Living in Osaka, 29M, currently working at a major translation company in Japan. While the company itself is okay, the pay is crap (over 3M a year with bonus). I see no future in continuing to pursue this industry. As I approach 30, I feel peer pressure after reading you guys posts about your 10M+ income in tech-related jobs. I think it’s time for me to change.
I have no experience with coding but I was good at math in high school and I’m usually quick at learning basic computer stuffs. I can speak Japanese and English at a business level (plus my mother language). Do you have any advice? I’ve heard some tech companies provide learning courses for beginners. Should I go look for those companies who would hire people with no experiences or would it be better to attend a bootcamp to gain some knowledge first before entering this industry?
Thank you!
8 comments
So here is the thing, with no experience you will not only have to compete with new grads in Japan, but also with people from other 3rd world countries coming via haken agencies. And we are generally willing to work more for less pay, while having a CS degree and even some experience. If you think 3M is low then wait until you learn how much a CS new grad from my country receive to work in Japan for example.
If your reason for getting into the Tech industry is being peer pressured by redditors, I think it is a terrible reason.
the “tech industry” is a very vague word and there are a multitude of very different jobs that involve coding. Do you want to do web design ? UX designer ? System engineer ? Data analyst ? Each of them requires a different set of skill and different languages.
In your shoes I would:
Identify the different positions that exist in the Tech industry.
Select the ones where some of my soft skills could transfer/ I have a particular interest for and seems feasible to reconvert to.
Identify the most commonly used programing language used in these types of jobs.
To a test run on my free time, let’s say 3 months where I spend around 15-20 hours a week learning one of the identified programing language. (There are a bazillion ressources on the net for that).
Reflect on the experience after 3 months: is programming something I see myself building a carreer of ? Am I making enough progress ? Should I continue with the self taught approach or enroll in a 1 year degree, a boot camp or whatever certification is going to have value ?
You seem first of all to be measuring yourself against others, which is just unhealthy.
Secondly, as others have said, at entry level you’re going to be outcompeted by newly trained specialists, and that in a rapidly shrinking market.
As much as I love japan as a place to live, unless you carve out a niche for yourself or have some sought after expertise, your options are limited largely to English teaching or translation.
On the other hand, I saw a white girl working in a konbini last week; By this I mean that having good Japanese only means that you might be able to compete with your average local, but is otherwise pretty meaningless outside the professions I’ve already mentioned.
I wouldn’t say 10M is normal.
An engineer at a major Japanese tech company at 30 is realistically more like 6M with a standard deviation of 0.8M. At 40 maybe 7M with a standard deviation of 1.2M.
Coding bootcamps may be good if you have exhausted all free resources. I would build a coding portfolio and figure out how to use github first.
10m for no experience is only for FAANG companies. A friend got master degree in computer science at Todai and didn’t get that much working for a Japanese company.
5m is more reasonable if you go to bootcamp and stuffs and get entry level job
One of the IT skills is use of “Google” and search box.
Average annual wage in Japan is 4.3M.
This topic is raised many times in this sub.
https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/up9np4/is_it_worth_enrolling_in_a_coding_bootcamp_to_get/
If you are holding a N2+ you can get a Comptia A+, find a helpdesk job quickly and get a very good career into IT support or even infra if you like it afterwards.
IT support is well paid and considered in Japan when you can speak English and Japanese at a good level. It is not requiring degrees or many difficult certs either so you won’t need to cram like crazy to step up. And there is a SHIT TONS OF JOBS available.
I wouldn’t consider dev unless you are passionated and still you will struggle as the current market is very difficult.
And people have said it already but earning 10M+ even in tech is a very small portion of workers, most of the mid/seniors workers are within a 6-8M range
I do get 10M a year coding…. back home. Which is how I can afford to be on extended leave and in Japan going to language school. There aren’t many jobs here in my language (the one I program in, not the one I speak) and they are around the 5-6M mark. If 10+ was realistic I’d not be going back! I see some at 7 that are more front-end focused, but they all want degrees and 5+ years experience (which I have, but you do not).
Don’t be put off from learning to program, it’s a fun career, but I don’t think you’ll be earning your dream salary for another 5-10 years at least. Well I think it’s fun, logging on to find the error log is full of some weird production issue that started overnight and you somehow need to work out what’s happened and fix it asap might not be everyone’s cup of tea.