I was primed to go after getting a working holiday visa but travel restrictions fell in where I am before being able to go. Recently the embassy has sent out a notice to visa holders that their visas for entry are currently suspended until further notice. So as a result, I’m job searching while not in Japan and hoping to be there before the expiry on my visa hits.
In this unfortunate situation, I was wondering if anybody had any tips or advice for preparing or looking for a dev job once things hopefully start back up? I’ve applied to a few job searching sites like Pasona, LJC, and Wantedly so far.
For a working holiday visa, the primary purpose of your trip is supposed to be a vacation, and so if you were to get a job offer before you moved, technically you’d be in violation of the visa. Once you’re in Japan though, if you happen to find a full time position, that’s allowed.
That, combined with the uncertainy surounding the COVID-19 situation, means that rather searching for specific jobs, I’d personally focus my efforts on improving my employability.
That could be done more generally, through building up your public profile by doing things like writing technical articles, contributing to open source, or doing something else you can point to as evidence that you’re a great candidate. The good thing about working on those sort of things is they’ll help you with your career regardless of whether you end up in Japan or not.
One idea that springs to mind is helping out COVID-19 related open source projects with a Japan connection. The following spring to mind:
Besides that, for increasing your employability in Japan specifically, working on your Japanese skills could be another thing to do. While you can get a job here with no Japanese abilities, the more you can speak, the more opportunities open up for you.