Preparing your resume

Finally made the decision to head home and need to polish off the old resume? Still gonna be in Akita for a bit, but want to make sure you are in good shape when you leave? Then read on to learn the secrets and mysteries of putting your time in Akita to good use.

Useful resources

Before Your Job Interview

• Preparing your resume (PDF) - A well put together guide from 2010 that offers not only great general advice on how to put an modern resume together, but how to make your JET experience stand out as well.
• Vince's Resume Tips - A website run by Vince Ricci, a career coach and part time lecturer at Tokyo University that gives out pro bono advice to JETs looking to improve their prospects after JET. He presents every year at the CLAIR Returners Conference, and puts all of his presentations and information up on the web for anyone to use. A must see for ALTs and CIRs who are planning on ending their tenure.
• Writing Your Resume (C.V.) for Teaching in Japan- A must read article for those seeking English teaching positions in Japan.
• Top websites for finding ESL teaching positions in Japan
• JET Wit JET Alumni magazine and career center which posts new job openings worldwide frequently.
• Tips for Creating Video Resumes
• Resume Writing

Ways to improve your resume on JET

Employers will generally look at JET as being a great experience, particularly if you are going into education. They will, however, want to know how you used the JET experience to grow and learn new skills, especially if you have been in Akita for 3+ years. Here are some ways that you can show prospective employers how wicked smart and successful you are.

• Take up a leadership position in Charity Akita. Allows you to show off specific dollar totals and concrete increases in fundraising over the years.
• Become a regular editor of the wiki. Jump on the web 2.0 bandwagon and show just how net-savvy you are. Probably also can be useful in showing employers how you "marketed" the website to a specific audience.
• Think about applying for a leadership position (Prefectural advisor/Block leader).
• Take Japanese proficiency tests. Say you are competing with 20 people for a Japanese speaking job. The people judging the applicants are going to use standard proficiency tests as an objective benchmark. This means that if you have JLPT 3, you could feasibly beat out someone with much better speaking ability, all because they don't have any written proof of their nihongo skills.

Sample Resumes

• Sample ALT resume (PDF)
• Sample CIR Resume (PDF)
• Sample PA Resume (PDF)