Hi everyone, thank you for taking the time to read this 🙂
TLDR: should I give up an ALT position and CoE to try get a job as a developer later in the year or move now and transition?
My main questions are:
1. how realistic is it for me to transition after being an ALT for a year?
2. If I decline the position now will this effect my chances of getting a visa later on?
3. How difficult will it be to find pet friendly accommodation outside Tokyo (hoping to get a remote friendly position as a dev)
Sorry for the long post but here is some history, I have a CS degree with about 6 years of experience in web dev working in Germany and South Africa. I did a year as an ALT in 2018-2019 and loved my time but needed to go back to my home country for family reasons and to get married, the plan was to come back in 2020 but COVID happened.
I recently applied and was accepted for a position as an ALT, starting in April. The primary plan was for me to go across on my own and work as an ALT for a year and use that time to find a job as a dev and some pet friendly accommodation, we have an adorable cat that we can’t leave behind, so my wife will stay behind and make sure that everything is ready. With regards to my wife, she has very minimal Japanese skills, she is Chinese, but grew up in South Africa so English is her first language, she has a business degree and works as an accountant. Do you think she would be able to find a job or is it better for her to come as a dependent?
Thank you again 🙂
7 comments
There is no reason to be an ALT if you’ve got 5+ years experience as a dev. There’s no benefit to it, in fact it may be a detriment. You’d be much better off applying to dev jobs.
1. Totally possible with the experience you have, likely wouldnt be that hard.
2. Nope, it might impact you getting an ALT position later, but honestly that really shouldnt be the job you are going for anyways.
3. Fully remote positions are still pretty rare, though its more common to find places doing 1 / 2 days a week in the office so, as long as you dont mind commuting sometimes thats fine. How hard is it, well as a foreigner its harder to find places out of the city, but a real estate agent can totally help with that and it shouldnt be impossibly hard.
​
Big takeaway though, you have more than enough experience as a developer to just apply directly for jobs and go over as a mid career hire. There really is like 0 benefit to going over on an ALT job as opposed to just applying to dev jobs.
Check out [Japan Dev](http://Japan-dev.com) and [Tokyo Dev](http://tokyodev.com) for tech jobs. They also have very informative blog posts about the industry in Japan, expected Salary etc.
[Open Salary](http://opensalary.jp) is also a great source for detailed salary information of various tech companies.
Disclaimer, I’m not a developer in Japan yet but I know a few. And from the things I learned from them, someone with 5+ experience like you should definitely be able to get a job at one of the various companies on those sites I shared.
Drop the ALT gig and apply for a tech job cause you already have experience.
I think the only thing matters here is how good you are as an engineer. If you’re good, I don’t see why not just get an engineer job. Why even consider accepting an ALT?
1. If you already have development experience, it’s mostly ok. But you know what’s better? *Getting a dev job without going through the ALT route.* There’s absolutely ***no*** reason to do ALT before continuing your dev career. You will be devaluing yourself, since your pay will be way lower as your last job was ALT and you’ll be desperate to break out, and you’ll be one year removed from an industry that changes constantly. It’s not a good look.
2. No. Immigration doesn’t care.
3. Hard.
> The primary plan was for me to go across on my own and work as an ALT for a year and use that time to find a job as a dev
This is a bad plan. Even with experience, many companies move away from current ALTs because if you were a good enough dev you would have gotten a dev job first, instead of slaving away as an ALT.
> Do you think she would be able to find a job or is it better for her to come as a dependent?
No Japanese? She’ll ***definitely*** have to come on as a dependent. She won’t be able to work as an accountant here, save for maybe the international firms. And those jobs will be tough to get, specially for someone who doesn’t speak Japanese.
So quit the ALT stuff and find an IT job. Those are very easy to find. Look for recruiters and approach them, they’ll guide you.
To answer the Pets OK outside of Tokyo question:
I live 300km from Tokyo.
When I moved here I ran a search for suitable apartments (within my desired location & price & size range) and there were over 1000 hits. When I clicked the “pets OK” button it went down to 12. Various reasons (including being a gaijin) caused further eliminations. I was left with very few choices.
That said, pretty much anywhere in Japan you will invariably be able to find some shitty old accommodation that they will rent to you because they are desperate for a tenant. You’ll probably also get some half decent options that are either expensive or inconvenient locations. It’d doable, but you are likely to have to make some compromises.
OK, trying to be helpful reply over…
Now to the real point of my reply to you…
If you actually care about your cat you will find it a decent alternate local home rather than putting it through the bizarre torture of being moved to another country and all that that involves.
Your cat didn’t take a new job in another country, you did.
Either have pets, or swan around working internationally.
Do not force your cat to move internationally, that sucks for them, and that level of stress will harm them and could kill them.
Also, once you get to Japan, do not get a new cat (or cats, or other pet(s)) until you are certain that you will actually stay in Japan for as long as they live and/or be able to find them a decent alternate home if you leave – and I don’t just mean posting something on social media and seeing if you can find some rando to take your pet(s), I mean you actually get to know decent people whom you could trust to properly look after your pet(s) if you leave.
Apply for proper jobs directly.