Hiro’s career exploration: Professor

About being a professor

First of all, let me talk about my MBPI results briefly. My personality type is INTJ, so I am kind of a perfectionist, private and creative person. Expected careers for INTJ people could be as a scientist, writer, doctor or professor. I have chosen to investigate the career of professor.

Next, I am going to talk about a professor’s work conditions. Basically, they do lectures or research, so their work places would be universities, high schools or labs. Actually, they do not have tight schedules except when they need to teach classes. They have 3~5 classes a week, and they do research or have meetings with students during the rest of the time. Many professors have a part-time job as a writer or commentator, but being a part-time teacher is the most popular thing.

Now I will talk about the way to become a professor. This is the basic way to be a professor, and of course there are some other ways. At first, a Ph.D. is needed! Getting this advanced degree will help your career move forward. To get a Ph.D., you will need to study at a grad school for at least 5 years, so the youngest age you could start your career would be at age 27.

Next, I will examine the job outlook for professors. The future prospects for would-be professors is decreasing in Japan. The main reason for this is the declining population. This is true not only in Japan, but also in the U.S.

Now I would like to talk about salary. I think most of you will want to know about this. Entry-level salaries are about four million dollars, and up to 12 million dollars can be earned for experienced professors. Of course you can earn much more money depending on what your part time job is.The following list shows you about the career path of a professor. At first, many people get a job as a teaching assistant when they are a graduate student. Actually, this is not a paying job. It is a kind of volunteer position that helps you gain experience. Then, after finishing graduate school, people start their career as an assistant professor at around the age of 27. Later, they become an associate professor in their middle of thirties to forties. Finally they can become a professor in their fifties. However, this is very traditional career path, and the situation will soon change.

In this section, I will talk about advantages and disadvantages of being a professor. First, professors can do what they want to do. In other words, professors research or study some academic field that they really interested in, and this is so attractive because most people do what they want as a hobby and it never makes them any money. In addition, professors have more free time compared with people who work for a company. Of course this is NOT free time actually, because they have many tasks including their research, class work, and some desk work. One more thing: professors have less stress than people working for company because they usually work individually so nobody watches over their work. However, professors need plenty of knowledge, so you have to study very hard. In addition, you need a vast amount of money to earn a Ph.D. This might be the biggest wall to becoming a professor. And, once you earn a Ph.D, really heavy competition is waiting for you. There are so many people waiting for job offers from universities.

Now I’d like to give you my final impressions about being a professor. Through my research for this presentation, I really got interested in the work of professors. Actually, I am looking for a job where I can really take advantage of my skills. The work professors do really hits me in my mind, and the working conditions are attractive to me. I am not sure what I will do after a couple of years, but becoming a professor might be my final career goal.

Ayumi’s career exploration : English Teacher for Children

Here is my presentation on Teaching English to children.

We did a test that matches our personality to various careers, and its called the Myers-Briggs Personality test. There are 16 types, and I was an ENFJ, which is called “The Giver.” The main careers for this personality type are counsellor, trainer, designer, marketing specialist and teacher. I chose teacher because I am interested in teaching English, especially to children.

There are 2 main places where English teachers for kids work. First there are private English schools, such as ECC, Aeon, Peppy, and YAMAHA. Secondly, there are the places where everyone goes, elementary schools. There are many differences between these two working places, but the big one is class size. In addtion, in elementary schools there is a possibility of doing team teaching while in private schools it is mostly individual teaching.

The working hours, salary, and everything else depends on where you work, so from now on I would like to focus on teaching at a private school. To be a private school English teacher, you need a college or university degree. Additionally, you could take the J-Shine as an extra qualification. This is a qualification where you can learn how to teach English to children. You can take it in japan, or you can also take it abroad. I took it in Australia in 6 weeks. It was not easy, but it made me feel I want to do this job.

Teaching English to children is a job that is increasing. From 2011 English will be a subject in elementary schools in Japan. As a result, many parents want their children to go to English cram schools. However, it is a career that is changing and growing, so people doing this job must remain flexible.

The salary depends on where you work. Taking Yamaha, for example, if you work 4 days a week and have a TOEIC score of 730 and 60 students, you can earn about 136,000 yen/month. If you work 6 days a week, have a 730 TOEIC score and have 80 students, it will be about 185,000 yen. In other words, your salary depends on your hours, TOEIC score, and the number of students you teach.

The best thing about the job is that you can get energy from children. On the other hand, you have to be always energetic with the children, too. Their are many people starting to teach English after marriage. This is a good thing for woman and there is also teaching English to children at your own home. You have to be careful with parents who are sometimes over-zealous. However, you can see the children growing and this gives you a positive feeling.

Finally, as I said before, this job is increasing. Everyone is starting to have a interest in English. However, even tough I recently saw that two places changed into English private schools, iit is not easy to find a full time job right now. However, I think that will change, and I believe in the future a lot of children will start liking English.

Thank you for reading about my presentation.

Kanan’s career exploration: Personal Assistant

Hello, everyone!!

My name is Kanan Sawa and this little star is my assistant. We are going to tell you about being a personal assistant (PA).

First, my Myers-Briggs test was ENFJ. This means that I’m good at counseling, psychology, social work, education, and so on. The reason why I picked up a personal assistant is that I want to enter the FIFA (Soccer Association) and it was recruiting for this job.

There are some famous examples of PAs. This guy is President Obama, of course, but do you know this guy? His name is Reggie Love, and he is a Obama’s personal assistant. He used to be an NBA player, but he changed careers to become a personal assistant.

Now, let’s talk about work conditions. Personal assistants normally work at companies, government agencies, and hospitals. They work about 40h per week and sometimes travel with their employers. Without doubt, PAs are on-call. If their employers need something, they have to go or do things for them. PAs have part-time opportunities, but it only with companies which don’t have enough money. Basically, they keep normal schedules but it depends on their employers.

Next, qualifications: PAs need excellent organisational, written, and spoken communication skills in addition to computer and administrative skills. Moreover, multi-tasking and working on your own initiative abilities are needed. PAs don’t have to have licenses, but if you have one, it will be advantageous. CPS (Certified professional Secretary) and CBS (Certified Bilingual Secretary) licences are two examples. In Japan, Hisho-kentei is the most common license. As I said before, anyone can be a PA, but there are some secretarial courses in schools that include shorthand, typing, word processing and computing skills.

Next, I want to introduce about the job outlook for PAs. I can say that PAs are and are not in demand. The reason is that the position is limited. PAs are needed by some directors of big companies, the central government, media, and local authorities. Therefore, if the economy is good and many PAs quit their job, then demand for the position increases.

Starting salaries for PAs are around $18,000 to $ 25,000 per year. I found that some PAs earn as much as $85,000 per year, so you have good experience and skills your salary will be higher.

There are many advantages to being a PA. PAs can perform big projects with their mangers. If the project succeed, they can feel great achievement from being part of the team. Moreover, PAs often realize that the manager needs them. Without PAs, managers may not be able to do anything. PAs have to follow their managers everywhere, so when managers go abroad, they can go with them. Similarly, they sometimes can have nice dinners. On the other hand, there are also some disadvantages. I mentioned it before as an advantage, but PAs have to follow their managers almost everywhere. This can be stressful because PAs are at the beck and call of their managers. In other words, PAs have little contorol over their own schedule.

My final impression about this PA job is that it seems very interesting. However, this job totally depends on the manager, so if the manager is not nice, I really do not want to be a PA. However, if the manager is nice, being a PA could be very exciting. Hopefully this helps you to understand more about PA career. If you want to get this kind of job, you should do it!

Chie’s career exploration: Financial Analyst

Hello, everyone. My name is Chie. Today, I am going to tell you about being a financial analyst.

According to my Myers-Briggs test results, my personality type was EMTJ. This means that I am very extroverted, and I like to have responsibility and be a leader. My personality fits some careers, such as bankers, labour relation leaders, project managers, and financial planners. From these results, I chose Financial analyst to research. Financial analysts help people decide on how to invest their money. They often work for banks, insurance companies, mutual funds, and securities firms.

Financial analysts work for a long hours. Sometimes, they work overtime and on weekends. In addition, their schedules are filled with telephone calls and meetings, and travel is a part of their work because they have to visit customers’ houses to discuss investments. Also, they have to be on call, so iit is difficult to do this part time because analysts have to work such long hours. Working as a financial analyst is also charged with high risk, for if they make mistake, it would be possible to make a company bankrupt.

Financial analysts need skills to successful, such as math, computer, and communication skills to explain difficult things to customers easily. A college degree in business, accounting, statistics, or fiance is also necessary, and an MBA is also desirable.

Regarding the job outlook for financial analysts, the number of employed in 2008 was 250,600. It is expected that this number will reach 300,300 in 2018. In May 2008, the lowest salary was $43,440 and the highest one was $141,070. To get promoted, analysts need four years of related experience and pass three exams, but their salary could be higher depending on their customers and the amount of achievement.

The advantages of being a financial analyst include good pay, having a lot of knowledge about the economy, and related careers for lateral transfer such as accountants and sale agents. Some disadvantages are the high risks, stress, the need to be decisive, and the years of study it takes to become an analyst.

As you know, before getting a well-paid job such as financial analyst, it is difficult to become because you have to learn a lot of things and get a graduate degree. Whether you will become one or not must be a big bet in your life. Moreover, you have high risk from deciding where to invest money. However, I think this is a good job because the costumers will be happy if you make a lot of effort at work. Money is important for every one’s lives, so this job is worth doing.

Career discovery presentations

For our 1st prensentation, students took a version of the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory (MBPI) test online and came up with a list of careers that could be a match for their personality type. From this list each student choose one career to explore in detail. They all researched the following aspects of the career:

  • Working conditions: Where do people doing this career work? What are typical working hours? Are they on-call? Do they often need to work overtime?
  • Qualifications: What qualifications are needed for this career? What skills and abilities are required or would be helpful to have?
  • Job outlook: What is the overall hiring trend for this career? Is it increasing, decreasing, or staying level? Is it hard to find a job? Why or why not? Are part-time opportunities available?
  • Salary: What is the average starting salary? What can you expect to earn with more experience?
  • Advantages/Disadvantages: What are the good and bad points of this career?
  • Overall impressions: What are your impressions of this career? Can you imagine yourself doing it? Why or why not?

Some of the students already had a clear idea of what they wanted to do, so this project helped them clarify they career goals. Most students, however, were not clear on what they wanted to do. This project helped them consider doing something they had not thought of before. In this way, even if they realized that the career they investigated was not for them, at least they learned what they didn’t want to do. Hopefully this can lead them a bit closer to realizing what career was right for them.

I hope you enjoy reading over these career explorations. The students put a lot of work into them. By answering all of these questions, each student was able to learn a lot about a possible career type, even if they only realized that they did not want to do it. We hope that by reading their stories you will be able to think about what you would like to do.