Hello Everyone, in about 2-3 years i will graduate and that makes me kinda nervous because from what i’ve seen from other forums its hard to make it to japan. This has been my dream for as long as i can remember and i want to prepare as much as i can because time goes by so fast. Is there any tips like the things you wish you knew you before that can give me ideas of what i should be doing and not doing? ANYTHING would be much appreciated because im gonna need all the help i can get to be able to accomplish my dream. Thankyou in advance
btw
i am currently pursuing a bachelors degree in computer science
As for personal experience, I’m not yet in Japan, so I can’t really give you tips. But I’m sure there are other, more seasoned, members of the forum that could share their experience.
Here’s what I’d recommend as a university student specifically:
If you’re not already, enroll in Japanese classes at your university.
See if your university has any exchange programs with Japan.
To improve your employability more generally, enroll in an internship program, where you can spend a semester working for a company as a developer (in a paid position).
Get involved with any local software development communities. These are often not connected to the university, but run by people in industry instead.
Create things that can demonstrate your ability as a developer. This could be things such as personal projects, articles, or open source contributions.
I kinda see my old self in you since I have also been aiming for a job in Japan using my CS degree. It’s been quite a long journey and I’m planning on moving to Tokyo after I graduate this semester. I got an offer from this company through a connection. I interned for them over the summer and it was entirely in Japanese. I think what was appealing was that I studied abroad for a semester at Meiji University in Tokyo and the campus is right by the office. I also expressed interest in working with AI and ML because I wanted to work on computer vision. Fortunately this is a deep learning solutions sort of company, so everything really aligned. As much as I want to say that I was lucky to get this job, I want to express what I felt when trying to job hunt for Japanese companies as a foreigner.
After my semester exchange program I attended the Career Forum for Japanese companies. This one is known for their big one in Boston, but I went to the one in San Francisco. A classmate referred me to it since he got an email about it. I suppose this one was geared towards tech because it was in Silicon Valley. I must say that I felt like I was competing with other Japanese students for jobs despite the job fare advertising it was for either Japanese or English speakers (learning one of the languages, but proficient in at least one as well). I would consider my Japanese relatively comfortable for conversation, but its much different for work as I’m sure you’re aware. It was very exhausting trying to keep up with the whole company schpiel at each booth as a foreigner (Line was probably the only booth that did their’s in English).
In my experience in applying overseas and not residing in Japan, I think its very difficult to land a job as a new grad. For a bigger company like FAANG level or Japanese companies like Rakuten/Line, I think Japanese isn’t desired nearly as much as smaller companies because they’re seeking the best talent they can find. For smaller companies I feel that it’s the opposite, they’d want N2 or N3 JLPT certification and maybe a lot of skills. This was generally what I found on LinkedIn or Justa.io. So I would say you need to show your value in your technical skills and/or your Japanese ability. Even then though, I would say no amount of Japanese language studying would have prepared me for my internship because of all the technical terms used in Japanese. Fortunately my boss was patient and I was able to learn a lot of new words and their practices. They were relatively modern and kind of exceeded my expectations.
Also the pay seems to be significantly lower in Japan. That opportunity for high salary is there, but it takes much more grinding than a US salary would demand. It was a hard decision, but I decided I was okay with lower pay because the quality of life was just much better in Japan (at least as a college student). Hopefully it won’t end up being just a honeymoon period for me, but I’m planning on staying in Japan for a long time if not forever.
Sorry for the long post, but I hope you found it insightful.
Thankyou for sharing your experience. Now I know the obstacles I will be facing, this will surely help me to think ahead and improve my chances. Best of luck in all of your future endeavors.
