It took Me Seven Months to Get Hired
The Journey to becoming a Tour Guide in Japan isn’t straightforward. I left my job last July. Imagine that it takes more than half a year to get hired in the current job market. Scrambling for a job isn’t a foreign experience for me. I thought back to the time when I had just recently graduated college. At that time I went from one website to the next. The tedious adventure of filling in the same repetitive questions makes anyone crazy. To escape the twilight zone-esque time loop my parents suggested that I go to local businesses and apply in person.
I wanted to get a corporate job at Twitch, Google, or Riot Games. However, none of those companies took a chance on someone with a resume so outside of the box. My lack little experience or networking skills left me with no choice. Can you believe The Journey to becoming a Tour Guide in Japan started working as a dishwasher.
Strength of Small Businesses
There was one person who did take a chance with me. Nathan Craig was more than a boss. He took me under his wing and mentored me, I’m still friends with him today. An important lesson he taught me was to believe in my skills and abilities. He gave me permission to go for my dreams. After work we would spend time DJing, Going to Shows, or talking about life. Although I wanted to work for a cold heartless megacorporation(I’ve been playing Cyberpunk 2077). Sunset Auto Wholesale was a small independent dealership and business, that was more than a job. It was a lifelong connection, a warm environment that was like family. This past year Nate even hosted me at his house to meet another music producer named Stoutty.
A part of me wishes I would have stayed home working at Sunset Auto Wholesale and living at home. A part of me wishes The Journey to becoming a Tour Guide in Japan never started. But after reading The Hobbit and Into the Wild my heart too was yearning for adventure. My English teachers would be happy that I answered that call. In March of 2018, I found myself above the clouds on my way to Japan. I found more than adventure when I left everything I knew.
The Journey to becoming a Tour Guide in Japan: Starts With a Career in Japan
Like many expats in Japan, I started off doing ALT work. Chasing my passion for digital media I transitioned into a marketing assistant role at an international school based in Nagano. The virus that slowed the world to a crawl also had me back on the job market. As a result, it was difficult to find a job amidst the pandemic. Unexpectedly I was able to score my first job at a Japanese company. In Japanese companies, the hours were long and hard. Compared to pay of even minimum wage in America it was low. But even then the experience contributed toward my growth as a person.
Every tough experience you go through allows you to develop your character. If life was an RPG all of those quests you go through give you that experience you need. In the fires of daily life, you level up and gain new skill attributes. After working in a fabrication shop the next job I secured was at an international school in Iwate. Having an office job in a Western company was a cakewalk compared to a Japanese Black Company. I went above and beyond my role because I was thankful to be in that position.
The Journey to becoming a Tour Guide in Japan Means Standing Up For Your Values
Even when there was enough snow to restore the polar ice caps, life in Gunma was more difficult. After working at international schools, I’ve realized that some international school teachers have lived a pampered life. You can sense the amount of hardship someone has gone through after fielding some of their complaints. I’d like to state that there is a difference between doing something difficult like getting a master’s degree and hardship. I’d also like to state that there is value in working and getting practical experience. I believe in education but it’s sad how we place the value of a degree over life experience.
During my time working for that school, I gained enough confidence to do two important things. While these actions made my life difficult, they allowed me to see a glimpse of the person I’d become. During contract negotiations, I took a stand for both myself and the values I stood behind.
What International Schools Don’t Advertise
All international schools hide a deep, dark, and dirty secret that no one wants to talk about. In meetings, it often goes unaddressed. The inequality between international staff and internationally hired staff is unacceptable. Not only in terms of salary, but benefits, housing, and accommodation/support outside of work. While it is often brushed under the rug THIS EFFECTS EMPLOYEE HEALTH, UNITY, AND BUILDS RESENTMENT. I type that in all caps because it seems that international schools like to pretend this issue doesn’t exist. It’s no wonder why employee turnover is so high in these organizations.
Already awkward conversations around the coffee stand are given kaioken at international schools.
“How was your vacation”
“It was great, we went to Italy, then to Florence for a food tour. When we returned to Japan we went to see Kyoto. How about you”
“Oh I was working, but I did get to take two days off to drive to the prefecture over.”
Guess who was the international staff in the conversation above?
After a series of conversations like this, you tend to avoid conversations with the international staff. It’s a shame really because a lot of the people you avoid are great people. Tribalism is innately built into the roles and compensation provided. This divide breeds a toxic work environment.
The Journey to becoming a Tour Guide in Japan Included The Hardest Decision of My Life
During my contract negotiations, I asked for both higher pay and for this divide to be addressed. I didn’t get what I asked for. While I could have swallowed my pride and turned a blind eye to inequality. What followed was harder than mile high club on veteran. The hardest decision of my life was to leave my role and position. I was lucky to have family in Japan, otherwise I might have been living in my car. On the other side of this tough process, I’ve realized that it’s a lot easier to talk about your values. It’s another thing to live by those guiding principles. While not as radical as refusing to leave my bus seat, I will not stand for inequality.
When I entered the job market I was under a false impression. It might be easier given five years of working experience and competency. A false sense of optimism washed over me like a well-rested buff. I went about creating resumes custom-tailored to each workplace I was applying to.
The optimism quickly turned to apathy as I found myself in a death loop. A cascade of the same endless questions drained my sanity. Writing endless cover letters was like listening to your dad tell the same story like it was new.
Here are the sites I used and here is my experience with each one.
Gaijin Pot
The site I received the most responses and interviews from. The companies are interested in hiring if they post here. As with anything in life it helps to be one of the easy applications. This is the site where I received response emails and interviews at the highest rate.
Jobs in Japan
A close second place for me, I’ve had two interviews from the site despite around thirty applications. Corporations will at least respond to you if they aren’t interested.
USA Jobs
Looking for jobs on this site is a nightmare. Especially if you use the Japan location filter. It seems the job categorization is glitched. Open to the Public doesn’t always mean they give you SOFA, it’s not clear which jobs do. The response rate is slower than snails trapped in molasses during bullet time. Pay for the jobs seems pretty great. I only managed to get one interview. Most likely jobs are given to spouses preference or veterans due to preference to hire them. It honestly felt like a waste of time.
Indeed
I’ve gotten some interviews from this site. Indeed tends to spam you with emails from job recruiters “interested in you” but proceed to ghost you.
Recruiting Sites
I want to take the time and call out all these Headhunting employment firms for how useless they are. The big ones Hays, Robert Walters, Michael Page, and Robert Half simply ghosted me and gave absolutely no response.
I took the time to put my keyboard warrior skills to use. Hays in Yokohama can thank Daiki for a one-star rating on Google. While he initially responded to my initial email. I was informed he would help me find a job. There was one particular position at Nissan that looked like I’d be a good candidate for. Daiki then proceeded to ghost my emails. Thanks for nothing Daiki.
Individual Company Websites
A lot of jobs will be posted to the company websites only. The problem with these is that you have to know specific companies and sites in your area. Due to the smaller application pool, you will usually get a response that tells you that you’re unqualified. Don’t worry the company “keeps your file on record for any potential positions more suited to you”. Those are air quotes by the way. The resume goes into the recycle bin on their server PC.
The bad thing about these websites is that even though they have your information on file. You often have to MANUALLY FILL THE INFORMATION IN ANYWAY. What’s the point of keeping my information “on file”? Lastly, the majority of these websites’ user experience comes straight out of 1985s web design. It’s great if you want a blast to the past.
I left my favorite website to throw shade at for last. The toxic positivity dumpster fire that holds the record for the most cringe site on the internet is LinkedIn. People forty-five and up will speak about LinkedIn like it’s the first iPhone in 2007. In my experience, although it’s easy to apply for jobs with LinkedIn easy apply, receiving a response is another thing. I found that even using LinkedIn Premium to reach out to HR employees and recruiters was a fruitless endeavor. Don’t get me wrong I’m still going to shill out and post this blog/article to LinkedIn. I hate this website some of my favorite YouTube content is videos criticizing the concept of LinkedIn.
“Do you know that bland souless person you are at work? The mask you dawn so you can be socially acceptable and fit the company image and standards? Why not take that person home with you and be them all the time? House on fire? Don’t see it as a bad thing but an opportunity to rebuild. Are you in poverty? No, it’s the universe giving you an opportunity to raise capital. . .I could go on but you get the point.
Shaving off corners of my personality.
Although I hate the idea of shedding your identity and everything that makes you unique so you can fill a role I found myself doing just that. My resume went from an expression of myself, my style, and who I wanted to be to a generic Microsoft Word template.
Nothing screams conformity quite like a document like this. As much as I hated shaving corners off of my personality to fit in, my resume was starting to look as bland and lifeless as my cover letters. Instead of relying on relying on my original prose to craft bright and vivid imagery of my experiences I took my experiences and shoved them into an AI processing filter. At least this checked off job requirement boxes. This machined version of my life was probably going to be screened by artificial intelligence on the other end. While this deeply saddened every creative bone in my body, my perspective on LinkedIn as a tool shifted slightly after I received advice from a finance employee at a job expo.
Leveraging LinkedIn Cringe
“LinkedIn is a sales platform, think of it as selling yourself so don’t feel bad about catering your image there”
The Journey to becoming a Tour Guide in Japan Goes Where Life Takes You
Although I had lost hope a couple of months ago, right before I was going to call it quits and move home I had a series of interviews in an employment sector I hadn’t considered before. Like a series of late blooming flowers some of the applications turned into interviews and offers. Sometimes it takes things a while to come full circle but they do, when I first came to Japan I found myself in a tour group headed for Mount Fuji, a Ninja Village, and A beautiful shrine with a magically blue Koi Pond. Six years after living in the country I’d be the tour guide.
Today marks the day signed a contract that makes me an official Tour Guide of Eighty Days Japan. It’s a major career shift considering I’ve never worked in the hospitality and tourism industry, but I think it will be good for me. For those of you not informed, I was diagnosed with high-functioning Autism at about 21 years old. One of the reasons I found it so hard to find a job in 2017 when I graduated was my lack of networking, sales, and socializing skills. If you were going to tell me at that time that I’d eventually be a tour guide I’d laugh at you and ask if the Tour was on Summoner’s Rift, but I’m happy and looking forward to this next chapter in life and what it has to bring.
Days to Come
I have a weird metaphysical view of life. Whatever you want to call this higher power in our universe in life placed me here for a reason. Maybe it’s not where I want to be or environed myself in life, but perhaps it’s what my soul needs? As they say in half life the right man in the wrong place makes all the difference. I believe existence is the way the universe gets to know itself and hopefully on my soul journey whatever life brings me will prepare me for my next incarnation as a cat girl ba hahaha.
The Journey to becoming a Tour Guide in Japan has an End: Japan Exit Strategy
To close this rather long-winded blogpost I wanted to say that despite loving this country and everything it has to offer so much that I’ve even been selected to be a tour guide I’m crafting an exit strategy to leave the country. Some of the reasons include that my parents are getting older and I want to spend time with them, the value of the US dollar is strong, and the lifestyle in the US with having a kitchen and room to work.
Not only are Japanese people leaving their own country for better salaries and opportunities but I feel the time for me to return is coming as well. Like the prodigal son, I’ll return home, but with knowledge, perspective, and growth I wouldn’t have earned if I stayed home. When I return to the US, I’d like to try doing amateur motorsports and FPV drones. Finally, I plan to continue reaching for my dream of creating content via video, images, and music in the South Puget Sound area.
I hope you will follow my journey there as well.
Much Love 💓,
LaidbackMarco