I’ve been in contact with basically like a Japanese Job Agent I guess.
I’m basically tired of some of the things happening in America. My rents gone up 50% the last two years, and might go up another 20-50% in a couple months, my healthcare is skyrocketing, I live in a very south part of America where guns are everywhere, and I just want a change. or at least different problems.
I have a B.A. In Japanese and a degree in technology. Which I honestly never expected to use, but I applied to a job on Gaijin pot, and the agency (I guess?) seems pretty confident that they can place a programmer with credentials and 10 years experience, plus like almost business level Japanese.. (almost because I can hold a conversation ok, my kanji and vocab and keigo need work. I’ve been told my accent is good, or like a Korean person’s (not sure how that would happen))
Is that true? If so, what pay range would be good for that… I’ve worked for banks and the navy, but no big tech companies. I think maybe like 800万 – 1000万 would be like the lowest I would accept. (is that around the range?)
I’ve started preparations just in case they can find me a job (most notably I have animals I know need to be prepared 6 months in advance) nearly everything else would take less time, but the animals need to be prepared like yesterday.
Mostly I just want reasonable cost of living that’s not going to shoot up every single year (higher than I can get raises without changing jobs every other year)
But I’m not counting my eggs before they hatch and of course am continuing my job search in America at the same time.
3 comments
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Hey, it should be fairly easy for you to land a job in Japan if you are a programmer, generally speaking. Rather than Gaijin Pot, I would recommend going through more global and well known recruiting firms such as Robert Walters, Michael Page, Hays, etc. Just upload your resume and someone should get in touch with you. Pretty much how I landed my job in Tokyo.
It can be highly competitive but I would recommend that you work for a global (US/EU) company as those firms tend to offer the best benefits or the highest pay. Though, for programmers, you may be able to find more opportunities in a startup or free lance like environment.
The biggest bottleneck for you is that you’re not already in Japan and this may discourage many companies from seriously considering you as a candidate. It’s much easer to find work when you already reside in Japan; however, it becomes difficult to get visa sponsorship without the job.
It is possible to get hire while you are in the US, as that was the route that I took, just a couple years ago. My advantage however, is that I speak Japanese natively and have citizenship… so it was likely easier for the company to hire me rather then sponsor someone that needs a visa.
Have you thought about getting a temporary gig in Japan like teaching English? You could perhaps start there to get your foot in Japan and then leverage your experience afterwards to get a more permanent job.
Not sure if you have thought about this. What was your job in the Navy? Do you still have any clearances?
Looking to USA jobs, and clearances jobs for bases on Japan. Usually every base has 5-10 openings for IT/system admin and they pay pretty well.
It takes a while to be hired but you can make big money in little Sasebo japan.