Get Involved!

Getting involved with JetWit is a great way to contribute to and connect with the greater JET and JET alumni community while also developing your own skills and portfolio.

Below are a list of needs and other suggestions for getting involved with JetWit.  Of course, JetWit is always open to new ideas and trying things out, so don’t hesitate to get in touch with your own ideas or to brainstorm:  jetwit [at] jetwit [dot] com.

(Don’t know how to use WordPress blog interface?  We’ll help you figure it out.  Think of it as a great opportunity to learn a new skill and practice!)

JOBS/CAREER

Job Listings/Postings – JetWit is always looking for people to find, gather and post jobs that will be of interest to JETs and JET alumni.  You can even just pick one source to focus on.  Or focus on a particular country or region or kind of job if you want.

Career writing and advice – Do you want to write about your own career, work, job search experience?  Do you have a perspective that might be useful to the JET alumni community?  Are you struggling with your own job search as you stumble around the new economy?  Odds are, whatever your situation, you have some experience worth sharing that can provide benefit to other JETs and alums.

WRITING

Columns, Posts & Essays – You like to write.  You just need a place to share it and a little bit of structure.  Whether you want to write one piece or a recurring feature, get in touch to discuss your ideas and we’ll come up with something.

Blogs – Already have your own blog?  If it’s appropriate for JetWit, we encourage JET alums to post a segment of one of their posts on JetWit and have it link back to your blog for readers to read the whole post.  (See, e.g., Traveling Tastebuds by Devon Brown (Tokyo-ken, 2002-04))  It’s a good way to let the JET alum community know about good writers out there while driving more traffic to your blog.

Past Writing – Did you write something previously that you think the JET alum community might appreciate?  Send it in.  In addition to entertaining our readers, JetWit also serves as a growing archive of JET alum writing.

JetWit Blog Beat – We always need more people to help us cover the JET alum blogosphere.  Currently Crystal Wong and Kelly Nixon are writing JetWit Blog Beat posts, but there are far more good JET alum blogs out there than they can cover.

Round-ups – We currently have JETAA Chapter Beat by Jonathan Trace and Japan Society Round-up by Gail Cetnar Meadows.  If you have another idea for a round-up, get in touch.  For example, it’d be great to have a round-up of articles from various newsletters.

Regional posts – At present JetWit is fairly America-centric.

JetWit Lit – An idea for creating a sort of publishing arm for longer-form writing (i.e., essays, fiction, books, etc.)  If you have editing/publishing experience, or you want to gain editing/publishing experience, get in touch.  There are already some projects underway.  We just need someone to grab the ball and move them forward.

Art – There are many JET and JET alumni artists out there.  It would be great to have someone write posts about JETs and JET alums who are creating things, to let the community and the rest of the world know who they are, to help them connect with each other.

BUSINESS/ADVERTISING/PR/MARKETING

Ad Sales – There’s a lot of untapped potential for JetWit to generate ad revenue.  A good opportunity for anyone who wants to gain some sales/marketing experience and also perhaps earn some income for yourself.

Public realtions and promotion – JetWit is, among other things, a big communications channel and public relations mechanism for JET and the JET alumni community.  There are always opportunities and creative and fun ways  to promote JetWit and also to use JetWit to promote the accomplishments of JETs and JET alumni.  Get in touch if you have an idea or want to brainstorm.

NANDEMO

The ideas listed above are merely suggestions to provide a little structure.  JetWit is a big experiement, a place to try things out and even a place to make mistakes and learn in the process.  It’s an extremely flexible format, and there are plenty of other creative ways to take advantage of it that we haven’t even thought of (and maybe never will).  So if you think of something else, something new, something not mentioned above, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your ideas.  If you approach everything with an open mind, even seemingly bad ideas often lead eventually to good ideas.