Hi friends, I’m new here. It’s my first post here ever. I’m not asking for judgment, but advice from experienced people.
I’m a programmer, master’s degree, with two years of job experience, living in Japan for three years, third level Japanese. I studied Japanese for two years, then graphic design, which I had to drop due to lack of money to pay for the second year of school.
After two months of looking for a job, I was lucky enough to get a job at a hacken (I prepared, made a portfolio with screenshots and my code and, given the experience of previous interviews, tried to make the best impression). Probationary period of six months, salary: 2,5M annualy. But my joy was short-lived. For three months now nobody wants to hire me, while I am paid a salary. I am ashamed of it. When I applied for this job, I did it because of my expiring visa and didn’t even think I would be paid while I was waiting to be hired.
A week ago, it became mandatory for me to attend the agency office and learn Japanese under the supervision of my superiors. I have no idea how long this might last or what might happen next. Getting from level three Japanese to level two is a difficult, time-consuming and laborious process. I want to be prepared for possible surprises and problems.
1. How long before I can be fired?
2. Or maybe I should quit my job myself as soon as possible to avoid visa renewal problems and look for a job in English or non-hacken?
3. But how realistic is it? (I don’t have business level of English)
4. People with similar experience, what would you advise me?
My visa expires next summer.
I’m learning Japanese every day and taking lessons from a teacher on weekends, also working on expanding my portfolio. I’m confused, desperate and a little panicked. Any information would be helpful. Thank you.
9 comments
1. Pretty much never. You are still a full time employee of the haken company so all labor laws apply. There is only a small risk of a company-wide layoff due to business distress – they can’t just fire you.
2. I think you should stay and keep learning Japanese. This is by far your biggest weakness and almost certainly the reason you’re not getting any roles. Put 110% effort into learning Japanese. It will help your career for decades to come. You can do it.
3. It’s a big gamble with your visa expiring soon. Don’t leave unless you have a job offer in hand.
Is your lack of Japanese ability what is keeping you from getting placed? Have you talked with your agency about expectations, and what you need to do? If they are still employing you and are willing to teach you Japanese, they obviously see you as a worthwhile investment. I guess the problem is when they will lose patience if you don’t progress fast enough.
As an aside, ¥2.5M is an almost criminally low amount for a developer to be paid, so I suspect that may be why they are willing to keep you on the payroll without working.
> For three months now nobody wants to hire me, while I am paid a salary. I am ashamed of it.
You don’t need to be ashamed. Finding their clients isn’t your job. And hiring workers like you is also their job.
> How long before I can be fired?
Do you mean that you’re a permanent employee? It’s hard to fire a permanent employee that did nothing wrong. It’s their job to find clients that will pay to have you do stuff for them. If the company runs out of money you’re out of luck, but that’s rare for a non-tiny company.
> I’m learning Japanese every day and taking lessons from a teacher on weekends
Doing this while being paid a salary is a privileged position. But since you sound stressed, I guess it would be good to find some time to look for a new job. Without quitting your current one.
If you feel like they are trying to harass you into quitting, stand your ground and be more specific when asking for help.
When I first started job searching I was also hired by a haken company. They actually had super good Business Japanese class for intermediate speakers like yourself. I was hired pretty much immediately (I was already N2 by the time I joined), and in Tokyo at that, but my Japanese class had many not so “fortunate” people, some being in Japanese class 6 months or more. Others where hired in inaka Tottori… I would say, enjoy your paid Japanese learning time, getting fired is pretty unlikely, because it’s the company’s job to get you hired.
Looking back at that first job, I would say getting paid for learning Japanese was the best part, definitely better than eventually working for a company, just focus on improving, and it will happen in time.
Master’s degree (in CS?) and a ￥2.5 mil haken job ?
There are seishain engineer positions primarily using English that are vastly higher-paying.
Just wondering. Is the 2.5M salary because you are on “furlough?” Would it go higher when you do get placed?
Try tokyodev.com and japan-dev.com. Since you’re already in Japan, you might have an advantage for some of the roles (some require visa sponsorship already). Note there may be less roles than usual, but I’m thinking things should ramp up more starting next year. There are still job openings every week, though.
Other than that, LinkedIn is really good, and plenty of postings, especially for English speakers as well.
Man if you have a Masters and several years of experience you need to ASAP apply for a full time position elsewhere.
Check out Linkedin or Tokyo Dev and see if there are any openings for you. It wouldn’t hurt to reach out to some recruiters who can place you somewhere better. 2.5M is like slavery wages for a programmer.
The rule for devs in Japan will always be the same, if you don’t wanna be miserable, don’t work at a Japanese company. A 30sec google search will show you just how effed your conditions are.