Hello everyone, I’ve been lurking this sub for at least 3 years now, and I’ve reached a stage in my life (24 years old) where I decided it’s time to move abroad, to my dream country, Japan.
For some context, I live in Portugal (we have a work-holiday visa), I’ve a degree in Business Relations (covers management, HR, business, economics and some tech) and I’ve recently finished an after labor course on UI/UX and in 3 months time I’m finishing my after labor FullStack Developer course, which covers basics as HTML, CSS, JS, and React, Typescript, MongoDB and NodeJS.
My work experience only has been as a Project Manager at an e-commerce company and some management work in a furniture company.
I’m just worried on the job prospect in Japan, I’ve read that Japanese companies don’t hire developers with 0 work experience, on the other hand, I’ve also read there’s a shortage of developers in Japan.
My girlfriend is also in the same boat as me, with a different work experience and the big difference is on her degree, which is Fashion Design (unsure if that might be a issue because of the Visa application, embassy hasn’t helped much in clarifying it).
All in all, we’re just wondering if there’s a realistic chance of us getting a job in Japan as a developer (either frontend or FullStack) with 0 work experience. The only plus is that we might get a work-holiday visa to enter Japan and try to get a job whilst living there already, if it helps the case.
Any help or clarity is appreciated, even if it’s some harsh truth.
5 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
—
**Junior FullStack Developer jobs in Japan**
Hello everyone, I’ve been lurking this sub for at least 3 years now, and I’ve reached a stage in my life (24 years old) where I decided it’s time to move abroad, to my dream country, Japan.
For some context, I live in Portugal (we have a work-holiday visa), I’ve a degree in Business Relations (covers management, HR, business, economics and some tech) and I’ve recently finished an after labor course on UI/UX and in 3 months time I’m finishing my after labor FullStack Developer course, which covers basics as HTML, CSS, JS, and React, Typescript, MongoDB and NodeJS.
My work experience only has been as a Project Manager at an e-commerce company and some management work in a furniture company.
I’m just worried on the job prospect in Japan, I’ve read that Japanese companies don’t hire developers with 0 work experience, on the other hand, I’ve also read there’s a shortage of developers in Japan.
My girlfriend is also in the same boat as me, with a different work experience and the big difference is on her degree, which is Fashion Design (unsure if that might be a issue because of the Visa application, embassy hasn’t helped much in clarifying it).
All in all, we’re just wondering if there’s a realistic chance of us getting a job in Japan as a developer (either frontend or FullStack) with 0 work experience. The only plus is that we might get a work-holiday visa to enter Japan and try to get a job whilst living there already, if it helps the case.
Any help or clarity is appreciated, even if it’s some harsh truth.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/movingtojapan) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Heya.
You’re still young. Is getting a web dev job in Portugal not an option? I don’t know how the market is there. But it may be easier if you do that for a few years then look into Japan.
It is hard getting a Junior job without great Japanese, or some experience. Even harder if you aren’t in the country already.
Well, I’ve hired people with no work experience fresh out of college, but to be honest, I always have zero expectations for them to be productive in any way for their first year. That is the investment I make in them so that they can give back in the future.
To be honest, I would not hire you (sorry), just due to your visa type.
That being said, since you are free to work on that visa, you might want to considering building your skills by freelancing and doing online work while you travel around and enjoy the country.
Good luck!
To be honest, I don’t think there is a chance. But also, I think you can still improve your situation. Actually mine was very similar to yours.
I started my career in software in Portugal around your age. Portugal is very good right now if you want to work in IT, you just need to get a first job. I moved to Japan at 29, and I’m glad I got experience first cause many companies here will try to take advantage of you. Labor laws aren’t so strict compared to Europe.
My recommendation is get some years of experience first and a more defined career then move to Japan. Japan is not going anywhere, you can always move later. Also forget “full-stack”, this is not a junior position even if some companies advertise it that way. Both frontend and backend are complex on their own so it’s better you focus on which side you’re more interested in and then move to full stack later if you want.
Best of luck!
>I’ve read that Japanese companies don’t hire developers with 0 work experience, on the other hand, I’ve also read there’s a shortage of developers in Japan.
Both of these things are true, but they’re not mutually exclusive.
There’s a shortage of developers worldwide, but at the same time sponsoring a visa is complicated enough that it’s very challenging to find a company willing to hire a foreigner with limited experience.
In your case you’ve got access to a WHV, but unfortunately that’s not likely to help. The WHV is time-limited, so there’s a hard cap on how long you can stay. Even with experience many companies aren’t going to want to go through the trouble of hiring and onboarding someone who is only going to be with the company for a year.
>My girlfriend is also in the same boat as me, with a different work experience and the big difference is on her degree, which is Fashion Design
Does she speak any Japanese? Finding a fashion job as a non-Japanese-speaker is going to be *extraordinarily* difficult.