Software Engineer job in Japan?

[chiisai_nezumi]

Hi all, this is my first post to this board, so please bear with me.

Ok, so after reading up on as much material as I could get my little paws on, I set myself on the JET program track as a default and am now looking for some sort of programming position in Japan. I'll have a Master's Degree in Comp. Sci. this December, and level 3 proficiency Japanese skills, but I'm not sure exactly where to look - all the job postings I see seem to require you to speak Japanese at the native level, and browsing individual websites takes a long long time. Anyone have any suggestions for a newbie as for what to do, or where to go?

Also, how much can you expect to get paid if you have a master's degree?

chiisai

[schmoe]

Pardon me while I steal your thread...

There are quite a few JP job sites out there with jobs that don't seem to require japanese, http://www.daijob.com and http://www.jobdragon.com to name a few. However it seems to be impossible to even get a courtesy notification of interest if you aren't already in Japan.

I'm in the US but qualify for a spouse visa and am looking at relocating to the Tokyo area sometime between January and July 2005. I have 7 years of professional programming experience, loads more "unprofessional" experience, open source project work, etc. Have been primarily doing Java/J2EE work for the past 5 years with some excursions into Python, Ruby, C#, VB.NET, etc.

Anyone hiring or know someone who is? =)

[Taro Toporific]

Also, how much can you expect to get paid if you have a master's degree?

You might find a master's degree somewhat a hinderance in the Japanese corporate world since you will outrank most everyone. I have for sure. The pay diifference for a masters is only 12-20,000yen/month at Fujitsu for example. It's experience and SKILLZ that count <duh>.

However, bigger companies, in particular DoCoMo and Hitachi value Phds and advanced degrees. If and only if you remind me by PM, I just learned of one contract programming company that offers 1-year job contracts* in NTT Data, Renesas, et al which would be a great foot-in-the-door.
*(in-country hire, no visa provided)

OF COURSE, joining a foreign software company and being sent to Japan on "The Package" for expats is the best. Why live in Japan as an "in-country hire" low-life like me when you can live the fatcat expat life?

[chiisai_nezumi]

OF COURSE, joining a foreign software company and being sent to Japan on "The Package" for expats is the best. Why live in Japan as an "in-country hire" low-life like me when you can live the fatcat expat life?

That, of course, begs the question, how do you get on the fatcat expat life? I'm having trouble finding companies which don't tell you to go apply to their Japanese division website...plus, I'm in the US at the moment, so daijob and other job sites don't have much for me.

Any advice is appreciated!

chiisai_nezumi

[Taro Toporific]

OF COURSE, joining a foreign software company and being sent to Japan on "The Package" for expats is the best. Why live in Japan as an "in-country hire" low-life like me when you can live the fatcat expat life?

That, of course, begs the question, how do you get on the fatcat expat life? I'm having trouble finding companies which don't tell you to go apply to their Japanese division website...plus, I'm in the US at the moment, so daijob and other job sites don't have much for me.

Ahhh, the old pig-in-the-poke problem: No Japanese company wants to hire you sight unseen...but it's a pain in the ass to come to Japan without work (and often a visa).

"Ideally" if you want to come to Japan, you try to hire on at a non-Japanese company with a large Japanese division and then get transferred here to live as royalty. The greater the Japanese presence the non-Japanese company has, the more chances you have to transfer here on the all-important Package. Occasionally a smaller company like RAMRON (Colo. Springs) with have a gaijin director position available but you would have to have inside connections to know that and generally the smaller the company the higher the level of Japanese is required.

The reason I am saying non-Japanese companies is that Japanese companies don't like to transfer folks from the Real-World to Japan except for specific projects of less than 6 months. The game industry has the greatest amount of cross-border transfers--- most other industries use in-country hiring of very F'ed gaijin and "astronauts" who commute to Japan for a couple weeks or months at a time.

[chiisai_nezumi]

Thanks! The information is definitely valuable, if a little disheartening

Now to find a company with a large, hiring Japanese division...

*pulls on hunting cap, and prepares to dig through lots of webpages*

chiisai

[cstaylor]

Do you have a web page and a resume that we can look at? I may know some people looking for good Java programmers...

[kotatsuneko]

logica send poor innocent gaijin 2 work in japan. one i knew of had to work 12 hour shifts and did a runner in the end, worth a try if you like living at a desk tho..

[GomiGirl]

Do you have a web page and a resume that we can look at? I may know some people looking for good Java programmers...

yeah - I may know some people too.

[Skankster]

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chisai Nezumi,,,


An expat package "to go" is not something usually offered by these fast food IT joints.
Think about it:

Why would they hire some guy they dont know to go to Japan to represent them???
... especially when he is not familiar with thier technology nor the people he is to work with/answer to???

NOT HAPPENING.


If your willing to wait go to a company with a large presence and growth potential in Japan. Work for them for a while and put it out that you are J-E fluent and you might get sent 1-2 years later.

If your company is big enough you can try the internal job listings for Japan.

EX: at Warner Bros I used to see Japan listings often.

I had a Japanese American buddy who got sent by Disney here because he could speak etc. But he also had skillz.

[chiisai_nezumi]

Well, I thought carefully about everyone's advice, and decided to try the 1-2 year at a big company with a large Japanese division. I kept seeing Microsoft ads on daijobs, so I decided to give it a try, and landed one on-site interview a month and a half ago, and then flew out again today for a second. Anyway, to get to the point, I was wondering if anyone knew the chance of getting a fatcat expat package from Microsoft, and what it's like to work at Microsoft Japan. I'm giving myself pretty good odds on getting this job, since they've called me out twice, but I don't want to jump into something that doesn't achieve what I want to achieve. Any advice is appreciated!

chiisai_nezumi

[Taro Toporific]

... I was wondering if anyone knew the chance of getting a fatcat expat package from Microsoft, and what it's like to work at Microsoft Japan...

You can assume that working at Microsoft Japan is just as fuckqued as Microsoft in the Real World. Horseshit is about the same as bullshit when you're face down in it. :P

Hold out for a package with decent housing and private Japanese lessons. As long as you don't have baggage that needs to go to international schools and membership the ladies circle in the Tokyo American Club, Microsoft has saved 15 million/yr on you.

Damn, I wish the FG Forum had a better search function: The "original FG", Kamome, once posted a checklist of the basics you should expect on The Package. Try PMing kamome for that list.

Noob: What kind of salary could a Senior __ Developer expect to make?

Terrie: If in a stable multinational IT department, you could expect about JPY6-10M per year - due to the fact that you would mainly be doing maintenance. If you're in a software development boutique (there are a number around), about JPY8-14M per year - although better paid and more interesting, fluent Japanese will be really key to getting in to one of these.

[url]http://www.daijob.com/dj4/en/column/terrie/column.jsp]