Everyone always asks how they should prepare for the JET Program. What do they need to do to be ready for the application process.
It’s just one basic question with several different answers.
But, for some reason, this answer is never amongst the sea of answers.
Be prepared to wait
The JET Program is a waiting game. A test of wits. An endurance test. How long can you last until interview results? How long can you last until shortlist results? How long can you last until placement notification? Contact from your CO? Your predecessor? How long can you hold out until your Q&A? FBI results? IRS paperwork? How about the day of departure?
How long can you wait?
Right now I’m waiting for contact from my CO and predecessor, the person who (in most cases) will be replacing. Slowly, one by one, the people around me have been getting contacted by their preds. It makes the wait more tedious because you want to know where you’ll going, what apartment you’ll be in, etc. For me, I want to know what I’m stepping into for financial reasons.
But, going back to the core of this post, the JET Program is a huge waiting game. It’s like going to a theme park in the middle of summer and standing on a really long line with a wait time of three hours; only for the roller coaster ride to be, at most, two minutes tops. You wait, wait, wait, get that moment of surprise or disappointment, only to then wait again.
If you look to the sidebar, I kept track of each event during the application process (or nearly everyone). There’s almost a two month average on each notification. For instance, I mailed out my application in November, I did not find out I had an interview until February. I did not find out I was shortlisted until April. I did not find out my placement until the end of May. Waiting to know what your life is going to be in the next 5 years is a really painful process.
But waiting for results isn’t the only hard part. Getting reference letters, FBI checks, IRS documents, and all the ancillary documentation is also a pain in the ass. On top of that there are deadlines which then puts pressure on a lot of applicants. I don’t think there’s not a day where there’s an applicant on Facebook or the forums freaking out over “overdue” documentation.
Sometimes I view getting cut at the application stage a blessing in disguise, because the waiting game ends there. You know your situation at that moment and you can just go on with life. Once you make it past the first cut, stress levels just shoot up for the next four months. It must even be harder if you happened to be alternated. There’s currently a person within the circle of JETs I speak to on a regular basis that is an alternate and you can just feel his frustration and anxiety on your shoulders because of the predicament that he’s in. The unknown waiting game of being an alternate.
So, to close this post, the JET Program is a waiting game and you need to prepare yourself for the wait. For some reason, the Japanese government’s love for paper trails make getting into the JET Program a long drawn out process. But, it’s worth the wait.
Because, at the end of the race, you can look back and said I did it.