Advice Wanted: Finding a *real* job in Japan

Hello everyone,

Please allow me to be the 8 billionth person to start a thread like this, and I apologize in advance for its length.
I am hoping to end my 4-year stint as a dancing bear/tape recorder in July of next year, and possibly begin a non-teaching job here in Japan, hopefully in the Kansai region.
The possibilities I'm looking at are: programmer (I graduated university with a degree in Computer Engineering) or translator. One hang-up is that I do not have any real-world experience in either of these fields, and naturally, since I left college, the skills I learned there have been growing gradually rustier.
As a result, I'm not quite sure how to go about looking for a job. The employment sections on Japanese corporate websites are generally geared at people graduating Japanese universities next year, or Japanese people with prior work experience. As for translating, I'm even more lost, and don't know how one would go about trying to get into the translating field. If the typical thing to do is to go to a translating school for a year or two, I would be willing to consider doing that.
So what I'm asking for here, is any kind of knowledge or advice that I can get. If you know of websites that might be especially good for my particular situation, I'd be most grateful. Any information on schools or anything else that might help would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading.
Jimmy

As a footnote, I'll mention that my Japanese skills are of a fairly high level, but not at a native level yet. I can read just about anything, but my speaking and listening skills will probably take about another year before I feel I can converse entirely freely.

Hi JimmySeal san,

I'm not an expert in the field of translation, but I'm interested in it (though never tried to be a translator) and when I find some articles or thread in forums I visit, I read them with interest. So here are some ideas/thoughts on how to become a translator in Japn.

As you see English is the most popular foreign language and competition in English translation services seems quite severe and not only experience but also some knowledge is required in a specific field.
If you google with the key word 翻訳会社, you'll find many companies offering translation services. Some of them also look for translators/interpreters but unless you have some experience or at least trained in specific field, the chance to get employed looks rather slim.

This company, for insntance, are looking for translaters/interpreterse but if you see their application form, you'll find that you have to mark the field you're specialized, such as 法務・契約書、機械・電気、医薬、IT・通信、ビジネス、教育・一般 、科学論文.
Naiway翻訳サービス
http://www.naiway.com/naiway/html/translator/recruit.html

Here are some threads about becoming a translater from Yomiuri Shinbun forum - most posters are Japanese females and their situation could be very much different from yours, yet I think there might be some information that might be interesting for you (i.e how to get the job, schools, requirements, etc.) as some of the posters are those who are actually working as a translater (including those working for a translation services company).

最初の翻訳経験はどこで積めるのでしょうか？
最初の翻訳経験はどこで積めるのでしょうか？ | キャリア・職場 | 発言小町
翻訳家になりたい
翻訳家になりたい | キャリア・職場 | 発言小町
翻訳者になりたい！
翻訳者になりたい！ | 生活・身近な話題 | 発言小町
翻訳家になるためには？
翻訳家になるためには？ | キャリア・職場 | 発言小町
翻訳のお仕事について
翻訳のお仕事について | キャリア・職場 | 発言小町
翻訳を仕事にしている方
翻訳を仕事にしている方 | キャリア・職場 | 発言小町
特許翻訳の仕事をしている方、教えてください。
特許翻訳の仕事をしている方、教えてください。 | キャリア・職場 | 発言小町

You might some information on schools/courses to be trained as translater/interpreter in this page.
http://allabout.co.jp/career/careerlanguage/subject/msub_trans.htm
(But translation schools in Japan are mostly for Japanese people who want to become a translator in foreign language, so I wonder if their classes are suitable for a native speaker of English who wants to translator...?!)

I wish I could give you more accurate/practical information... but hope the above would shed some light on the translation jobs in Japan.

Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy,
You aren't making any friends from the teaching crowd here with your subject line and goal. Y'know, some of us aren't a dancing bear/human tape recorder type, and even those of us who started out as such may have moved up into something more serious yet still in the TEFL world.

The possibilities I'm looking at are: programmer (I graduated university with a degree in Computer Engineering) or translator. One hang-up is that I do not have any real-world experience in either of these fields, and naturally, since I left college, the skills I learned there have been growing gradually rustier.

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What would you say are the odds of landing such work back home with those qualifications? Reduce those odds dramatically if you can't speak/read/write Japanese very well. (Yes, I know there are many such jobs, so people say, where you don't need to know Japanese, but I think they are outnumbered by the ones that do.)

That said, go to www.daijob.com/en and read what Terrie Lloyd has written on his links. It might be helpful. The job ads there won't be, because most require high fluency in Japanese, I think. Just the same, take a peek to be safe.

Personally, I think if you want a non-teaching job here, you have to know a fair amount of Japanese (it's the L1, after all), and the only real way around that is to find a foreign company with a branch here that doesn't use much Japanese. The only hitches are:
1) you may have to go home first and work with them for a year, in order to qualify for an intracompany transfer visa,
2) you will still have to use SOME Japanese here,
3) newly hired people lower on the totem pole usually don't get sent abroad,
4) you're going to have to demonstrate skills and/or experience that the other candidates don't have, perhaps even show skills/experience that local Japanese don't.

Want to get into translation? Visit SWET's web site and sniff around, but don't expect too many bones your way. Such work is highly competitive and often requires (yup, you guessed it) experience and certification and the ability to translate. You said your ability is fairly high; what JLPT level?

If you want to make contacts in businesses, see if you can get out of the clown/tape recorder end of TEFL and work in business English companies instead. Rub elbows with potential employers that way.

Thank you both for your ample advice. I haven't checked out those links, but will very soon.

Y'know, some of us aren't a dancing bear/human tape recorder type

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I'm well aware of that, but I'm not such a person. And aside from being a dancing bear for four years, I don't have any teaching qualifications and in any case have had my fill of being in the teaching field. No offense meant to anyone. It's simply not what I want to do.

To clarify, I am in no way averse to a job that requires Japanese all the time. If I get a programming job, I *want* a typical job that a Japanese programmer would have. I'm just concerned about how many companies would be willing to tolerate an employee who is not a native speaker.
As for tests, I passed JLPT level 1 with a score of 339/400 at the end of 2006, and kanji kentei level 3 last October. Pretty sure I can pass level 2 by next October, but none of those says a lot about my speaking and listening abilities, which are good, but not incredible.

To cut to the chase, I think Nintendo would be a terrific company to work for. I love their products, and their spirit, and they're right on the outskirts of Kyoto. But of course, they are highly competitive, even for Japanese people, and not seeing a single foreign name on the credit roll for Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass left me a bit disheartened. And like I mentioned, their employment page is geared towards next year's Japanese graduates, and people with prior experience, of which I am neither.
Nevertheless, I am planning to send them a letter this month, outlining what I have to offer and asking about the possibility of being employed there, and will see where that goes.

And of course since I see that as such a long shot, I need to be pursuing other venues at the same time. And that's why I created this thread.

Thanks again for your help, both of you two.

Nintendo?
If you're geared towards being programmer,
They are a tough one if you don't have any "game programming skills" if you're not a 新卒
Even for 新卒 their main focus is towards 大学/大学院の新卒 students.
But its not impossible, if you can :

1 - Do well in the interview : 敬語使い, 社会人マナー and all those crap. Meaning you have to know how to do the interview like all the other Japanese.
2 - They will definitely have a 作文 either 自己PR or some other stuff.
3 - Most of the big/IT company will have a 常識テスト、SPI試験、etc etc.

If you have no problem on those 3 then you shouldn't have much problem getting in any Japanese IT company. (for a game company, the experience part will seriously hurt your chance.)

Oh and they do hire foreign people, besides Nintendo, sega and konami also hires foreigners by the normal intake. (as in not from a transfer from the US branch or things like that)

Well, if you have time to waste and really want to enter Nintendo, you can always get the 新卒 title from a 2year 専門学校 Nintendo do have a 5 people intake limit every year for 専門学校生, if you checked their site. So its also a possibility to take this route.

If I get a programming job, I *want* a typical job that a Japanese programmer would have.

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Then you will *need* to take the road where all the normal Japanese takes.
I suggest you start here.
http://rikunabi-next.yahoo.co.jp/rnc/

If you aim for Nintendo, the HAL route might be the way to go. HAL is a 2 (or 4) year college with game design/programming courses where Nintendo likes to recruit from - at least that's what people say. Have you read the recent post on Kotaku? It has more on that and is an interesting read.

You could also have a look at Square Enix. They have one of the most extensive recruitment sites of all game companies and it looks as if they constantly ask for people to apply. I applied for a translating position at them some time ago, by the way. They responded very fast and took me through the application procedure. I didn't get it in the end but it was a good experience anyway.

HAL - w ww.hal.ac.jp
Kotaku - kotaku.co m/346388/wanna-study-game-design-in-japan-heres-how
Square Enix - w ww.square-enix.com/jp/recruit/
(Sorry for the crippled links. I can't post any due to low post count.)

Thanks to both of you. I will check out all of your links, cez, and Kirirao - that's just the type of stuff I need to know. I bought two books on ﾆ竪ﾆ停?愴暖ﾆ椎?ﾂーﾆ歎ﾂーﾆ暖/窶版｡窶氾ｰﾂ鞘??ﾅｽﾂｩﾅ津遺?嗤窶嘔 and am nearly done with one of them. Also got a book on 窶禿環静? but nothing for ﾂ湘ｭﾅｽﾂｯ or SPIﾅｽﾅｽﾅ陳ｱ because I didn't know whether I'd need to know that stuff. Good to know that I do need to.

Seems I've got my work cut out for me

Certification | American Translators Association (ATA)

Colin Reed worked as a Software Engineer, EAD, at Nintendo... don't know if it was in the US branch or in Japan... He worked on Pikmin, Wild Trax, and 1080 Snowboarding.

Thanks, anjusan, for the info on ATA. Unfortunately it would be a huge production for me to try to take that test as it's only held in the US, and I live in Japan (and wooh, $300 for a test is a lot of money). Does anyone know of a similar, recognized certification exam that's held in Japan?

cez said:

If you aim for Nintendo, the HAL route might be the way to go. HAL is a 2 (or 4) year college with game design/programming courses where Nintendo likes to recruit from - at least that's what people say. Have you read the recent post on Kotaku? It has more on that and is an interesting read.
You could also have a look at Square Enix. They have one of the most extensive recruitment sites of all game companies and it looks as if they constantly ask for people to apply. I applied for a translating position at them some time ago, by the way. They responded very fast and took me through the application procedure. I didn't get it in the end but it was a good experience anyway.
HAL - w ww.hal.ac.jp
Kotaku - kotaku.co m/346388/wanna-study-game-design-in-japan-heres-how
Square Enix - w ww.square-enix.com/jp/recruit/
(Sorry for the crippled links. I can't post any due to low post count.)

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Yeah I heard about that too, HAL is a great place to start if your main target is Nintendo. The only problem I had with HAL is the cost is a pain in the *** even when comparing with other 専門学校. Especially the 4 year cost (I'm assuming 4 years students have more higher chances to get a job at Nintendo)
Luckily for me I've no interest in entering Nintendo at all.

Square-Enix on the other hand is also a pain to enter if you're going the programmer route. And this year I stopped trying after receiving this message.

さん、こんにちは。
株式会社スクウェア・エニックス 採用事務局です。

先日は、当社の新卒採用へのご応募ありがとうございました。
せっかくエントリー頂きましたが今回の新卒採用は、
4年制大学又は大学院を2009年3月に卒業見込み
の方を選考対象としております。

それ以外の方につきましては、選考対象外となりますので、
申し訳ございませんが、何卒ご了承頂ければと思います。

さんの就職活動の成功を心よりお祈りさせて頂きます。


■■■■■■□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

株式会社スクウェア・エニックス 採用事務局
TEL：03-3538-(平日10:00～18:00受付)
E-Mail：square-enix@e-recruit.jp

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□■■■■■■

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Blah!

Tho the graphic department in my school have a lot more success when it comes to SQ-EX a few years back.

but nothing for 常識 or SPI試験 because I didn't know whether I'd need to know that stuff. Good to know that I do need to.

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This you need to check the company 求人票 or the 採用site. They will have those requirement listed on it. But I think for 転職, maybe it's not needed. But I'm not sure about 転職 from English-Teaching jobs to other jobs tho.

You may also want to check into some US firms over there. If you are ex-military, or even not, you may be able to land a job. Here are a few I found on military.com:
RMA Engineer Tokyo

Field Applications Engineer Tokyo

C++ Developers Japan

The internet is your friend. You should be able to find something there to suit your needs and desires. Good luck!

If $300 is too much to pay for a test, a course, a textbook or reference book, whatever, but it gives you the opportunity or whatever to get your foot in the door (and if it's practically the only/best way), I really don't see why anyone would balk at it. You'll make it back on your first paycheck. Invest in your future.

I would gladly pay $300 for a test that gave me the opportunity to get my foot in the door, but the actual cost of taking the test, for me, would be in the $2000 range, once you included travel expenses, not to mention vacation time.
And what I was really thinking when I mentioned the cost is that a fee that high for a test of that nature starts to set off the scam alarm in my head. But I really wouldn't know how kosher that organization is without further investigation.

Jimmy did say that the test is only given in the U.S. and he lives in Japan, so he would be out a big wad of cash to take the $300 test. If it is something that is necessary to get ahead career-wise in Japan, maybe biting the bullet and flying back to the U.S. to take it will have to be done.

Jimmy,
That's still no excuse. It's just more expensive. You are not thinking long-term.

Let's be realistic here.

1. You don't want to continue teaching, it seems. Correct me if I'm wrong.
2. You have a vanilla degree in computer engineering and zero experience. That would get you no more than an entry level job programming back home, so it makes little sense to think it would get you anything better here (and, yes, I'm considering your Japanese skills, but the overriding factor of zero programming experience still ranks you on the bottom run. If you don't start somewhere, though, you won't go anywhere. What have you go to lose by trying?)
3. You are considering a job as a translator but have zero experience or training in it. Face it. Competition in translating is steep. Get the official training (degree, certificate, whatever) and start once again on the bottom rung. You could also sniff around and try picking up freelance work (a friend of mine did translation for a year or so for ECC at 250,000 yen/month and only had JLPT 2), but in the long run, the official training will be better. Go to SWET.jp and confirm what I've said.

I'm not quite sure how to go about looking for a job.

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4. PLEASE go to daijob and spend a lot of time reading what is written there! Also look at the job ads there. Who knows what you fit? I don't want to read more complaining about not knowing where to look until you admit you have taken this step. Seriously!

Glenski said:

That's still no excuse. It's just more expensive. You are not thinking long-term.

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Well, if that were the only option, I would do it, but I find it almost impossible to believe that Japan, of all places, wouldn't have a reputable exam for 和英 translators.

Glenski said:

2. You have a vanilla degree in computer engineering and zero experience.

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I'm not sure what you mean by "vanilla," but I will mention that I graduated magna cum laude from the #11 university in the world (Tokyo U. is #17). Lockheed Martin offered me a job straight out of college with a $55,000 salary, full benefits, but I declined it, figuring that there was almost no likelihood that I would take the time to do something like JET after starting a career.

That would get you no more than an entry level job programming back home, so it makes little sense to think it would get you anything better here

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I never said I wanted anything better than that. I would be delighted to land a 新卒 position, but there are several problems with that, namely: I'm not graduating from a Japanese school next year, I never graduated from a Japanese school, and 新卒 positions start in April, which would either mean quitting my current job 4 months early and putting my employers in a tough spot, or being jobless for 8 months. Neither of those last two things would be the worst thing in the world, but I would like to avoid that if I can. I'm willing to do whatever's necessary, as long as I'm able.

JimmySeal said:

I'm not quite sure how to go about looking for a job.

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PLEASE go to daijob and spend a lot of time reading what is written there! Also look at the job ads there. I don't want to read more complaining about not knowing where to look until you admit you have taken this step. Seriously!

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That quote is from my first post in this thread. I made this thread because I didn't know where to look, and now I do. And I'm appreciative. Thank you.

JimmySeal said:

Well, if that were the only option, I would do it, but I find it almost impossible to believe that Japan, of all places, wouldn't have a reputable exam for ﾋ彗窶ｰp translators.

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Did you check SWET yet?

Found this place with a very simple search. Can't believe you didn't.
http://jat.org/past/working-with-translators/

What about formal qualifications for translators?
Some universities and commercial schools offer courses in translation. People who have studied in such courses can be expected to have a sounder grasp of translation than novices without any training, but they may still lack the experience of long-standing practitioners. Translators come from a range of professional and technical backgrounds and do not necessarily have an academic background in languages or translation.

Some countries have accreditation exams whose aim is to determine whether the candidate possesses a certain minimum degree of competence. In Japan there is no government-administered accreditation scheme, although some commercial schools offer tests and certificates of varying credibility and validity.

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Originally Posted by Glenski View Post
2. You have a vanilla degree in computer engineering and zero experience.

I'm not sure what you mean by "vanilla," but I will mention that I graduated magna cum laude from the #11 university in the world (Tokyo U. is #17). Lockheed Martin offered me a job straight out of college with a $55,000 salary, full benefits, but I declined it, figuring that there was almost no likelihood that I would take the time to do something like JET after starting a career.

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Man, if I were you I'd go back try to get a job again at Lockheed Martin.

Like Glenski said, Its going to be hard now even with your degree since you're not fresh anymore. Most Japanese IT company are really picky when it comes to age and no working experience. So just you know.

Are you sure you want an entry-level programming job? Programming related Entry-level salary range around 180,000yen and max out at around 210,000yen. Game company is way cheaper too. English teaching pays more then that I think. This is where I'm envious of westerners, since I'm from SE Asia, and I can't do those kind of jobs. :/

Yeah, I realize that starting-level programming jobs in Japan don't pay much, and it would be a significant drop from my current salary, but I want to be in Kansai, and I feel that the two career-oriented jobs I am capable of doing are programming and translating. I just don't feel that the English-teaching industry is for me, and don't want to be in it for the rest of my life.

I also realize that it's not going to be easy, but I'm going to do my best.

Thanks for your advice anyway.