Hello everyone, I apologize in advance if this turns out to be a super long post, but I want my situation to be as clear as possible so I can hopefully receive support and/or advice from your part.
I’m a Mexican living in Mexico City, 27 years old, single, have a bachelors degree in food chemistry, graduated on 2019 from UNAM (one of the most prestigious universities in Mexico, no idea if it’s the same in Japan though), unfortunately I haven’t been able to have a formal job on something related to my career due to the pandemic and health issues which I couldn’t take care of until very recently (which means I currently lack experience on a formal job, only have 2 years of academic experience).
Anyway, I’ve been planning to move to Japan to work, to be able to experience the country from the inside and probably build a life there, mainly due to a lack of growth opportunities in my own country, as well as a great interest in japanese culture overall, so I’ve been researching a LOT in regards of the paperwork and the process I have to follow in order to achieve my goal. The embassy of Japan in Mexico told me that to apply for a work visa I would first need to find a job in Japan and get a contract from a japanese sponsor company, then they would give me the CoE or the Uketsuke Zumisho document, and with any of those in hand I would only need to do the rest of the paperwork to get the visa, HOWEVER, due to family, money and life issues I’m unable to leave the country for the moment, in fact, I probably won’t be able to leave until the first half of 2025.
So you might be wondering “Why are you posting this then??”, well, since I won’t be able to leave for a while I was thinking of taking advantage of my time here and take 2 possible routes:
1.- My first possibility is to search a job in here related to my career, even if it’s a sh*tty job, and gain experience so by the end of 2024 I can begin to search for a japanese job now having experience in my field.
2.- My thesis advisor from where I got my bachelors degree offered me to stay with her and do a masters degree in the biochemical sciences field, which is not a bad deal, since it would take me only 2 years starting from January 2023, so by the end of 2024 I would have a masters degree in addition to my current one and could try to apply for a japanese job and leave during 2025, but once again, I would lack any real job experience other than academic experience.
So my question is: What do you think it’s gonna be the safest route for me to secure a job in a japanese company? Should I prioritize getting experience in my career? Should I obtain a masters degree instead? Will age be somehow an obstacle for getting a job? Because regardless of what I decide to do, I’ll be 30 years old by 2025 and I’m afraid that no one wants to give me a job by then because of my age, so what would you recommend for me to do? (No matter what route I take, in both cases I’ll be also studying japanese so I can at least get a decent N3 level (hopefully even a N2 level) by the time I plan to leave for Japan).
P.D.: Besides all of that, I was also considering a third option: as you might have found out by now, I’m really good at English, not perfect obviously, but I’m still sure I have the skill and knowledge to achieve for a C2 certification in English, so I was thinking that I could also certify myself as proficient in the English language and apply for an English teaching job in Japan, but I’m not sure if I can apply to one of those by my own means, or if I need to apply to one of those English teaching programs in Japan (like ALT or Eikawa) to get a job like that, but can I even apply to one of these programs as a non-native English speaker?.
Anyway, thank you very much for your attention, I hope you can help me and again, I apologize for the long post.
Hope you have a good day!!
4 comments
I would always reccomend getting work experience in your field first as well as studying Japanese. It can be very challenging as a foreigner with little work experience and not a high level of Japanese to land a decent job.
With that being said, you should spend time researching jobs in that industry in Japan. You need to read about the degree, work experience, and language qualifications necessary to find a position. If a masters degree is required (it may be in scientific fields) then of course you already know your path.
However, even if a masters degree was needed, I would work on getting the masters first and then try to get work experience before Japan. Its often much easier to find good jobs in Japan with prior experience and you will generally be compensated better as well.
From what I’ve heard, you need 12 years of formal education in English to do ALT work if you’re not from an English speaking country. Age discrimination for new graduates is a thing in Japan. I’m not familiar with your degree in the slightest but for that very same reason I assume you’ll need fluent Japanese, not just N2(specifically communicable Japanese ability), to be able to work in that kind of profession.
In terms of prescriptions, that means finding a job in the field of work of your degree, (or whatever you aspire to be, you can always do something that is less related), improving your Japanese with an emphasis on speaking (JLPT is awful for this besides the certificate it gives you because you can be unable to speak a word and pass N1) and then acquiring experience and getting a job that way.
[It’s possible that the restrictions I think exist about English teaching aren’t as strict as I thought, but I’ll leave that to you to research.](https://www.reddit.com/r/teachinginjapan/comments/lgf7ou/becoming_a_nonnative_english_teacher/)
I dont know. But please bring your nations food with you. I miss it so much.
Hola! Soy Mexico-Americana y tengo experiencia viviendo en Japón y trabajando con compañías japonesas. Por el momento me encuentro viviendo en los EEUU.
Si buscas experiencia profesional antes de tomar buscar trabajo en Japón, recomiendo trabajar en una compañía japonesa en Mexico. Hay bastantes. Compañías japonesas usualmente son fabricantes y tienen presencia en Mexico.
Advertencia para decir que la realidad de trabajar en una compañía japonesa no es como se presentan en las novelas. Son brutas y pagan pésimo a comparación a los EEUU.
Si eventualmente deseas mudarse a Japón, ayudaría tener entendimiento del idioma a nivel profesional. (Pasar nivel [N1/N2](https://www.jlpt.jp/e/about/levelsummary.html). ) Desafortunadamente el inglés no creo que sea ventajoso ya que hay bastantes extranjeros que hablan inglés. Pero tener dominación en inglés y Japonés (nivel N1/N2) es mucho más deseado.