Hi, I’m currently mid-way through my computer science degree in my home country and am deciding on what to specialise in, data science or software engineering. Personally, I enjoy data science more than dev work and am leaning towards that as a career. In 4 or so years I hope to move to Japan with 2-3 years of experience under my belt. I was wondering what the data science market is like in Japan and whether it’s worth pursuing over software development. Specifically:
* How is the demand for data scientists in Japan (tokyo)? I’m more so talking about those who use ML models to extrapolate data but I also have heard data scientists in Japan are just glorified excel users. How true is this?
* Does anyone have any experience in the salaries for data scientists/engineers/analysts? I’ve checked the japandev website but I’d like to hear from you all especially from a non-local perspective.
* Is 2-3 years of experience in my home country enough to expect a salary greater than 7mil?
* Lastly, does anyone have any personal experiences working in this field in Japan, comparing it to working in their home country in particular?
* How important is language skills? I’m assuming it’s more important than a dev job but would you be using technical Japanese in everyday situations to, for example, suggest that the business do something differently based on the data you’ve extracted?
* From your personal experiences how difficult is the job-hunting process, especially for mid-early career applicants?
* I’m also interested in cloud engineering/devops – more so than software engineering. Is the demand for these types of engineers high?
Here’s some info about me:
* Graduating from a top 50 uni in bachelor of compsci (and bachelor of commerce maybe – worth finishing this degree?)
* Home country is Australia
* Diploma in Japanese (basically a major with just the core language units no fluff electives)
* N2 right now but could see myself getting N1 in the next 3 years or so.
* Currently 21 so looking to move when by the time I’m 25. That’s the goal but realistically 26+.
Finally, moving forward, is there anything I should be focusing on that will make this process and my life easier? This question is directed to you seasoned veterans, what mistakes did you make which you don’t want us prospective japan movers to repeat?
2 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Data Science/Analytics/Engineering Prospects in Japan**
Hi, I’m currently mid-way through my computer science degree in my home country and am deciding on what to specialise in, data science or software engineering. Personally, I enjoy data science more than dev work and am leaning towards that as a career. In 4 or so years I hope to move to Japan with 2-3 years of experience under my belt. I was wondering what the data science market is like in Japan and whether it’s worth pursuing over software development. Specifically:
* How is the demand for data scientists in Japan (tokyo)? I’m more so talking about those who use ML models to extrapolate data but I also have heard data scientists in Japan are just glorified excel users. How true is this?
* Does anyone have any experience in the salaries for data scientists/engineers/analysts? I’ve checked the japandev website but I’d like to hear from you all especially from a non-local perspective.
* Is 2-3 years of experience in my home country enough to expect a salary greater than 7mil?
* Lastly, does anyone have any personal experiences working in this field in Japan, comparing it to working in their home country in particular?
* How important is language skills? I’m assuming it’s more important than a dev job but would you be using technical Japanese in everyday situations to, for example, suggest that the business do something differently based on the data you’ve extracted?
* From your personal experiences how difficult is the job-hunting process, especially for mid-early career applicants?
* I’m also interested in cloud engineering/devops – more so than software engineering. Is the demand for these types of engineers high?
Here’s some info about me:
* Graduating from a top 50 uni in bachelor of compsci (and bachelor of commerce maybe – worth finishing this degree?)
* Diploma in Japanese (basically a major with just the core language units no fluff electives)
* N2 right now but could see myself getting N1 in the next 3 years or so.
* Currently 21 so looking to move when by the time I’m 25. That’s the goal but realistically 26+.
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For background, I’m working at a gaishikei as a SWE, but my team is more data science focused than average, utilizing multiple recommendation systems. Around 25% of my team are data scientist at various levels. In fact I left a more prestige big tech to join my current company to have more chance working on AI/ML stuff.
> How is the demand for data scientists in Japan (tokyo)?
From what I can see, the short term there will be less high paying roles, as companies are doing layoffs and hiring freeze left and right. But in 4 or so years thing should improve (hopefully). I also believe that data science can only get more and more important.
> Does anyone have any experience in the salaries for data scientists/engineers/analysts?
At my company, data scientist roles are paid comparably to SWE at roughly the same level. So a senior data scientist makes somewhere in the 18~20 mil annually and up. I actually don’t see many junior/mid level scientists, but they should make around 15 mil or so.
> Is 2-3 years of experience in my home country enough to expect a salary greater than 7mil?
Yes that possible, but you have to look at a subset of companies that can afford that salary. And the competition will be tougher.
> How important is language skills?
In my last 2 companies, all the scientists I know of work 100% in English. In fact, a guy in my team was flown here from China and doesn’t speak a single Japanese word. He’s an amazing guy though. I guess some people are just built different. Having said that, knowing Japanese will make your life in Japan much easier and enjoyable.
> From your personal experiences how difficult is the job-hunting process
Sorry I’m only experienced with the hiring process for SWE.
> I’m also interested in cloud engineering/devops – more so than software engineering. Is the demand for these types of engineers high?
I’ve heard that Japan is currently having a shortage of (good) devops engineer. And devops for machine learning system are in demand worldwide. That’s not my area of expertise though.
Overall I think you have good starting point, certainly much better than me when I started my career. It’s hard to predict things 4 years into the future, but good luck.