I’ve been doing online university while working in Japan since the pandemic started and I’m on track to graduate next August with a second BSc. in CS. Coincidentally, that will also be when my employment contract is up for renewal. However, I am concerned because of my projected graduation date, age, non-traditional background (early 30s, second degree), and non-business level Japanese. I know it would be easier to start my career in my country (US), but I’ve already lived in Japan for several years and like life here. I was wondering how feasible would it actually be for me to actually start a career in software engineering here?
It’s not impossible if you’re already living and working here.
Likely the CS degree alone won’t be enough to get you a job though. Having things that you’ve made that demonstrate your skills as a developer will help. This could be technical articles or presentations, open source contributions, or your own projects. Working on this sort of thing will help you get a job, be it here or in the US.
You could also start looking for jobs before your degree is finished (e.g. a couple of months before). This would help give you an idea of how realistic it’ll be for you to get a job here before your current contract ends.