Hi all,
I don’t know if this is just a case of me generally being someone who tends to overthink and worry too much, but I’ve found myself really scared about job prospects following my upcoming move.
To give some context, my wife and I are expecting our first kid, and her being from Japan we decided to move there this spring. I have my spouse visa sorted out, so won’t need to be sponsored by an employer. A place to live in for the long term is also ready, so on this side of things there are no issues.
I’ve worked in Japan for around 3 years before, then moved back to the UK where I continued working for Japanese companies so as not to let my language skills rust. Also I’ve passed N1 back in 2016 and use Japanese at work and at home every day, so communication is also not a problem.
And I’ve actually really wanted to return to Japan and work there again at some point, so should at this point be pretty excited, right? Well, not quite…
Part of the problem is that I’m not in IT. Although I’ve worked in the IT industry and am quite passionate about technology, I’ve not studied coding and it’s probably quite late to start (I’m 29), because that’ll mean study costs and perhaps an only an entry-level job a few years down the line. Instead I’m in HR, so there are considerably fewer opportunities for non-natives (though of course they are out there).
What’s also dragging me down is that my current company was unwilling to move me over to Japan (they say they have too many back office employees as is, I think that’s true given that other employees echo this), and my replies to scout emails are generally ignored, probably because I say that I’m in the UK at the moment and will move later in spring. Plus the one agency recruiter who I did manage to talk to has ignored my follow-up emails, so that definitely doesn’t help with confidence.
Obviously the job situation has changed since the last time I was in Japan, so if anyone has some advice on these questions, it would be really appreciated.
* Do companies generally not conduct remote interviews for non-IT roles? I know many IT folks find their jobs remotely, but so far I’m getting a different impression.
* Is it realistic to find an HR-related job in Tokyo/Yokohama paying around 5m or more as a bilingual?
* Is there any reason to worry about not finding a job, or is this a bit silly?
I guess my main worry is not being able to find anything for a few months, so having to pay health insurance/pension out of savings and running up a blank on my CV, then settling either for an entry level job or worse, haken or baito somewhere.
Any advice or thoughts welcome, especially if you work in a related field and were in the same boat. Thank you!
1 comment
1. I would say that the vast majority of startups, and medium to large size companies are now willing to conduct remote interviews assuming the position is open to visa sponsorship. Particularly in the last two or so years due to COVID.
2. I wouldn’t say unrealistic, but perhaps that salary might be on the higher end of the expected range depending on your experience (maybe it was because I just woke up, but I didn’t really see you mention any HR experience).
3. It might take a while, and you might have to burn through some savings and build up a little bit of a blank space on your CV, but assuming you have experience I wouldn’t be overly worried.
Worst case since you have a spouse visa you could just go get a baito while job hunting.