Hello RTK universe,

I've come to a fork in the proverbial road here and I'm hoping to get some advice or a fresh perspective.

Let me give you a little background first. I'm 26 years old and I've been in Japan for over two years now teaching English. I came here with an eikaiwa fresh out of university but now I teach at a Junior High school (I got lucky and landed a direct hire gig with the board of education). I have a serious grilfriend here and I've got to start making some very important life decisions soon.

I could easily spend another few years in Japan and live happy and comfortably. However, I don't wanna be here as a 30 year old with only English teaching experience and then go looking for a job back home in Canada outside of the education industry, which is likely what will happen.

As of late I've started thinking about getting my MBA here in Japan. I think it would be a great opportunity to continue living here while not feeling so stagnant. It would also possibly afford me the opportunity of working both in North America and Japan which would be ideal. I have done a bit of research and have found there are two fairly famous North American schools over here offering MBAs in Tokyo in English. The first is Temple University from the states and the second is McGill University out of Canada.

Getting my MBA will be a big investment of both time and money so it's not something I can decide easily. I wanted to put it out there and get some feedback. All is welcome.

Thx

Even with the MBA you have to show your experience over the last several years that you've been in Japan and, your right, teaching English isn't going to look very good on a resume. The MBA will make you competitive, but someone with a bachelor's degree but four years of relevant experience will almost always win out over someone with a master's but no experience. If you're going to go back to Canada anyway, I would just say go back now and get your career started. Find a job in the business world and get your MBA at night.

If your girlfriend and you are heading down the marriage route then she will probably be willing to come with you to Canada and if you're not, then it's better that things end sooner rather than later.

Just my two cents...

If you want a future career that requires Japan related knowledge then the MBA in Japan would be a good option and is a good way to transition from education into business.

If you don't want to get into the Japan/international business niche then you are way better off getting your MBA back in Canada.

thistime Wrote:someone with a bachelor's degree but four years of relevant experience will almost always win out over someone with a master's but no experience.

The MBA itself and skills learned while studying for it puts you way ahead of the business pack unless you are in a more technical field.

And speaking of MBAs.

I'm planning on applying for the University of Hawaii's MBA program this year. Aiming for there because of the heavy pacific/Japan focus. They have a specific "Japan MBA" program if you are interested in it.

http://shidler.hawaii.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=245

Are you studying for the GMAT?

Ideally I would like to find a career in international business with a focus towards Asia. Temple's MBA program seem to be fairly well ranked so I wouldn't be missing out on the good schools that exist back home because from what I hear, Japanese schools are a joke if you are looking to learn anything; they're more for making business connections.

That being said, a friend of mine's friend got his MBA at Sophia University (Japanes) and landed a gig at Adidas Japan and is now in charge of marketing (which is right up my alley!)

I haven't started studying for the GMAT as this idea to get my MBA is fairly new.

I would assume getting my MBA back home and then hoping to land a gig working in Japan would be much tugher to do than getting an MBA in Japan and having some connections already established.

One of those schools is a night MBA too right? So you can keep your ALT gig and do your MBA at night? That sounds like a sweet deal.

One problem I can think of is the fact that the vast majority of Japanese MBA students are sponsored by their companies and not exactly looking for employment when they graduate. Because of this the career services(for people looking for jobs) are abysmal at Japanese business schools like Waseda or Hitotsubashi.

Have you done any research on that aspect of your schools?

I just don't get it, this obsession with the MBA. This means Master of Busniess Administration, right? So, what does it give you? Does it give you marketable knowledge, or some specific, in real-life easily aplicable knowledge, for which the employers would be jumping for joy, just to get you hired? I think no. I'm not an expret on MBAs, and education in general, but for instance here in Hungary, it is intended for people who aleready have some expereience in the field (hopfeully as managers / leaders) and they want to back their experiences up / boraden their vision with a theoretical degree, that's it. Getting an MBA without any relevant expereinece, and THEN trying to get a job in the field, is going to be damn hard, since it doesn't gie you a specific knowledge about anything. IT could be a good basis for something I guess, though. Why not specialize in accounting, or finances, or some specific field instead of an MBA? Or maybe a different field, like engineering / electical engineer / mechatronical engineer. In these fields the Japanese are world-leading regarding education. With an engineering degree, I think you would have better career prospects...

dusmar84 Wrote:Ideally I would like to find a career in international business with a focus towards Asia. Temple's MBA program seem to be fairly well ranked so I wouldn't be missing out on the good schools that exist back home because from what I hear, Japanese schools are a joke if you are looking to learn anything; they're more for making business connections.

That being said, a friend of mine's friend got his MBA at Sophia University (Japanes) and landed a gig at Adidas Japan and is now in charge of marketing (which is right up my alley!)

I haven't started studying for the GMAT as this idea to get my MBA is fairly new.

I would assume getting my MBA back home and then hoping to land a gig working in Japan would be much tugher to do than getting an MBA in Japan and having some connections already established.

I am pretty sure that all the classes at Sophia are taught in English.

dusmar84 Wrote:Hello RTK universe,

I've come to a fork in the proverbial road here and I'm hoping to get some advice or a fresh perspective.

Let me give you a little background first. I'm 26 years old and I've been in Japan for over two years now teaching English. I came here with an eikaiwa fresh out of university but now I teach at a Junior High school (I got lucky and landed a direct hire gig with the board of education). I have a serious grilfriend here and I've got to start making some very important life decisions soon.

I could easily spend another few years in Japan and live happy and comfortably. However, I don't wanna be here as a 30 year old with only English teaching experience and then go looking for a job back home in Canada outside of the education industry, which is likely what will happen.

As of late I've started thinking about getting my MBA here in Japan. I think it would be a great opportunity to continue living here while not feeling so stagnant. It would also possibly afford me the opportunity of working both in North America and Japan which would be ideal. I have done a bit of research and have found there are two fairly famous North American schools over here offering MBAs in Tokyo in English. The first is Temple University from the states and the second is McGill University out of Canada.

Getting my MBA will be a big investment of both time and money so it's not something I can decide easily. I wanted to put it out there and get some feedback. All is welcome.

Thx

I did the McGill MBA Japan program and graduated in 2008. If you are Canadian, you can't go wrong here because if you decide to go home it is still very highly respected.

As you said, it is a great investment of time and money, and the more business savvy you are, the more you get out of participating. In my class we had a couple of people who were teaching English and came into the program and excelled.

The knowledge you gain is one thing and extremely valuable, but the network you gain is incredible. If you are looking to get out of teaching English, are confident in your abilities to network, and are planning on being in Japan for a few years after your MBA will finish I'd recommend it. You will find that opportunities will open up as you progress.

If you are planning to go back to Canada, then get your MBA there. It will be much cheaper, and your network will be local as well.

Just remember, it is hard work. You will need your serious girlfriend's understanding. We had a few relationships go sour our year due to the time commitment required.

Good Luck!