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Should I mention that I am a drop-out/have an unfinished education?

#1

Hi,

A little background: I went to Highschool in IT Department for 3 years, after Highschool I went to a State Polytechnic also in IT Department it’s supposed to be 4 year (for Diploma 4) but I only managed to stay for 2 years, before I dropped-out and pursuing this career.

Fast-forward now, I have 4 years of professional experience, my total experience should be 7 years since I started freelancing in year 2 of Highschool but after reading some post here I found out freelance work needs proofs to be counted for experience, and I didn’t keep any form contract/proof from 7 years ago.

So, what kind of Information should I put when applying for a company in Japan? should I mention that I have an incomplete education in my resume? should I mention about my past freelance even if I don’t have proof?

also how much would an N5 certificate helps? Thanks.

#2

If you don’t have a university degree or have passed one of the recognized exams, getting a visa becomes pretty subjective to the whims of whoever is processing it. I’m not sure there’s any set format for the “proof” of previous employment. It could be something like contracts or bank transfer records, but they might also accept something like an explanation of what work you did for the relevant companies

Without already living in Japan, it’s going to be quite challenging to get a company to make you an offer unless you’ve done something like worked at a “famous” company (e.g. Google), or have done something else remarkable (e.g. contributor to well known open source project).

So rather than working on your resume, I’d start by looking at how you can make yourself more attractive to future employers.

As far as Japanese certificates, employers who are looking for it are normally saying “N2 or above”. They also don’t tend to care so much about the certificate itself, but rather that you can communicate in Japanese.

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#3

I see, thank you for the answer.

Also, you said “one of the recognized exams”, do you mean something like the PhilNITS exam? is there other exams that can helps other than the one I just mentioned

#4

The PhilNITS is one of the exams, and the one I know of that is both available in English and is open to non-citizens. The other exams are listed here in Japanese.

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