than most native speakers.
I think your resume is great too in the way it stands out, it is good for a entry-level job such as Eikaiwa or ALT. Too bad you don't have a native-speaker passport. Your grammar and spelling is a bit iffy, but no worse than the typical uni grad, most people here are English teachers and that is the only reason they are good at grammar, I bet they weren't when they just graduated from uni. Gaba do hire non-native speakers and so do the ALT companies, I have no idea re visas and things like that, but I am sure there are ways around it I knew of a few exceptions.
 
You're going to have trouble if they have native speakers involved in the hiring process. While your English communication skills are excellent, your writing is full of the sort of tiny errors which don't affect the ability to be understood but which grate on the ears of native speakers. Mostly they are errors of subject-verb number agreement (third-person singular "s") and either unnatural choice of prepositions or dropping of prepositions. Probably a great many non-native English speakers would mistakenly assume you to be a native (whether you told them you are or not), but you need to watch out for the tiny unnatural errors if you hope to have your resume considered above those from competing native speakers.

I believe there is also an Immigration requirement regarding having a certain number of years of education in an all-English setting for non-native applicants wishing to enter Japan as English teachers. This is an aspect you need to investigate, as it doesn't matter if a school wants to hire you or not if you can't meet the visa requirements.
 
Since I mentioned my experience with Gaba in the other thread, I'd like to point out that although Gaba does employ non-native speakers, they hire people who are already in Japan, and do not sponsor visas. I asked about this and the recruiter I talked to said they would conceivably offer to sponsor someone who was a good teacher and wanted to come back, but it sounded like this rarely happened, if ever.

If being a native speaker is a visa requirement, you'll have to find some other way to get your foot in the door.
 
Don't listen to these comments. I am a professor at a university in the middle east and I can tell you first hand that the best, most eager and smartest students in my class are Indian. They are also respectful and can write essays better than most native speakers.
I think your resume is great too in the way it stands out, it is good for a entry-level job such as Eikaiwa or ALT. Too bad you don't have a native-speaker passport. Your grammar and spelling is a bit iffy, but no worse than the typical uni grad, most people here are English teachers and that is the only reason they are good at grammar, I bet they weren't when they just graduated from uni. Gaba do hire non-native speakers and so do the ALT companies, I have no idea re visas and things like that, but I am sure there are ways around it I knew of a few exceptions.
Thanks you so much for the encouragement. I really appreciate it.

And you're right, I'm just a fresh university graduate with engineering degree in computer science. As mentioned in my previous comment, I haven't yet proofread my resume as it isn't the final version of my resume. There're few things I need to add in my resume. I just uploaded it so that people can look at it and let me know if the graphics are too much for a teaching job. I haven't started applying for any jobs yet, but I'm about to start soon.

These graphic resumes are always a calculated risk. There are chances that the HR would just trash it, and more so in case of Japanese as they are known for being conventional.
 
You're going to have trouble if they have native speakers involved in the hiring process. While your English communication skills are excellent, your writing is full of the sort of tiny errors which don't affect the ability to be understood but which grate on the ears of native speakers. Mostly they are errors of subject-verb number agreement (third-person singular "s") and either unnatural choice of prepositions or dropping of prepositions. Probably a great many non-native English speakers would mistakenly assume you to be a native (whether you told them you are or not), but you need to watch out for the tiny unnatural errors if you hope to have your resume considered above those from competing native speakers.

I believe there is also an Immigration requirement regarding having a certain number of years of education in an all-English setting for non-native applicants wishing to enter Japan as English teachers. This is an aspect you need to investigate, as it doesn't matter if a school wants to hire you or not if you can't meet the visa requirements.
Thank you so much for your honest opinion.

I'm fully aware of my shortcomings and I'm consistently working on improving. And as mentioned earlier, the resume that I uploaded isn't the final version of my resume. Therefore, I haven't proofread it yet. I just uploaded it so that people can look at it and let me know if the graphics are too much for a teaching job, and if I should just stick to the conventional standard resume format. I know that I'll be competing against native speakers for the job, but that's what excites me even more.

I had my education in an all-English school for my whole education, i.e, from kindergarten to my university. So I'm pretty sure that I meet the minimum criteria for visa. The only thing that I'm nervous about, are the interviews.
 
Since I mentioned my experience with Gaba in the other thread, I'd like to point out that although Gaba does employ non-native speakers, they hire people who are already in Japan, and do not sponsor visas. I asked about this and the recruiter I talked to said they would conceivably offer to sponsor someone who was a good teacher and wanted to come back, but it sounded like this rarely happened, if ever.

If being a native speaker is a visa requirement, you'll have to find some other way to get your foot in the door.
Thank you for sharing the information.

I just wanted to ask, when did you talked to the recruiter about this issue? I mean was it recent or couple of years ago?

As on the official site, GABA clearly mentions that they do sponsor visas and they even conduct overseas interviews and even via Skype or telephone. And I can assure you that being a native speaker isn't a visa requirement, as there are already lots of non-native working in GABA and I have inquired about the same from trusted sources. If you have worked for GABA in the past, you should be aware of these facts.
 
Don't listen to these comments. I am a professor at a university in the middle east and I can tell you first hand that the best, most eager and smartest students in my class are Indian. They are also respectful and can write essays better than most native speakers.

No one was was questioning his intelligence, eagerness, or ability to express himself well in English or denigrating his national origin.

...most people here are English teachers and that is the only reason they are good at grammar, I bet they weren't when they just graduated from uni.

Actually, for an English language Japan-related forum we have a rather small proportion of English teachers. Many of our members with the best English grammar and composition skills are non-native speakers of English. Others of us are simply old enough to have grown up in an era when grammar was still taught in public school systems and can string a sentence together despite the lack of a university degree....unlike many younger university graduates who grew up in an era where early exposure to grammar education is sorely wanting and an era in which "textspeak" has devalued and eroded the ability to write in complete sentences.
 
Thank you for sharing the information.

I just wanted to ask, when did you talked to the recruiter about this issue? I mean was it recent or couple of years ago?
This was Spring of 2007. I was just part-timing to earn some pocket change and have a different experience. Gaba was a fun distraction, and the flexible schedule was perfect for my situation, but it was apparent that doing it to earn a living would be really challenging. As an "independent contractor," we weren't considered employees and did not qualify for benefits. This didn't matter to me at the time because I was already covered through my school, but if it's your main gig, this poses a problem.

As on the official site, GABA clearly mentions that they do sponsor visas and they even conduct overseas interviews and even via Skype or telephone. And I can assure you that being a native speaker isn't a visa requirement, as there are already lots of non-native working in GABA and I have inquired about the same from trusted sources. If you have worked for GABA in the past, you should be aware of these facts.
What they say and what they do in practice can be two different things. They can sponsor visas for a handful of teachers and then claim they do sponsor visas, even though 99.9% of their workforce is already in Japan on their own. And as I said before, the fact that non-natives teach for Gaba is NOT proof about any visa requirements, because most of their teachers are already in Japan on their own (hence my comment about getting your foot in the door). Gaba has a smart business model, but it's not very beneficial to teachers looking for a full-time gig.

I'm just saying, don't take it all at face value, and I wouldn't put all your eggs in Gaba's basket. Unless a lot has changed since I was there, it doesn't make much business sense to go out of their way to hire overseas and hold someone's hand to bring them over to Japan for the first time. The situation the recruiter cited as a possibility was if someone who had success working for Gaba and wanted to return to Japan, i.e. was already capable of living and working in Japan, and had already demonstrated their value to the company. Have any of your trusted sources met a Gaba teacher whose visa was sponsored by Gaba? I'd be interested to hear about those circumstances.
 
You need a visa to work in Japan. It doesn't matter who will or won't hire non-native English speakers, the point is they can not if you have a passport from a country that does not have a visa programe with Japan. If you are a student in Japan you could pick up some part time work but schools cannot hire people and sponsor a visa if your country does not qualify.
 
Some of the comments about visas are a bit off here. You must be hired first, and then you apply for the visa. Not before you land the job. And, only if you qualify for the work visa will you get it. So it's possible someone would want to hire you, but you would not make it through the visa application process.

That said, your statement about attending all-English classes all your life is indeed the ticket for a non-native speaking country.

Re: your resume
You've pretty much answered your own question:
. It's my first time applying for a teaching job and I'm quite serious about it. So my question is, should I use graphic resumes or a plain standard resume?

I'll mostly be submitting my resumes through gaijinpot.com or online.

Also, not to forget the mentality of the Japanese people. They are know to stick with the conventional rule
 
This was Spring of 2007. I was just part-timing to earn some pocket change and have a different experience. Gaba was a fun distraction, and the flexible schedule was perfect for my situation, but it was apparent that doing it to earn a living would be really challenging. As an "independent contractor," we weren't considered employees and did not qualify for benefits. This didn't matter to me at the time because I was already covered through my school, but if it's your main gig, this poses a problem.

What they say and what they do in practice can be two different things. They can sponsor visas for a handful of teachers and then claim they do sponsor visas, even though 99.9% of their workforce is already in Japan on their own. And as I said before, the fact that non-natives teach for Gaba is NOT proof about any visa requirements, because most of their teachers are already in Japan on their own (hence my comment about getting your foot in the door). Gaba has a smart business model, but it's not very beneficial to teachers looking for a full-time gig.

I'm just saying, don't take it all at face value, and I wouldn't put all your eggs in Gaba's basket. Unless a lot has changed since I was there, it doesn't make much business sense to go out of their way to hire overseas and hold someone's hand to bring them over to Japan for the first time. The situation the recruiter cited as a possibility was if someone who had success working for Gaba and wanted to return to Japan, i.e. was already capable of living and working in Japan, and had already demonstrated their value to the company. Have any of your trusted sources met a Gaba teacher whose visa was sponsored by Gaba? I'd be interested to hear about those circumstances.
I'm totally aware of the GABA's reputation, and trust me GABA is not my main gig. I just mentioned it's name as an example of few companies that do hire non-natives.

Actually, my main sources are GABA themselves. I called their main office in Tokyo, and they said that they would sponsor visa if the applicant has been offered the contract. To keep the sponsorship is a different story. You have to earn 250,000 yen a month for the first 6 months in order to keep the sponsorship. Another source of mine is a German guy who visited my country on a vacation, and I just happened to meet him luckily about 4 months ago. He worked for GABA full-time and was recruited from this home country. He said that he was offered the visa without any hassle. Although, he was not quite happy with the job though.

Anyways, if GABA can get my foot in Japan, I don't mind their poor working conditions for few months.
 
Some of the comments about visas are a bit off here. You must be hired first, and then you apply for the visa. Not before you land the job. And, only if you qualify for the work visa will you get it. So it's possible someone would want to hire you, but you would not make it through the visa application process.

That said, your statement about attending all-English classes all your life is indeed the ticket for a non-native speaking country.
Yes, I totally agree with you. You first need to be hired to apply for the visa. People from non-native countries can get a work visa to teach English if they had 12+ years of education in English. "12+ years of education in English" is the only requirement for non-natives to get a work visa. This fact has been inquired and confirmed from the Japanese embassy itself. You don't need to be a native English speaker to qualify your visa.

You need a visa to work in Japan. It doesn't matter who will or won't hire non-native English speakers, the point is they can not if you have a passport from a country that does not have a visa programe with Japan. If you are a student in Japan you could pick up some part time work but schools cannot hire people and sponsor a visa if your country does not qualify.
Do you have any definite proof saying that only native speaker would get a work visa? Have you asked the Japanese embassy itself?
There might be some countries that doesn't have visa program with Japan, but India is definitely not one of them. So, please stop saying I won't get a visa. I already told you that I had done my fair share of research. The problem here isn't if I would get a visa or not. I asked if I should use my graphic resume for the job. Period.
 
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