Job as programmer in Japan

Hi all

I'm a C/C++ programmer with knowledge under Windows and Linux. I would like to move to Japan on the next years (actually is quite more like a dream but I don't know for the future). Anyway I would to know from people working in Japan as same job how is difficult fro a gaijiin to get a job as mine in this country. I know all depends on the specific knowledge but my question is more related to the possible "suspect" the japanese companies can have to employ a gaijiin for this kind of job. I know I didn't explain very well my doubt but I think is quite understendable.. I hope...

Thank you

You have knowledge, but do you have these things?

college degree (BA or BS)
extensive work experience (programmers are a dime a dozen, so you will have to show you know things a J programmer doesn't know)
any ability at all to read/speak/write Japanese
better English writing skills than you have demonstrated here (I know this is "just a forum", but show us what you can really do; some employers troll these boards, in case you didn't know)

Hi

You totally centered the point. This is my situation:

- I have a degree but not in IT, I found my programming passion during my studies but I decided to continue and study programming by myself
- Already working as a programmer for 15 years but my company is not a software house. Is mainly a custom hardware company. This mean I learned to develop applications, drivers, libries and so on under Windows, Linux and other embedded operating systems. I use also assembly and, for passion at home, I develop also usign QT, PHP, javascript, MYSQL and so on. The main problem is that I can use a lot of instruments but I'm not really expert in nothing of these.
- I'm currently study japanese but at the moment my level is comparable to a J child (but, as said before, I don't need gto move to Japan immediately)
- As you knew correctly english is not my native language than I'm not perfect

Do you think I have some hope or for find a job as programmer in Japan need to be one of the best programmer in the world?

You could start teaching English, but seeing you are from the Netherlands (and even you say that your English isn't perfect) that will be a disadvantage so getting a work visa will be difficult but not impossible. If you could work as an English teacher you could work on getting contacts and work on specializing yourself.

Start working for a Japanese company with the hope that you can be send to Japan or that you can make enough contacts to work for another company.

Work for a Dutch company that has an office in Japan and hope to be send to Japan within a couple of years.

Work on your Japanese that's for sure. Try to get an internship in Japan would be great as well.

Suppaman said:

Hi

You totally centered the point. This is my situation:

- I have a degree but not in IT

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You might have mentioned this earlier and saved a little time. Geez.

So, only work experience (albeit 15 years) in IT? Depends on whether the employer is willing to overlook an actual IT degree, but as far as immigration goes, you can still qualify for an engineer work visa (I think you need 10 years of experience if you don't have the proper degree).

The degree that you have will make you eligible for a work visa to teach English, as Davey suggests, but how does that option strike you? I'd say if you aren't willing to slug it out here with the crowded market in teaching just to find an opening in IT, then you should probably just look from where you are for openings (or come here with the express goal in tracking down IT jobs).

- Already working as a programmer for 15 years but my company is not a software house. Is mainly a custom hardware company. This mean I learned to develop applications, drivers, libries and so on under Windows, Linux and other embedded operating systems. I use also assembly and, for passion at home, I develop also usign QT, PHP, javascript, MYSQL and so on. The main problem is that I can use a lot of instruments but I'm not really expert in nothing of these.

Click to expand...

I'm not in the IT field, so I can't say whether any potential employer would look upon that experience favorably or not. I honestly do not know. The language fluency would seem to be the most crucial, unless you are lucky enough to land a job at a foreign branch here, one that doesn't require so much Japanese.

- As you knew correctly english is not my native language than I'm not perfect

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Lots of Dutch people have inquired on English teaching forums for possibilities of finding teaching work, and I've found 99% of them to have nearly perfect English, a tribute to their educational system. Your English is very good; I just found a few things to sound unnatural, so don't sweat that.

If you can find a company that has a branch office here and doesn't use much Japanese, apply.
If you can find a company in your country that has a branch office here, you would have to work for them for a year in order to get an intracompany transfer visa.
It just all depends where you focus your efforts.

Suppaman said:

Hi all
I'm a C/C++ programmer with knowledge under Windows and Linux. I would like to move to Japan on the next years (actually is quite more like a dream but I don't know for the future). Anyway I would to know from people working in Japan as same job how is difficult fro a gaijiin to get a job as mine in this country. I know all depends on the specific knowledge but my question is more related to the possible "suspect" the japanese companies can have to employ a gaijiin for this kind of job. I know I didn't explain very well my doubt but I think is quite understendable.. I hope...
Thank you

Click to expand...

Wow, a programmer. I too am devoted with programming. I am a Computer Science student BTW.

Yeah, my professor used to tell us many IT people go to either Singapore or Japan. As far as I can remember, people in Japan looks for those with knowledge in more languages (e.g. Java, C#), though you can code C++, learning the two languages would be quite easy enough.

Hi
Thank you for your reply.

Glenski said:

You might have mentioned this earlier and saved a little time. Geez.
So, only work experience (albeit 15 years) in IT? Depends on whether the employer is willing to overlook an actual IT degree, but as far as immigration goes, you can still qualify for an engineer work visa (I think you need 10 years of experience if you don't have the proper degree).

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I must to ask sorry to you since from your advices I knew I missed a very important information about me. I'm married with a japanese girl so the visa is the only problem I don't have (at least, I hope ).
I'm looking for a "gaijiin" who is working in the same IT sector in Japan for clarify me the possible future opportunities. Based to my view the two points negative for me are:
- I can not speak/read/write japanese currently. I'm working on this point by following a japanese language school and studing by myself. The commont question a lot of people ask me regarding this point is "you are married with a japanese, why you need to go to japanese language school?". The problem is a "commont" person with basic grammar knowledge can not teach the rule of the language as a real teacher can. The ability of a person to speak his native language doesn't include the ability to teach the grammar rules. Is the same for me if I would try to teach my native language to other foreight people...
- I'm no longer very young. This mean, from my experience, that for get job in japan (as each other countries) I need to have an extreme specialization in something. As I said in my past post I can use a lot of different instrument and develop various application but I'm not expert in nothing of them. I have some doubts a company will be willing to take a new employee not very young (especially gaijiin in case of Japan) that can say only "I'm not expert in this but I can learn if you give me the time".
Currently these are my main "worries", feel free to add more if you know.

Suppaman said:

I must to ask sorry to you since from your advices I knew I missed a very important information about me. I'm married with a japanese girl so the visa is the only problem I don't have

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Uh, ok. Yes, that was very important.

- I can not speak/read/write japanese currently. I'm working on this point by following a japanese language school and studing by myself. The commont question a lot of people ask me regarding this point is "you are married with a japanese, why you need to go to japanese language school?". The problem is a "commont" person with basic grammar knowledge can not teach the rule of the language as a real teacher can. The ability of a person to speak his native language doesn't include the ability to teach the grammar rules. Is the same for me if I would try to teach my native language to other foreight people...

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Ignore such people who ask those questions. Learn all the Japanese you can. You're going to need it.

- I'm no longer very young. This mean, from my experience, that for get job in japan (as each other countries) I need to have an extreme specialization in something.

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Plus language skills in most cases. And contacts. Best of luck in your endeavor.

How old, by the way?

The visa thing makes it a lot easier for companies. If you are coming to Kansai please join us Nederlandse Vereniging in West Japan

Davey said:

You could start teaching English, but seeing you are from the Netherlands (and even you say that your English isn't perfect) that will be a disadvantage so getting a work visa will be difficult but not impossible. If you could work as an English teacher you could work on getting contacts and work on specializing yourself.

Start working for a Japanese company with the hope that you can be send to Japan or that you can make enough contacts to work for another company.

Work for a Dutch company that has an office in Japan and hope to be send to Japan within a couple of years.

Work on your Japanese that's for sure. Try to get an internship in Japan would be great as well.

Click to expand...

Isn't it almost impossible to apply as an English teacher in Japan if you are not a native? I thought that they are very strict on that point? Isn't that a requirement to be eligible to work there legally?

There are lots of English teachers that are not native, especially the ones that have a visa already. If you do not have a visa already, then it will be very difficult indeed if you can not proof your English ability.

People who are from countries not recognized by Japan (stupidly) as native English countries (UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) must prove they have had 12 years of their education -- all education -- taught to them solely in English. Immigration requirement to get a work visa teach English because it is not their native language.

But if someone already has a spousal visa, that should not matter. At that point, it will be more a concern with the employer whether the person can do the job.

Confirm this with immigration if you like. Remember that there are essentially 2 types of work visas for teaching positions here (one for places like eikaiwas, and another for public institutions), so maybe immigration would see that in a similar light even if one has a spousal visa, but I doubt it. Spousal visa has no restrictions in that regard.

Better yet, get Permanent Resident status.

If Christ0ph3r referred to being a full-time teacher (not FT ALT) in a public school, that's quite different. Foreigners and Japanese alike in those situations must go to Japanese university to get the proper degree (in Japanese). A few rare foreigners have done it, but by and large most do not go that route.

I was just curious because I was pretty sure that being from one of those countries were necessary to even be eligible to apply. Personally I'm not looking to be a teacher as I don't have a degree and my English isn't good enough but if I were from one of the countries listed above I would apply today.

The rules are pretty dumb just looking at nationality. Though I recently saw a video on youtube discussing this matter about non-natives teaching English. One of the things he brought up were that you'll probably be more motivated when you are taught by a native than a non-native even if competent non-natives with almost perfect English does exist.

Travel to China to learn the language and be taught by a westerner or a Chinese person which would you rather choose? Or something similar was one of the many things he said.