New grad (unrelated degree, self taught)

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Hi everyone,

Details about me:

  • Mid 20s
  • Just graduated with a commerce degree (specializing in accounting)
  • Fluent or near fluent in Japanese
  • Native English speaker, can also speak Chinese fluently (cannot read/write however)
  • No related experience

I just graduated and was wondering if it’s realistic that I could succeed as a self taught developer in Japan. I did study 2 years of computer science in university but changed degrees because quite frankly, the theoretical math courses were too much for me at the time.

I have the option to take a work visa. Should I enlist in a bootcamp? Is there anything you would suggest for me to succeed and land my first job, or are things looking too unlikely for me as a developer? Should I focus on learning how to contribute to open source? Or would be better to start my own projects and design my web page?

I’m looking into becoming a web dev and focusing on javascript & its frameworks to eventually land a full-stacks job at rakuten, if possible in the future, but I’d be happy with any job related to web-design to gain the experience necessary to climb up in the industry.

Thank you.

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If you’re not based in Japan already, chances are pretty slim to get a development job without any experience - the only time I know of this happening is when larger companies directly recruit CompSci grads.

Ignoring the visa hurdles, companies don’t tend to care if you’re self taught or not, and the more experience you can point to, the more irrelevant a lack of degree becomes. It may be easier to get this experience locally first, where visa and language / cultural issues aren’t an additional challenge.

Anything you can do to demonstrate your technical abilities helps. I don’t think there is any one right approach, and so I’d just do whatever you enjoy working on the most.

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