Teach english spouse visa AA degree no reply?

Wassup everyone.

Hoping I can get some feedback here. Been living in Japan for a year now with my J-wife. For the first half of the year we lived with her parents in the countryside and I worked on their farm so all was good. But 3 months ago wifey got a REALLY good job offer in Tokyo so we made the move. Now in the states I completed my AA 2 year degree and then jumped into the workforce (10+ years in marketing/sales/advertising), when we moved to Japan we always thought we might move to the city so I have been taking Japanese classes.

The plan was for me to get an english teaching job until my Japanese is up to snuff and I can look for something else closer to my field. Since our move to Tokyo tho, I've applied to a ton of english schools and have only received call backs from TWO. I repeat.....TWO SCHOOLS. One of which shot me down because "I was too experienced" (I think they mean too old cuz I'm mid-30s and everyone else was fresh outta college) and the other I'm still interviewing with (but it has bad reviews on glassdoor..and a very sketchy sounding pay structure...so yeah better then nothing but not really hyped about it either).

Trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong here. I have been sending english resumes with a photo and a cover letter focusing on how my skill apply to english teaching and would help the school. Using proper english (I'm a lil lacks here because its a forum).

Is sending a Japanese resume better? Getting TESOL certified? I know some schools prefer the stereotype westerner over any westerner (blond hair, blue eyes) could that be a factor as I am not white? Yet i've heard of Nigerians teaching english so what am i doing wrong?

Appreciate any feedback cuz I'm not tyring to send out another 100 resumes only to hear nothing.

When you sent out your letters, have you mentioned that you are on "spouse of Japanese national" status (I am assuming) so that they don't need to sponsor you for any work visa/resident status?

Other factors:
Timing could have been just not right; they tend to prefer people who are willing to conform to their teaching style rather than having their own style; I am assuming you are a native speaker of the English language - still presenting yourself with a formal-sounding English (yes I am aware you are slacking a bit here on this forum :) works better.

You (with your wife's help) could try English resume maybe with a cover letter/summary resume in Japanese? Best wishes.

First, it could be that you've got an AA degree and not a full 4 year bachelor degree. The experience you've got isn't in the English teaching field, so especially if its not clear that you're the spouse of a Japanese national and don't need visa sponsorship, a lot of places could be rejecting you offhand because of that. Getting a work visa usually requires either a 4 year degree or 10 years experience IN the field you're applying for. If your resume was rejected from a place you're interested in, you could try either calling or scheduling a meeting to talk with them about it. Some places might give you a reason, which would be helpful.

I think another good thing to keep in mind is who will be reading your resume, which means knowing your target ahead of time. Are you sending it to a school owned by a Japanese company or an "expat" type? I think that makes a huge difference in the resume/cover letter style. For a Japanese owned company, perhaps simpler English or even applying in Japanese. Otherwise, when I worked at a small eikaiwa, the (non-Japanese) owner had a file of rejected resumes that he'd bring out from time to time... things like spelling errors, pretentious writing, or even one guy who sent a couple dozen photographs along with his resume all made the file. An acquaintance of mine even applied, and was rejected because he spelled my name wrong and was a little too casual in his communication for the owner. I don't think things like that would even be caught by a non-native speaker of English.

TESOL and the like would look good on the resume for a Japanese owned company, but I think native English speakers put less stock in those kinds of things. However, especially if the AA degree is the problem, I bet that would help.

And then, yes, looks could be an issue. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about that :/

I wish you luck!