For context, I am a new grad with a bit over 1 year of work experience, I have a degree in Software Engineer Canada, do not speak business-level japanese, work-holiday visa still valid for almost one year, came to Japan about 2 months ago. I feel like the public discourse is the following: ”Japan shrinking population makes it harder to keep up the pace, we need qualified foreigners to work in tech industry, my company is struggling to find new devs, blah blah blah, …”(based on what I heard from people living here and people’s opinion on reddit). The thing is, I haven’t had a single interview here, got my resume reviewed by a bunch of devs working here for years, so I am not excluding the ”bad resume” factor, bur this gotta be more than that. I also feel like there is a big emphasis on hiring senior, ”15 years of experience with x technology”. I really dunno how to think about the industry here and my possibilities as a fresh newgrad to land a job here. Also, am I doing it wrong? Any tips?
21 comments
Three things:
1. Speaking Japanese is essential. Yes, there are openings for English speakers but they are sparse and sought after by people like you.
2. Job seeking in Japan is mainly using agencies. Doing it by yourself gives you less coverage and you are going to be hitting SMEs.
3. For fresh graduates or one year of experience it’s always more challenging.
Also, Japan has a strict, defined hiring season. The majority of candidates are onboarded in time for an April start, and there are relatively few hires in the interim across all industries.
Your working holiday visa might be a problem.
You came here 2 months ago during a period where tech hiring is on hold (if not doing layoffs) and you wonder why you’re not getting interviews?
99% of people need to speak Japanese to do well in Japan.
A new grad with no experience and no Japanese is going to have a difficult time landing a job. Spend some time building up experience (contributing to open source projects, for example) and working on your Japanese.
There’s also the issue that there have been a lot of layoffs recently as well as a general slowdown or even freeze in hiring. Plus those laid off people are also going to be out looking for work.
I think two things to mention here:
1) It’s a really tough time for tech, not just in Japan, but world-wide. A lot of people I know were laid off in Europe and the US and had a hard time finding new positions.
2) The Japanese tech scene is very small and salaries are insanely low (compared to the US or even Europe). If I was starting my career again, Japan would be the last place to consider. There’s only a handful of companies paying well (such as Indeed and Google), but even that is much lower than what you would see abroad..especially when you see more than half of your salary disappearing after taxes😭
Companies see new grads as long-term investment that only pay off when they work at least 3-5 years for them.
Starting a career as a software developer in a country where you don’t speak fluently would be extremely difficult anywhere.
The way of the salaryman hiring season starts in the Fall with job applicants getting jobs in around December. Most Japanese companies will do multiple interviews and start April 1st. Japanese is mostly required for these positions but you can probably get away with just being N2.
Also, foreign companies in Japan don’t generally follow this rule, and sometimes, the job itself requires to be fluent in English instead of Japanese.
As other people pointed out, WHV is generally for gigs like working at the sky resort in Nagano in the Winter. They are mostly a low skill, low pay jobs.
Btw, if you are in Tokyo, you can go to the foreigner recruitment center and try your luck there.
The big western tech firms in Japan hired like crazy over 2021 and 2022, and are now in a prolonged hiring freeze(with Google trying to figure out how it can legally lay off staff who don’t want to leave). If you don’t speak Japanese you are going to have few options, even Rakuten has slowed down/paused hiring.
I’m also job hunting for IT jobs. If you are desperate enough, there’s a bunch of IT companies looking for new grads with like 180k base pay lol. It is true there’s a shortage, even people with no skill or experience gets hire but it’s probably not the kind of company you are looking for. Also there’s a set job hunting season for new graduates (from April until July), so most companies will have filled their quota or stopped hiring by now but there’s still tons of opening if you know where to look. But idk what you are doing in Japan with a degree from Canada.
Thank you everybody who went through reading this rant post and provided valuable information/advices, I will keep those in mind
You don’t have much experience so it will be tough.
Lol believing random people on reddit was your problem, not false advertising 😂
Also came here on a working holiday visa, why not try hakken to get your foot in the door you can use an agency like Robert Walters
Hakken has its tradeoffs but at least you’ll get experience and yes there are positions out there with no to little japanese
Also it’s no issue converting whv to work visa the company can handle it but you can work fully on the whv as long as it’s not “night work’
Once you understand how hiring and companies work in Japan, you will see that Japan does not need any talent. Japan needs people who will accept low pay and will follow orders in their assigned position. You might hear cult like stories for small companies. For big companies(whose names are known by everyone), you will see a PhD taking photocopy, Kaggle master doing customer support, and last year’s sales person doing software engineering next year. No joke no exaggeration.
I don’t mean to be harsh at all but as a new grad with no Japanese and only 1 year of experience, what makes you feel you’re more attractive as a candidate than a local new grad?
Main tech companies are right now in a prolonged hiring freeze and there will be layoffs if/when Google figures out in their end if it’s possible to do so (I am pretty sure some other foreign companies are waiting on how that unfolds to start firing left and right in their Japan offices). Taking that into account and your experience/qualifications, I would say that you had too high expectations in how easy would it be to land a job.
People online over-hype Japan IT for some weird reason. For IT, Japan is probably the worst country to work in, not only are the salaries rock bottom, but many of the companies are “black” companies.
However, you did come at a very horrible time. Most companies are all about cost reduction this fiscal year, and many companies including my own (non-tech) have global hiring freezes.
May be it will improve next year with new fiscal budget, but at least until next year not really looking good for people looking for new jobs.
I think you being on work holiday visa might turn some companies off as well tbh.
More of a gamble for them compared to someone whose been here a while/longer visa.
If I’m an interviewer, what would you tell me when I ask you:
Why should I hire you instead of a Japanese new grad?
And native level English doesn’t count.
I’m not even in tech and I can tell you that many of them are either on a hiring freeze or flat out downsizing after the tech boom a la pandemic finally hit its peak. Worldwide, not just Japan, and it did hit Japan a bit late, but still. Many of my friends were at the seat of their pants a few months ago because they didn’t know if they’d get sacked, and they have years of experience.
To improve your chances: get permanent residency or citizenship (I think a lot of companies would be iffy on the working holiday thing, the days when you used to be able to easily switch to a proper working visa are long over), get more experience, aim small and smaller, or get your Japanese up to business level.
What is your visa here as and how long are you eligible to live here? You mentioned a work-holiday visa but what does that mean? Like you have a year where you can live here and then you have to go back? Or can that convert into a renewable visa provided a company sponsors you? We also have no clue what resources you are using to apply to jobs. What are you looking for company wise? These things also matter
Regardless, if it’s on you’re resume or you are mentioning your working holiday visa, do companies know what your intention is? If all I saw was working holiday visa and I have a stack of applications to filter through I might be skeptical because I wouldn’t know if you planned to stay here long term and on average the hiring process, onboarding and training phase are all incredibly expensive for someone who is just gonna root and boot us. And yeah they “lOsE oUt On Me” by not reaching out to clarify but the honest truth is that the burden of appeal is on the applicant unless you’re a stellar catch and the position WILL be filled eventually by someone who is just as good if not better.
My other point is that it’s competitive here in Japan. You have bootcamps (two of which I know) flooding the market with grads who likely have a valid visa that’s not a working holiday one or PR and you’re competing with fresh domestic university grads who are Japanese people or foreigners who speak business level Japanese. This isn’t also to mention that you may also be competing against devs from other countries like China, Vietnam, the Philippines, or India.
Companies may even have an arrangement with a dispatch agency based in those countries to bring them over for a limited period of time. (I’m not 100% sure if this is a thing so don’t quote me but it wouldn’t surprise me).
Also it’s true that companies are struggling to find devs, but they are struggling to find devs with the qualifications they are looking for. It’s not going to be shooting fish in a barrel just because you are a foreigner and they are in such dire straits. Also you don’t need to be a senior with 15 years of experience in x technology that’s a gross exaggeration (most smaller companies couldn’t afford someone like that if reckon to bet) but generally they are looking for someone with at least a few years who would be willing to accept the pay that they can provide which because it’s Japan, it’s going to be lower than what you might expect wherever you call home
The job market here in Japan is rough if it’s junior roles you’re applying to. I’m 3~4 years into my career and finding my second job was a infinitely easier than finding my first one
So yup 2 months here without a single interview sounds pretty par for the course. I mean I guess 1 of 2 things:
1) keep applying (pretty straight forward)
2) make connections and hope people will give you referrals.