[RedRocket]

Hey guys,

thanks for the advice, very useful to hear from people who've been there and done that.

LeslieW in response to your question, i'm lucky enough to have some ex-pat friends in Japan who've lived and worked there for a long time now, and who are able to assist me in finding a job(s), so at this stage I won't be using JET, NOVA or any other recruiting agency.

From my reading of various other posts, I should be grateful! Some of these recruiting agencies seem to be verging on serious extortion, blackmail, and exploitation offences from what past teachers on this site and others say they have experienced.

To be fair, I haven't yet read anything negative about JET or NOVA, on the contrary actually, but still good to be educated on the reality that can sometimes be seen through rose-tinted glasses when caught up in the excitement and adventure of it all.

I particularly feel for the people who've forked out considerable money to fly half way around the world, to work a job, whose role and conditions have been flagrantly mis-represented, for less money than they were promised, in a hostile, unsupportive environment.

If that weren't bad enough, i've read some people in addition to the above, have found themselves in the predicament of being unable to leave because they cannot afford the flight home, when they do finally manage to get out they've lost huge money and are traumatised for the experience.

If that is not the stuff of nightmares I don't know what is.

It's like everything in life where money is involved, there will always be people happy to sell their soul to make a buck.

That being said i'm sure the good experiences outweigh the bad, i'm just at the end of a bad experience reading marathon, I need to go to my happy place now.

RedRocket