Hey everyone,
I’m trying to figure out how realistic moving to Japan with my family would be with what current knowledge I have.
I currently have a 4 year B.S. and 7 years of experience with SQL and Tableau. The ideal is to find a job that can support myself, my wife, and my son with that skill set. I’m not super particular on the where, but ideally close to Tokyo since my Japanese is a work in progress.
I have been studying Japanese for ~3 years in my free time. I wouldn’t say I’m very good (maybe n4?) since it’s all been self-studying, but I’m continuing to hone my skills.
Thank you for any and all advice!
2 comments
Do you already know if SQL and Tableau are the industry standards in Japan? I have several analytics certificates and based on the answers here I’ll consider learning those two as well.
Your main obstacle will be your Japanese ability, regardless of whether Tableau is widely used or not. If you’re going to be handling data, it’s almost certain you’ll be handling data in Japanese. Any reasonably complex datasets that would warrant a dedicated data visualisation/analytics team will also likely require a high communication ability, both to understand the specifics of the data you’re handling, as well as communicating with your stakeholders about what insights they are looking for. At least, that’s what I would assume – you would probably have a better idea of how much of your work you could do if one day you woke up and you couldn’t understand English.
That being said, the best thing to do might be to talk to tech recruiters in Japan (RGF, Robert Half, etc.) – reach out to people and set up a meeting. They will probably be the best placed to understand what kinds of opportunities are out there. And apply to jobs you do find, you might find a good match if you put yourself out there! English-only roles are probably not super numerous, but with your experience and degree you would be an attractive candidate for the ones you might come across.
It might be tough to find something in this field that doesn’t require business-level Japanese but pays enough to comfortably support your whole family, especially if (for instance) you intend to send your son to international school, or to pay for language lessons for you and/or any of your family members. If you’re currently working in North America or Western Europe, you will almost certainly be taking a pay cut – potentially a substantial one – which will be exacerbated by your wife’s lost income (if she’s currently working). But again, you’d be much better placed to understand your financial needs and weigh any job offers accordingly.
Btw, if you happen to have general software development experience/skills, you might consider applying for work as a developer. I believe the earning potential is higher, the job availability is higher and the Japanese language requirements are often fairly low.