Hey forum and Paul, first of all thanks for the articles. They have been helpful in evaluating options.
I have questions related to the requirements for applying for a visa. In the article about Getting Your First Programming Job in Japan it mentions 10 years professional experience is an option to go for a visa.
Are there any guidelines on what is considered experience that can be submitted for evaluation? I’ve heard conflicting opinions about it before. For economic and later personal reasons I was never able to finish an undergraduate degree, but I do have years of university credits in undergraduate software courses. I had jobs in Help Desks, and as Tech Support in the hotel industry, which are tangentially related to IT but not software development per se. I’ve had yearly timed contracts and around 4 years permanent contracts in actual development as well.
How can I know (and prove to any evaluator) what experience to submit for it to count for the 10 years? What about part time jobs? How about education besides universities like certifications?
I’ve had conversations with recruiters that were interested in my skillset, since I’ve also invested some time in learning conversational level Japanese, but the lack of an undergrad paper usually is the stopper.
tl;dr I’d like to know what documents I could add up to justify 10 years experience if I can’t produce an undergrad degree to apply for a working visa in Japan.