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My experience
First, I’d like to share my own story. As someone who didn’t come to Japan as a student, or come later in their career and get hired from overseas for senior positions, I’m a bit of an outlier. If you’re in a similar situation, it might help you understand the challenges you’ll face.
Coming to Japan
I came to Japan right after graduating from Concordia University in my home country of Canada to experience a new life far from home.
I had a bachelor’s degree in software engineering and had interned at two companies for about a year. I could understand a bit of Japanese, but could barely speak it. My professional network in Japan was nonexistent.
As a Canadian national, I was fortunate to have access to the Working Holiday Visa (WHV), a 1-year visa available for nationals of 29 different countries. The WHV was the perfect visa for me, since I wanted to experience life in Japan before making a bigger commitment.
When I first arrived, I was just enjoying my time in Japan while putting minimal effort towards finding a job. However, after a few months, I realized that achieving my goals might be harder than what I imagined and decided to dedicate more time to job applications, attending networking events, and engaging with the software engineering community in Japan.
A difficult job-hunt
My efforts didn’t pay off, despite how hard I tried. I was rejected over a thousand times. There was always something preventing me from finding a job: lack of language proficiency, not enough work experience, the ephemeral nature of my visa, or the absence of specific skill sets.
Despite receiving so many rejections, I had also had my fair share of interviews at multiple companies. In total, I had at least one interview with over 10 companies.
I had applied for mid-level positions at international or Japanese companies that operated internally in English. This put me at a disadvantage, as I was up against more experienced candidates.
With about half the companies I interviewed with, I reached the final interview stage. For one of them, I even got an offer, which ended up being arbitrarily rescinded and given to another candidate. No matter how hard I tried, I could not find a job in Japan. I thought of giving up, packing up my stuff to go back to Canada, and accepting defeat.
… but then I met somebody …
After all these struggles, I finally met somebody who offered me a job… in a restaurant! A drink, a Manchester United football game, and a short discussion with the right person—that is what I finally needed to achieve my goal.
I met a developer who had lived in the UK for a few years and is now working for a Japanese tech company. We started discussing football, then tech, and he ended up forwarding my resume to the CEO of his company. Two interviews and a coding test later, I was offered a System Engineer position at the company.
My onboarding as a junior software engineer
The first few days consisted of setting up my computer, filling out forms and building a basic web application project to assess my level. That project went successfully, and so I was tasked with a second one to develop and deploy a blog web application. Again, everything went smoothly, and so I got to skip the usual training given to newcomers. Three weeks after joining the company, I joined the main project and started doing actual work.
While I did not go through technical training, I was still required to attend a business etiquette course to learn how to properly collaborate with customers and other stakeholders. This covered topics such as speaking politely, exchanging business cards, seat assignment in a meeting room, and more.
However, after speaking with other newcomers, I realized that my case is uncommon. Other newcomers followed a 6-months training plan that covered both technical and non-technical skills.
Completing my probation period
When the developer forwarded my resume to the CEO of the company, he emphasized on my technical skills to convince him that I could compensate for the lack of Japanese language ability and that I would be able to perform my tasks independently. In other words, I was expected to show results quicker than other newcomers. The company was also expecting that my Japanese language proficiency would improve over time.
To assess my progress during the probation period, my superior was in charge of filling a performance review based on my accomplishments during the first three months. This performance review was used to assess my technical and non-technical skill sets and to confirm my full-time offer. Since they were satisfied with my performance, I was offered a full-time position after three months instead of six.
My work today
Since passing my probation period, I continue to work as a software engineer. I write code for the current web application product, produce documentation, improve code contribution process and development methodology, teach programming to new employees, and more. I consider myself lucky because I found a position that helps me grow as a software engineer.
Tips to find a job as a junior software engineer in Japan
From my own experience, here’s some tips to maximize your chances as a junior developer looking for jobs in Japan.