Jobs

Tofugu is looking for skilled writers (see jobs page for additional author positions) to write detailed Review articles for the Tofugu Blog. The ideal candidate should be a student, or teacher (or both), of the Japanese language.

This is a contractor, hourly, and part-time position estimated to consist of 20-30 hours of work per month, with a 30 hour per month limit. The role's mission is to "Help Japanese learners make good decisions about the books and products they use to learn Japanese," and you will be using — and writing about — Japanese language resources, books, and products. In addition, Tofugu will pay for anything you review, with prior approval. Depending on what is being reviewed, we would expect one or two reviews written per month, written in Markdown format, along with high-quality photos, screenshots, GIFs, and the like. There will also be opportunity to update earlier reviews already on the blog as products get updated (there are a few reviews that could use big updates right now), as well as help with the Japanese Language Resources series writing shorter product reviews.

We are primarily looking for Japanese language learning resource, book, and product reviews — not so much the "fun" media, or not-Japanese language related products. Some examples of the types, and depths of Reviews we are looking for this role to write:

• Genki: The Definitive Textbook Review
• Womansword Review
• Read Real Japanese: Essays and Fiction
• HiNative: The Review (needs an update review)
• Satori Reader Review (needs an updated review)

You

• You are actively learning Japanese, or are a teacher of Japanese, and have been either (or both) for a while.
• You have used a variety of Japanese language books, resources, and products over the years.
• You have a native level English reading and writing ability.
• You have an excellent writing ability. Although we have copy editors and peer reviewers that can look over your writing, you are confident that there will be few grammatical/spelling edits, and you will rarely need large revision.
• You are able to concentrate, focus, and do the hard work necessary to produce quality content, consistently, over time. That is, you’re able to put in time on the actual production of content without distraction.

Compensation

Job Type: Part-time, hourly, contractor (20-30 hours per month)
Work Hours: Flexible
Work Location: Remote, Worldwide
Pay: $40/hr, +$10/hr after 20 articles published

The hours for this role are "whatever and whenever you want," so long as you’re able to work with the Editor in Chief and produce one to two high-quality Review category articles per month. As this is a contractor position, employee benefits do not apply, though Tofugu will pay for the cost of anything that you review (pending approval of a pitch).

The person (or people) offered this role will need to complete a paid trial period (one to two months) before a continued agreement is formalized.

To Apply

To apply, you will need to collect and create the following:

• Write a cover letter (or some other document that tells us about yourself, why you’re applying, the kinds of things you’ve done, etc.). PDF format, if possible.
• Write at least one review for a Japanese language book, product, or resource. It should be written in the Tofugu style, as if you’re actually writing it for Tofugu. The final content should be PDF format, please.
• OPTIONAL: Write up to four additional Review articles for Japanese language books, products, or resources. Alternatively, you can provide up to four past writing samples you’ve done. Mixing and matching a total of four of the above is fine, but please be sure to clarify in the document what is written specifically for this application and what is a past writing sample. Submissions should be in PDF format, please.

When you have everything together, you can submit it via the following form:

https://43bmwjw9kfm.typeform.com/to/c98yepG3

Note: Whether you are hired or not, there may be cases where we love a review you wrote for the application. In this case, we will try and work with you to figure out a way to publish your article on Tofugu and pay you fairly for your work.

The application process for this position looks like this:

1. Application, writing challenge(s), and past work samples.
2. We read and process applications. We’ll send out emails to everyone, whether you make it to the next step or not.
3. 30 to 60-minutes-long interview/Q&A.
4. One to two month paid trial period, followed by a longer-term agreement for continued writing and involvement.

You will receive an email response letting you know if you made it to the next step. We tend to get a lot of applications, so it might take a little while. Please be patient!

If you have any questions, email jobs@tofugu.com.