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Post by herakleitos on Apr 8, 2020 11:34:10 GMT 9
Hi everybody,
In the midst of the hectic Covid news (hope everybody is holding up well) and all I recently received an email from the head of the JET program in the city I'll be working at. It was with regards to whether or not I'd like to accept the PA or Prefectural Advisor position for the region I'd be working. As i believe there will be two JET participants at my specific work location, one of us will ultimately be chosen but they were emailing me to ask whether or not I'd be interest as a starter.
Now while I understand everybody's work experience as a CIR and beyond are quite different I was wondering if anybody had a clue as to what this position entailed? I did some snooping online and it seems like it involves some consultation with other JETs and so forth, but the email's phrasing was ambiguous which admittedly doesn't surprise me too much given the open ended nature of the job. They want a response from me tomorrow as to whether or not I'd like the position.
Though I was wondering if anybody here had any advice in general regarding the position (I will of course send a response with questions to the supervisor in question but)
- What do the research conferences held with respect to the job usually entail? They called them: 数回開催される研修会 but not much more than that.
- If anybody juggles being a CIR with the PA position, how much does each portion of your work account for your overall load?
- They briefly mentioned mediating between JETs and different organizations, but does anybody have firsthand experience of what this entails?
Or any other pieces of advice here? Thank you very much in advance for any and all advice.
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Post by Aqua on Apr 8, 2020 11:50:38 GMT 9
Hi everybody, In the midst of the hectic Covid news (hope everybody is holding up well) and all I recently received an email from the head of the JET program in the city I'll be working at. It was with regards to whether or not I'd like to accept the PA or Prefectural Advisor position for the region I'd be working. As i believe there will be two JET participants at my specific work location, one of us will ultimately be chosen but they were emailing me to ask whether or not I'd be interest as a starter. Now while I understand everybody's work experience as a CIR and beyond are quite different I was wondering if anybody had a clue as to what this position entailed? I did some snooping online and it seems like it involves some consultation with other JETs and so forth, but the email's phrasing was ambiguous which admittedly doesn't surprise me too much given the open ended nature of the job. They want a response from me tomorrow as to whether or not I'd like the position. Though I was wondering if anybody here had any advice in general regarding the position (I will of course send a response with questions to the supervisor in question but) - What do the research conferences held with respect to the job usually entail? They called them: 数回開催される研修会 but not much more than that. - If anybody juggles being a CIR with the PA position, how much does each portion of your work account for your overall load? - They briefly mentioned mediating between JETs and different organizations, but does anybody have firsthand experience of what this entails? Or any other pieces of advice here? Thank you very much in advance for any and all advice. I am not a PA but I work with one of the PA of my prefecture.
I would say around 70% of her work seems to be PA-related. Every year she does school visits between about November-January and visits the schools of all the new ALTs who came that year and listens to any concerns or issues they've been having and relays them to their schools.
The PAs send out newsletters to all JETs in the prefecture about any developments. At the moment, whenever the Governor announces things in relation to the coronavirus, they are sending out translations of these announcements.
I believe they are also available for some informal counselling? Like, if JETs have any concerns, or things going on in their home countries (or are thinking about breaking contract) they help to talk them through their options.
I'm not sure if all PAs are quite as involved as this. She still does the standard translation and interpreting requests from our office, but her PA duties seem to come first for the most part.
EDIT: They also organise a 3-day Orientation in the prefecture for new ALTs every year, usually about 3 weeks after the JETs have arrived.
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Post by Aya Raincoat on Apr 8, 2020 12:11:22 GMT 9
Hi everybody, In the midst of the hectic Covid news (hope everybody is holding up well) and all I recently received an email from the head of the JET program in the city I'll be working at. It was with regards to whether or not I'd like to accept the PA or Prefectural Advisor position for the region I'd be working. As i believe there will be two JET participants at my specific work location, one of us will ultimately be chosen but they were emailing me to ask whether or not I'd be interest as a starter. Now while I understand everybody's work experience as a CIR and beyond are quite different I was wondering if anybody had a clue as to what this position entailed? I did some snooping online and it seems like it involves some consultation with other JETs and so forth, but the email's phrasing was ambiguous which admittedly doesn't surprise me too much given the open ended nature of the job. They want a response from me tomorrow as to whether or not I'd like the position. Though I was wondering if anybody here had any advice in general regarding the position (I will of course send a response with questions to the supervisor in question but) - What do the research conferences held with respect to the job usually entail? They called them: 数回開催される研修会 but not much more than that. - If anybody juggles being a CIR with the PA position, how much does each portion of your work account for your overall load? - They briefly mentioned mediating between JETs and different organizations, but does anybody have firsthand experience of what this entails? Or any other pieces of advice here? Thank you very much in advance for any and all advice. I was the automatic PA for my prefecture (which means I got here and was immediately the PA). What that entails exactly is different from one place to the other, for me me it means: - Helping organizing the orientations and SDC (this is probably what they meant by conferences), picking up new JETs in Tokyo; this makes the first few days weird because you're giving orientation and you receive it, hue. It also makes your Augusts really busy. In my case, the ALT PA does most of the organizing work, so I mostly help make some decisions and then on the day-of.
- Going to the yearly PA conference in Tokyo. There's a short one-day one in fall for new JETs/PAs only, and then a two-day one in the spring - Mediating... This is mostly done by my Japanese PA, but we have PA meetings about what we want to do. This will happen when one of the JETs has some sort of problem with their BOE and they have a hard time communicating, or vice-versa. - Counseling JETs (to a certain extent): when people have problem, they'll confide in me and I'll try to help or send them somewhere that can... or get to mediate with the BOE - Sometimes I accompany JETs to the hospital to interpret (when the JP PA can't go, or if the person is more comfortable with me)
I would say being PA takes very little of my time, but we're super busy in August, and then when people have problems and we have to discuss. As for advice... sometimes the PA job can be kind of hard because you end up being some people's safety net, you have to fix their problems and some ALTs will abuse your services. If you do take it, it's really important to place boundaries from the very start.
I was distracted when I wrote this, so please feel free to ask questions!
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Post by oukaranman on Apr 15, 2020 12:48:07 GMT 9
I know I'm a bit late to the thread, but I'm also a PA in a two-PA prefecture. Here's some perspective from my situation.
We have one PA at our largest BoE and then me. My job is probably 30% or less PA things on average, and his job is easily 75% PA things. I would say for the past month we're both probably handling about 10% more PA things than normal.
We break down responsibilities a little bit differently. Since my official title is CIR PA and his is ALT PA, some people think I'm the PA for CIRs and he's the PA for ALTs. That isn't necessarily true, but it often works out that way just because of who is acquainted with who.
Basically, I PA for any issue that can't be solved at the BoE level. If people have consultations about visas, legal stuff, issues that involve JETs in several different areas who belong to different BoEs, contractual disputes, etc. those generally end up coming to me. Since our JPA belongs to the same organization as me and not the BoE, anything that goes through the JPA usually comes back to me first. I also handle drafting and maintaining most of our systems -- emergency contact info and our block system, for example.
I also handle anything where Japanese is a sticking point -- I've done hospital interpreting once during a late-night emergency, I am in charge of translating our modifications to JET contracts, etc.
Altogether I find that my PA work tends to be some of the most immediately rewarding and I'll probably be using it as entry level management experience in the future.
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Post by wapiko on Apr 17, 2020 13:12:42 GMT 9
I know I'm a bit late to the thread, but I'm also a PA in a two-PA prefecture. Here's some perspective from my situation. We have one PA at our largest BoE and then me. My job is probably 30% or less PA things on average, and his job is easily 75% PA things. I would say for the past month we're both probably handling about 10% more PA things than normal. We break down responsibilities a little bit differently. Since my official title is CIR PA and his is ALT PA, some people think I'm the PA for CIRs and he's the PA for ALTs. That isn't necessarily true, but it often works out that way just because of who is acquainted with who.Basically, I PA for any issue that can't be solved at the BoE level. If people have consultations about visas, legal stuff, issues that involve JETs in several different areas who belong to different BoEs, contractual disputes, etc. those generally end up coming to me. Since our JPA belongs to the same organization as me and not the BoE, anything that goes through the JPA usually comes back to me first. I also handle drafting and maintaining most of our systems -- emergency contact info and our block system, for example. I also handle anything where Japanese is a sticking point -- I've done hospital interpreting once during a late-night emergency, I am in charge of translating our modifications to JET contracts, etc. Altogether I find that my PA work tends to be some of the most immediately rewarding and I'll probably be using it as entry level management experience in the future. I did not know this! I legit thought ALT-PA is strictly for the ALTs. In this certain PA's case he has also sent emails to only the ALTs, furthering my assumption. |
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Post by oukaranman on Apr 17, 2020 13:25:15 GMT 9
I know I'm a bit late to the thread, but I'm also a PA in a two-PA prefecture. Here's some perspective from my situation. We have one PA at our largest BoE and then me. My job is probably 30% or less PA things on average, and his job is easily 75% PA things. I would say for the past month we're both probably handling about 10% more PA things than normal. We break down responsibilities a little bit differently. Since my official title is CIR PA and his is ALT PA, some people think I'm the PA for CIRs and he's the PA for ALTs. That isn't necessarily true, but it often works out that way just because of who is acquainted with who.Basically, I PA for any issue that can't be solved at the BoE level. If people have consultations about visas, legal stuff, issues that involve JETs in several different areas who belong to different BoEs, contractual disputes, etc. those generally end up coming to me. Since our JPA belongs to the same organization as me and not the BoE, anything that goes through the JPA usually comes back to me first. I also handle drafting and maintaining most of our systems -- emergency contact info and our block system, for example. I also handle anything where Japanese is a sticking point -- I've done hospital interpreting once during a late-night emergency, I am in charge of translating our modifications to JET contracts, etc. Altogether I find that my PA work tends to be some of the most immediately rewarding and I'll probably be using it as entry level management experience in the future. I did not know this! I legit thought ALT-PA is strictly for the ALTs. In this certain PA's case he has also sent emails to only the ALTs, furthering my assumption. Yep, there used to be a blurb on the AJET site that got removed at some point. I'll be asking our AJET webmaster to update it after our local AJET elections have finished this year. The reality is that most CIRs would probably come to the CIR-PA anyway. But CIRs are certainly welcome to talk to the ALT-PA (if you dislike me that much  ) and ALTs are welcome to talk to me. I might tell ALTs (and I often do tell them) that the ALT-PA is better for a specific issue, but I do try my best to resolve what I can. |
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Post by wapiko on Apr 17, 2020 13:29:15 GMT 9
I did not know this! I legit thought ALT-PA is strictly for the ALTs. In this certain PA's case he has also sent emails to only the ALTs, furthering my assumption. Yep, there used to be a blurb on the AJET site that got removed at some point. I'll be asking our AJET webmaster to update it after our local AJET elections have finished this year. The reality is that most CIRs would probably come to the CIR-PA anyway. But CIRs are certainly welcome to talk to the ALT-PA (if you dislike me that much ) and ALTs are welcome to talk to me. I might tell ALTs (and I often do tell them) that the ALT-PA is better for a specific issue, but I do try my best to resolve what I can. I'm sure he is lovely (I have yet to meet him) but I trust you for CIR stuff anyway. ;D (if I ever needed it) |
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) and ALTs are welcome to talk to me. I might tell ALTs (and I often do tell them) that the ALT-PA is better for a specific issue, but I do try my best to resolve what I can.