Hello everyone. I’m currently applying to a master’s degree in mechanical and electrical engineering in a Japanese university. The program I’m applying to is an English-taught program from Kyoto University of Advanced Science (or KUAS).
The thing is, I’m really looking forward to continue my career in Japan upon graduating and I was wondering what the opportunities are for an electronics engineer holding a master’s degree from a Japanese university are to getting a job at a Japanese (or foreign) company. And what salary range should I be expecting.
I did an exchange program in Japan for a year in the past, so I know how living there is and I found it quite good. I don’t have any issues adapting myself and I’m pretty much resolved to go there.
I currently hold an N3. The university offers Japanese language courses for free so my goal is to at least get an N2 when I graduate.
For context, I’m 26 years old and I’ve been working as a product engineer for a multinational electrical equipment manufacturer for 2 and a half years. I have a great salary and benefits but… I’m from a pretty dangerous latin american country where drug cartels rule, so that and many other things are my reasons from wanting out, even if it pains me a bit leaving what I’ve done behind. I’m pretty resolved myself to move to Japan, so no problems there.
Any input would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!
1 comment
Lots of variables and unknowns at play here, so I’ll just make do with random thoughts:
Amount of work available for EEs in Japan is as varied as what the profession itself can cover, but I see a lot of activity especially in semiconductors (foundry, equipment, and fabless), automotive, and robotics lately in the country to name a few. I’ve even been hit up a few times myself asking if I would work on spacecraft and consumer electronics! If you’re hoping to work on trains or the grid, for example, you might be nearly out of luck but I’d never say never. RF is probably an outlier because wherever you go, people will always want RF because wizards who deal with the darkest, blackest of magic (RF) are a rare commodity by design.
If you’re job hunting right out of school with a master’s, 2.5 years of existing experience may not be enough to get you out of being treated as a fresh grad – i.e. dumb and uncompetitively paid. A former workplace of mine, however, gave an additional incremental bump in starting salary based on years of experience for graduate hires (master’s/PhD, etc.) if you worked before going back to school or whatever. In any case, expect low but otherwise livable – maybe even comfortable — salaries unless you can impress your way to Keyence or some higher-paying foreign firm (who will likely only pick up experienced engineers with a proven track record anyway).
My advice for you is to work on your Japanese and study well. I see my fair share of electrical engineers in Japan, and oftentimes they are either experienced or good at what they do but speak no Japanese, or speak Japanese but aren’t good at what they do or have no experience. Become an EE with masterful command of the technical lingo and be good at what you choose to do, and big industries like semiconductors will, relatively speaking, be your oyster.
Good luck!