NYT: Tweeting your way to a job
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Not saying this is for everyone, but never hurts to get new perspectives on ways to think about your job search.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/fashion/21whiz.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&emc=eta1
You can apply the same logic to writing posts on JetWit. So get in touch if you’d like to write and also help yourself with your job search at the same time.
For all the journalists and aspiring journalists out there, and heck, for all the writers too, Greg from TheDigitalists.com addresses a relevant question in the larger quest to figure out how newspapers are going to make money on the internet: What would micropayments mean for journalists?
I just found out there’s now a Facebook group for Unemployed JET Alumni: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=8123&uid=12199296553#/group.php?gid=12199296553
Lee-Sean Huang (Oita-ken, 2003-06)–webmaster for both JETAA NY and JetWit–just shared a great new site for non-profit jobs: Jobs For Change (jobs.change.org/).
Jobs for Change seeks to spark a nationwide movement toward careers in the nonprofit, government, and social enterprise sectors. (Read more about their mission.)
We post a lot of jobs and other work opportunities on JetWit. Occasionally I happen hear from JET alums I know that they got a job from a posting on JetWit, or they picked up freelance translation work perhaps.
Anecdotal is nice, but I’d like to get a more concrete sense of how helpful the site has been for finding work or income.
So if you’ve found a job or work opportunity or even a volunteer opportunity through a posting on JetWit, I’d like to ask you to write a short post about it here. Or feel free to put it in an e-mail to jetwit [at] jetwit [dot] com.
Thanks and yoroshiku.
Learning to Blog Workshop #3
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We just did the third JETAA NY Learning to Blog Workshop on Tuesday night, again at the Cosi cafe on 31st & Park Ave. and again it was successful and a lot of fun.
JET alum attendees included a financial journalist, a music producer, an editor in the publishing world, a junior high school art teacher, and a scholarship program director. We even had a cameo from my younger brother Greg, who has his own blog called TheDigitialists.com that I occasionally post from on JetWit.
By 8:00 p.m., everyone had their own blog and knew things like:
- the difference between WordPress, Blogspot, Blogger and Typepad
- the difference between a post and a page
- how to change themes
- how to add widgets, like RSS feeds
- what an RSS feed is and how to take advantage of it
- how to create pages and sub-pages
and lots of other useful things for getting their blogs set up for career development and other purposes.
Adren Hart, the guy behind JETAA Ongaku Connection, e-mailed afterwards to say:
I feel like I have a better sense of the basics of WordPress and would be able to create and manage my own blog. I found the background info on the differences between WP and Blogspot, etc. quite useful as well as how to use widgets for specific tasks (e.g., embedding rss feeds from other sites).
Stay tuned for future workshop dates. If interested, e-mail me at jetwit [at] jetwit [dot] com.
Ethics CLE in Tokyo/Seeking speaker on Japanese securities law
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Osaka-based JET alum lawyer Sean McIntire Allen, the founder of the Japan Legal group on LinkedIn, posted the following on the group list, which might be of interest to some other JET alums out there:
Ethics CLE in Tokyo & looking for speaker on Japanese Securities Law
TUJ Law Dean Matthew Wilson is presenting a CLE on legal ethics for a foreign bar association in Tokyo on Thursday 20 May 2009 at 19:00. The CLE will be simultaneously available in Osaka via video-conference. For more information, please see: www.gaiben.jp/kara/cle/s/EIN.
Also, the same bar association is interested in finding a speaker to present in English on Japanese Securities Law. If you would like to speak on Japanese Securities Law, or another CLE topic, please complete the Prospective Speaker questionnaire at: http://www.gaiben.jp/kara/cle/spkr . Thanks.
Baker’s Dozen 二番： Should I Stay or Should I Go?
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Eric Baker (Fukuoka-ken, 2006-08) hopes he is approaching the end of a year of travel and reconnecting. He’ll be writing about his thoughts and experiences as he transitions back to working in the States.
Should I stay or should I go now?…
This indecision’s bugging me.
Post-JET I hit the road for five months and ran into all sorts of people. For the inevitable question “where are you from?” I kept stock answers based on who I was chatting with. So for the toothless Syrian shepherd who’s English consisted of “Bush. Bad!”—vigorously illustrated with furrowed brow and shaking head—followed by “Obama. Good!” I threw out my vigorous nose point and Japanese accented “America.” This built enough rapport to move on to higher-level discussions, like “Clinton! Very good!” followed by suggestively arched bushy eyebrows, gaping smile and hip gyrations.
For the umpteenth hawker, I’d occasionally throw out something exciting like “I’m Japanese” or “I’m from Holland.” Either they’d be confused or annoyed and leave me alone or we’d start in on a more interesting conversation. “(playfully) Noooo. Really, where are you from?” In a small Egyptian town I spent two insightful days hanging out with a shopkeeper and his friends after starting a conversation like this.
I loved being able to connect with Japanese backpackers, who were universally びっくり！ that I could speak Japanese. I often had to say a few sentences in Japanese before they could comprehend that this white face was Read More
The Digitalists: State of the Media 2009
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For the benefit of all the JET alum journalists, aspiring journalists and writers of all stripes out in the JET-osphere, I thought I’d share a recent post from my bookworm brother Greg, who works in online marketing and is in the process of digesting the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism’s extensive report:
Good overview from the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism. I’m still working through the complete report (which apparently tops out at 700 pages), so for now I’ll just focus on some of the major trends they identify:
The growing public debate over how to finance the news industry may well be focusing on the wrong remedies while other ideas go largely unexplored.
Forget about micropayments and changing to non-profit status. And forget about a single revenue source being the magic bullet that will save the news business. Most likely, it will take a combination of new ideas, including “online retail malls” and “subscription-based niche products for elite professional audiences.” That last point is an important one; while it’s nearly impossible to get an audience to start paying for a service they’ve been receiving for free, there are always opportunities to upsell premium offerings to segments of your audience.
Power is shifting to the individual journalist and away, by degrees, from journalistic institutions.
This sounds like a good thing for journalists, but as Spider-man would say, with greater power comes greater responsibility; specifically, the responsibilities journalists used to depend on organizations to take care of such as editing, marketing and publicity.
On the Web, news organizations are focusing somewhat less on bringing audiences in and more on pushing content out.
This is another trend that’s potentially liberating, but also scary. When publishers bring users to their content, they also control the options for monetizing it. Even if (…continue reading)
Jobs: Pasona Canada Digest
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JetWit job poster Stephen Palanik (Fukushima Ken, 2004-08) learned of the following employment opportunites being offered through Pasona Canada and thought they might be of interest to former JETs in Canada. Stephen is a translator based in Hamamatsu city, Shizuoka Ken, and he periodically posts job listings and event information for JET alumni.
Job Title: Sr. Accountant
Job Number: AT 121727
Language: Japanese and English
Term: Full time
Description:
Implement reporting systems, policies, priorities, and procedures relating to financial management, projection, budgets, cost management, fixed assets, tax accounting and/or payroll for company and its related parties.
JetWit job poster Stephen Palanik (Fukushima Ken, 2004-08) learned of the following opportunity through Workopolis.com and thought it might be of interest to former JETs in the Richmond Hill area. Stephen is a translator based in Hamamatsu city, Shizuoka Ken, and he periodically posts job listings and event information for JET alumni.
Recruitment firm Inteqna is looking to fill the following position. Knowledge of Japanese and experience programming in Japan is a major advantage.
The client, a leading software development company, is looking for a senior software developer with mobile phone games development experience.
The mobile game developer position is for a talented, responsible and self-reliant developer. The candidate will understand all aspects of mobile game development, as well as possess the depth of skill required to bring a successful title from inception through to launch and code maintenance.
JetWit job poster Stephen Palanik (Fukushima Ken, 2004-08) learned of the following opportunity through Workopolis.com and thought it might be of interest to former Canadian JETs living in Tokyo. Stephen is a translator based in Hamamatsu city, Shizuoka Ken, and he periodically posts job listings and event information for JET alumni.
Executive search and outplacement firm PeopleFind Inc. is looking to fill the following position with a semiconductor developer in Tokyo.
The client develops silicon and circuit solutions for network and end-point equipment manufacturers within the telecom industry.
The Customer and Sales Support Engineer is responsible for daily technical support operations and serves as a technical liaison to the client’s Japanese customers in the pre- and post-sale phases.
Other responsibilities include the following:
Handle, reproduce, and solve the clients’ technical issues and requests (30%)
Serve as a technical liaison between Japanese customers and the Montreal-based support team (20%)
Serve as a technical resource for the sales team (15%)
Help clients integrate the products into their systems (20%)
Prepare and perform product demonstrations and training (10%)
Prepare product example code and collateral documents (5%)
Click here to view the original posting on Workopolis.com for more information and to apply.
JetWit job poster Stephen Palanik (Fukushima Ken, 2004-08) learned of the following opportunity through Workopolis.com and thought it might be of interest to former JETs in the Toronto area. Stephen is a translator based in Hamamatsu city, Shizuoka Ken, and he periodically posts job listings and event information for JET alumni.
Responsibilities:
To meet and exceed customer expectations by providing the best possible travel and concierge service with premium value. Responsible for providing travel services for Amex Premium card members in Japan from Canada in a call centre environment. Travel counsellors are responsible for providing quality service, timely and accurate completion travel arrangements and the sale of value added services assisting the card member with all travel needs including concierge service. Call center is for mainly MTS Japan clients hence most of customer communication is in Japanese language. The candidate must be selfmotivated and have the ability to perform in a team environment. This position requires flexibility to work various shifts as determined by customer call volumes and business needs.
Qualifications:
Japanese language skill both verbal and written. General Travel knowledge. GDS skill is a plus.
Click here to view the original posting on Workopolis.com for more information and to apply.
JETAA NY Learning to Blog Workshop: Part 2
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Update:
I ran the second “JETAA NY Learning to Blog Workshop” last Wednesday evening, April 29 in the back of Cosi on 31st & Park, not knowing quite what to expect. It turned out to be a lot of fun and everyone found it helpful and productive. (Click here to read about the first one.)
- We covered the basics of blogs (what they’re good for; advantages and disadvantages of WordPress, Blogspot, Blogger, etc.; posts vs. pages; using RSS feeds) as well as some more advanced topics (driving traffic; creative strategies; adding users). By the time we were done, everyone had set up their own blog and was ready to go.
- The attendees included two translators and three people who had started their own businesses. One of the translators wanted to create a forum for his writing. The other translator was inspired by the discussion of blogs at the JET Alumni Author Showcase (where Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06) and Rob Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04) all discussed how they resisted at first but now are glad they followed their publishers’ suggestions to start blogs.)
- One of the JET alum entrepreneurs, Adrienne Smith (CIR Tochigi-ken, 1997-99), founder of Harlem Hip-Hop Tours (www.h3tours.com), said she had been thinking of starting a blog to help promote her tour business but had been holding herself back and appreciated the workshop because it lifted the “technology fog” for her.
- Frank Luo (Fukuoka-ken, 1997-99), a Chinese-English translator, said afterwards, “It was really helpful… An efficient walk through on the mechanics of how to start a blog and why do it on WordPress, plus a few other useful bits of information. We also floated a few ideas on how to expand the scope of the workshops to make them more helpful to aspiring writers as well as those who are trying to promote their business through blogs.” (Frank, by the way, brought a nifty little netbook, which we all sat around and marveled at for 5 minutes.)
- Additionally, Friend of JET (FOJ) Jon Hills, a more experienced blogger who writes the J-News Mini-Roundup column for JetWit and also writes a blog for Hills Learning, a NY-based Japanese language learning services company he started, came to help out and also share a few new tricks (like adding blog functionality to a WindowsLive-based website). He said afterwards he really appreciated having a chance to meet other people running businesses in a setting where everyone was working together towards a common goal.
Going forward
I’ll likely do one or two more blog workshops at Cosi or, if the weather’s nice, perhaps in Bryant Park after work one day. If you’d like to be notified of future workshops, please feel free to contact me at professional [at] jetaany [dot] org.
Looking ahead, it would be nice for the “workshop” to evolve into a monthly “meetup” for JET alums and FOJs at beginner, advanced and in-between levels to spend some time working together, sharing experiences and tips and, of course, helping beginners learn to get started and have an opportunity to ask all the same “dumb” questions that I’ve asked along the way.
Additionally, for readers outside the NYC area, it would be great for people to get JET alum blog workshops going in other areas. It’s a useful career tool and also a nice way to bring people together.
Baker’s Dozen by Eric Baker
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Eric Baker (Fukuoka-ken, 2006-08) will be writing the Baker’s Dozen column as he approaches the end of a year of travel and reconnecting. He will discuss his thoughts and experiences as he transitions back to working in the States after two years on JET.
Like many folks, I discovered JetWit through a JET friend. Joining the Facebook group, I began exchanging messages with Steven, our prescient leader, who suggested I start writing a few posts about my life as I, too, join the increasingly anxious fray of those looking for work. 
You may wonder how it came to pass that I’m starting these posts now, in May. I’m either ahead of the game for an ’09 JET or way behind for the group who finished in the summer of ’08. As you may have guessed, I’m the latter–I took a scenic western route returning from Japan to round out 2008. This year I’ve balanced my time between reading and fitness binges at “home” in Detroit, and with a number of week or two-long stints on the road, reconnecting with my diaspora of American friends, seeing how they live.
So far I’ve found value through the ups and downs of my deliberately gradual reentry. But while my old friends are well on their varied roads to success, evidenced in their shapely Apple and Ikea products and the flatscreen TV pandemic (when did that happen?), I turn 25 tomorrow, am living with my parents, and am increasingly in need of that pension refund. I check my account most days for that deposit, and in the meantime my 0% American Express keeps me afloat. But with my Nokia prepaid phone, goodwill cutlery and non-HD compatible 27″ JVC, I’m clinging to the fringes of social acceptance.
In fits and starts, I’m making the inevitable transition to commence thinking about and searching for my next job. I’ve missed most grad school deadlines, so that is eliminated for now. But most everything else is up in the air. Like my friends, I’m happy to move since—my pride in the Great Lakes (五大湖, anyone?) and ability to use my right hand as a map of my state aside—finding work in Michigan isn’t realistic right now. And for better or worse, I sometimes feel more socially isolated being temporarily back “home” than I did in my inaka hamlet. I’m becoming antsy to really Read More
