Heyo movingtojapan fam, I, like many others, have wanted to go to Japan for a long time now.
It’s only recently that I’ve made the jump to go back to school to get my degree, which will be in computer science. I should be able to finish this by June of next year at the very latest, but it’s likely I’ll be able to do it by the end of April, if it matters.
When the time comes to go job searching, I was thinking of just applying to some ALT or whatever I can get to get my foot-in-the-door into the country and look for better opportunities once I get there, but then I realized that there will likely be contract terms that I’ll be bound to (I’m assuming) that will just add more time to me getting to what I actually want to be doing, which is ultimately working in tech in Japan.
Yes, I’m aware there are financially superior opportunities in the US, but I’m not going to Japan or into tech for that matter, for the money.
I’m 26, so even though I know I’m still “young”, I would very much like to not have to wait yet another year before I can start experiencing life there while I can still be “young”.
So ultimately my question is, as it is my plan to go to Japan as soon as possible, should I spend the time and effort trying to get an ALT job or are the chances of me being able to land an entry-level tech job as a fresh grad (with visa sponsorship) good enough that I should just focus on preparing for those positions in these next 9 months or so?
Thank you so much in advance for your reply. 🙏🏼
2 comments
Well…the end result of either of these paths is that you’ll be applying to tech jobs in Japan as your first job with zero experience. In other words:
* Path A: apply directly from overseas as a new-grad with no experience
* Path B: move to Japan and work in a field that has nothing to do with your career goals, then apply in IT as someone with zero experience and who hasn’t been working in the field so will have forgotten much of what they learned in school, but now you’re in Japan
Either case doesn’t really make you an attractive candidate. Being in Japan doesn’t really do anything to alleviate the fact you’ll have no experience; plenty of people are in Japan, so you won’t stand out at all as a candidate.
However, the second requires you make substantial upfront time, money, and life investments while losing a substantial amount of practical knowledge and working in a field you will likely hate, especially if you’re only doing it for the benefit of being in Japan.
Since you haven’t even graduated yet, the only choice that makes remotely any sense in my mind is spend your pre-graduation time applying to positions to see if you can arrange something for post-graduation. Although, I’m not sure if companies would want to make an offer contingent on your graduation in nearly a year from now, so maybe you’d need to wait until 2-3 months before graduation (since visa processing will consume this time anyway). Otherwise, maybe you can get an overseas contract position with escalation to a permanent position once you graduate.
I don’t work in tech (was an ALT) but I’ll tell you it would be a waste of time (professionally) to do ALT first. Best case scenario is you do JET, get paid well to do little work, and then you spend an entire year focusing on building projects that will help you get a Tech job in your free time. But my guy, if you aren’t a workaholic, you’ll struggle to work, study, and “live in Japan” which is your goal. I was an ALT for years and came out with only soft skills.
I would recommend contacting recruiters and start applying for jobs. Be frank and open to any criticism you receive. If you’ve still got zero bites by April of next year (hiring season) then I would still recommend spending that time building skills in your desired field and closing the gap between you and the competition because the salary and stability for working in Tech over teaching in Japan is worth the wait.
Being an ALT was my *fallback* as a liberal arts major and it should be your distant fallback if you’re in STEM. TLDR; don’t settle.