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Hey what's up guys, Preston here with another episode of Grappler Going Abroad. Well, it's
the moment that you guys have all been waiting for. If you guys have been subscribed to my
channel, you guys know that I've been applying to jobs, specifically teaching jobs in Japan.
I applied to Interac and I applied to the JET Program. I heard a few weeks back that
I did not get the Interac job, which was a huge disappointment, kind of a blow to my
ego. I think I did a good enough job explaining about what happened there in that video, so
I'll leave an annotation to that right here. But what I want to talk about today is my
JET Program results. So I am very excited to announce that I have been offered short-list
status with the JET Program and have sent my initial paperwork to accept the position
with the JET Program. So I'll be spending the next few months getting the rest of my
paperwork together, selling off a lot of my stuff, and training really hard in Judo and
Karate to prepare to the training I'm going to hopefully receive over there. So with that
being said, I kind of want to give you guys an abridged version of what I did to get my
short list status with the JET Program. I have a ton of videos documenting my process
while all this was happening on my channel and I'll add annotations to that flying around
me whenever I get to those points. First things first, the initial application process and
getting your documents together. You have a whole bunch of documents, which you can
find on the JET Program USA or whatever country you're applying from. I would start getting
those documents together as soon as possible. There are certain documents that you have
to get depending on the conditions that describe you. For instance, if you have a long term
health issue, you need to get your Physician's form taken care of early. If you have a criminal
history, you have to get your FBI Background Check before everyone else who doesn't have
a criminal history. So those are all things that you really have to start preparing for,
even before the application portal opens. The next step, is getting your references
together. Before the application portal even opens, I would suggest finding out who your
two references are going to be. They use to require you to have sealed reference letters
for your references. That's not the case anymore, you can do it all through the application
portal. I would notify your preferred references early on and tell them that you're going to
send them an email with the reference form attached. Usually when you submit their email
into the application portal, it automatically sends them the reference form. So the online
application portal really makes everything a lot easier to take care of. The next thing
you're really going to have to think about is your Statement of Purpose, and I cannot
stress to you enough how important your Statement of Purpose is. This is probably what is going
to get you hired. Your paper application, like outside of your Statement of Purpose,
that is just to see if there are any disqualifying factors from the get-go. Your Statement of
Purpose is what's really going to make you shine as a candidate, what's really going
to get them to want to interview you. So spend a lot of time on that Statement of Purpose.
If you know someone in the JET Program, have them help you out. I knew 3 people who all
helped me out with my Statement of Purpose, which I contribute to getting me the interview
in the first place. So use a lot of personal anecdotes describing situations where you
think there could be some cultural miscommunication, just differences in culture between the Japanese
and Americans. Another thing that you need to think about is not think about what you
want to get out of your time in Japan, but what you can offer the Japanese students in
terms of cultural perspective and grassroots globalization. So all of those things are
determining factors of whether you even get to the interview process. Now the interview
process is completely different, this is going to be a longer video, but it's important.
Especially for you 2017 JET applicants. The interview, you need to prepare but you don't
need to over-prepare. Because the interview is not scripted and it widely depends on what
consulate or embassy you're interviewing at , which interviewing panels interview you.
It's almost not even worth preparing specific questions. The two questions you really need
to prepare for are, "Why Japan?" and "Why the JET Program?" The next thing you need
to prepare for for your interview, is you really need to study your Statement of Purpose.
If you got past the paper application and into the interview process, that generally
means that your Statement of Purpose was probably brightened your application and they want
to see those traits that you demonstrated in your Statement of Purpose. So you really
need to make sure that you're sticking to your Statement of Purpose during the interview
and really making those traits that they saw in your Statement of Purpose shine. That's
how I prepared, I prepared for maybe 5 or 6 questions that I had a good idea would be
asked and then everything else I just pulled from my Statement of Purpose. Some of you
guys are going to get a mock lesson, that's almost not even worth preparing for because
you don't know what you're going to be prompted on. That's more or less to see how you think
on your feet. Be flexible, be relaxed, don't stress about it, prepare for what you know
you're going to have to answer questions about. Really cut it down, trim off all that fat
and stick to what you know is going to be asked. Everything else you need to be able
to think on your feet. That's just a general breakdown of how I got in as a short-list
candidate. Hopefully, for you aspiring 2017 JETs this was helpful to you guys. For you
guys that did not get selected, I'm very sorry to hear that. If you guys didn't get selected
for alternate or short-listed, if you're not already applying to other jobs or are planning
on reapplying, follow these tips and tricks that I'm giving. Really think long and hard
about what you missed this time around and what you can correct next time around. But
that's all I got for you guys today. Hopefully you guys like this video. If you do like it,
please hit that like button, comment on it, share it to your friends. If you guys want
to see more or my videos, please hit that subscribe button. I'm going to have some really
cool content coming up in the next year. I'm really excited to be able to share this journey
with you guys. Again, I do have my Patreon page open, so if you guys feel like "tipping"
me for my content, or you guys want to help liquidate my student loans or help me pay
for my trip to Japan, my start up costs, all that good stuff, don't forget to check out
my Patreon page. My name is Preston and this has been Grappler Going Abroad.