I’ve decided that I would like to live in Japan for a short term period of time at least to start, 2 years or so.
I have a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, and am working on my master’s degree in computer science. I also work full time at a tech job as a system admin, and have been for 2+ years. I am 24 years old.
I decided this a few months ago, and have recently started learning Japanese via self-study (textbooks). I am still in the very beginning stages of learning Japanese.
I would like to find work in Japan in my field, anything tech or IT related is fine with me.
I know I should first finish my master’s degree, and I will be studying Japanese while I do so, but 1 1/2 years for self-study of Japanese is not nearly enough to be sufficient, from what I’m told, given my work and school eating up time. My school does not offer study abroad master’s programs, but they do offer Japanese courses.
What is the best way to go about working in Japan, given my timeline of completing my master’s in about a year and a half? I’d like to make sure I spend this next year and a half wisely.
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**Master’s degree student and fulltime employee, What is my best option?**
I’ve decided that I would like to live in Japan for a short term period of time at least to start, 2 years or so.
I have a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, and am working on my master’s degree in computer science. I also work full time at a tech job as a system admin, and have been for 2+ years. I am 24 years old.
I decided this a few months ago, and have recently started learning Japanese via self-study (textbooks). I am still in the very beginning stages of learning Japanese.
I would like to find work in Japan in my field, anything tech or IT related is fine with me.
I know I should first finish my master’s degree, and I will be studying Japanese while I do so, but 1 1/2 years for self-study of Japanese is not nearly enough to be sufficient, from what I’m told, given my work and school eating up time. My school does not offer study abroad master’s programs, but they do offer Japanese courses.
What is the best way to go about working in Japan, given my timeline of completing my master’s in about a year and a half? I’d like to make sure I spend this next year and a half wisely.
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You can either enroll in school in Japan to learn Japanese full-time (student visa) or come over and teach English. The latter just requires a degree for visa purposes. You can then work finding IT jobs after a year or two and getting N1/N2. But brace for low salaries.
If you are from the US, you will be shocked at the low salaries for IT — unless you come over as a multi-national company expat or via DoD contractor.
Finish your degree. Optionally work for a couple years in your home country so you won’t be seen as a “fresh grad” here (to avoid dirt cheap salaries), and also to save some cash. Try to get N5/N4 prior to moving to Japan. Enroll in a Japanese language school here, move here, try to get N2 within a year, then start looking for jobs on your second year of language school. That should be golden.
Since you’re still in school, I’d recommend doing an exchange program / internship in Japan to test the waters before deciding to move.