I’m in Japan with a working holiday since last month and I’m now looking for a programming job in Chiba or Tokyo. I came across this website and I thought it might be good to post here and have some advices from experienced persons.
In France, I have worked for several years as a web developer and .NET programmer and I would like to find a job that match these skills. Moreover, I would like to search in priority for companies who are able to sponsor a working visa as I’m thinking it would be good to experience working quite a long time in Japan.
Regarding my languages abilities, I can speak Japanese with a conversational level (to tell the truth, I failed to pass JLPT N2 for one point). I can manage in English much better than in Japanese though.
Till now, I searched via “Hello Work” but they only introduced short-term contracted jobs. I also search via website like GaijinPot & Daijob but most of the time the job positions are posted by employment agencies (派遣会社) and I’m wondering this is the best way to get a job with a chance to get a working visa in the future.
Also, I wonder if I should limit my researches to job positions that explicitly accept foreigners (with conversational Japanese abilities) or if it’s worth trying to search in Japanese job websites and ask by myself if they are ok to hire foreigners as well.
If you have suggestion of good websites or any advices to find long-term jobs in Japan, I would be very glad to hear them.
Basically any company that will hire you on a working holiday to do software development will be willing to sponsor your working visa, as it is easy for companies to sponsor visas here. As long as you have a relevant degree (Computer Science for instance), I wouldn’t worry about being to stay here once you found a job.
Your best chance in getting a good job opportunity here is to start meeting local people in a position to either hire you or connect you to some company. One place to look is my list of bilingual events for developers in Tokyo. In particular, I know people have had success at finding jobs with the Hacker News Tokyo event.
For finding Japanese events, the thing you want to search for is 勉強会. Searching for “.net 勉強会”, I found .netラボ. You just missed there last event, but the next one will be on Feb 28th.
Generally speaking, I don’t think .NET is so popular in the web startup area, which is where I’m most familiar. However, Sansan is one startup that I know of which both uses .NET, and that is looking to go international. I don’t see anything explicitly advertising that they are hiring, but if you took the time to learn about their company and crafted a really targeted application to them, you would have a decent chance. Have a listen to an interview with their CEO on the Disrupting Japan podcast to learn more about them.
I’d recommend prioritizing companies with some international component as opposed to traditional Japanese ones. With any company with some international ambition, you have an advantage over Japanese developers, whereas with a strictly Japanese one, they’ll probably perceive you as less desirable than a Japanese one.
Thank you very much for your reply and these precious advices. I’m sorry for my late reply.
I am excited about the opportunity to meet other developers through the events you advised. To tell the truth, I have not participated yet to such event, so I’m wondering which one would be good to start with.
I have reviewed the event listed on the “Bilingual Events For Developers” section. 3 of them seem interesting for me:
Hacker News Tokyo
UX Talk Tokyo
Ride the Lightning
“Hacker News Tokyo” and “UX Talk Tokyo” seem to be scheduled for the same day. I would like to subscribe to one of those events. UX Talk Tokyo event seems to be oriented for user experience and interfaces with presentations, whereas Hacker News Tokyo seems to be more opened in its scheme. Which would be your recommendation?
.NETラボ 勉強会 looks also very interesting. I’m going to subscribe too, although I’m a little afraid about the Japanese speaking level. Fortunately the date allows me to first experience one of the previous events for which I may be able to communicate in English.
I looked at Sansan website and listened the podcast. It seems to be a very fast growing startup. Thank you for introducing the company. I’m thinking I may have better chance with such companies who develop for their own business (and furthermore open to international) rather than with firms who develop solutions in partnership with customers, as it may be difficult to communicate with customers and understand their needs in Japanese.
It’s unfortunate both events got scheduled on the same night.
Hacker News is just an open event with no presentations or anything. People just go there to meet other people. So if you want to meet lots of diverse people, its the event for you. There also tends to be more people advertising that they are hiring there.
UX Talk Tokyo is a bit smaller event, with presentations. The crowd tends to be a bit more on the designer side then developer, but there is some overlap. Because there is actual content for the event, it might be more interesting if you’re not such an extroverted person.
Both events happen monthly though, so you can just check out one this time, and the other next.