h/week (restrictions apply ) • Average salary: 3,500 $ / month • Average rent: 900 $ / month (20~30 m2) • Consumption Tax: 8% • Income Tax: ◦ Under 1.95 million yen per year: 5% ◦ 1.95-3.3 million yen per year: 10% ◦ 3.3 to 6.95 million yen per year: 20% ◦ 6.95 to 9 million yen per year: 23% • Residence Tax: around 6% of annual income Why Japan?
Working Visa • Highly skilled professional Visa Visa Sponsorship procedure is common for companies looking for global talent. The procedure takes around 1 to 3 months. Why Japan?
Pick a technology you like and find communities • Finding English speaking communities outside tokyo might be challenging ▪ Search for companies using those technologies you are good at or want to be focusing on • Linked in • Wantedly (mostly in Japanese) How and where to Start?
Especially if you are applying from abroad, you will have to compete with local candidates. ▪ Companies have to make an extra investment in you (visa sponsorship, relocation) ▪ Your skills should make you stand out in the crowd. ▪ In my case? I became really good at testing. • Everyone loves coding • … not so much writing tests • But tests are necessary (especially with Ruby) • So that was my edge. How and where to Start?
opportunities for meeting people • Companies looking for hiring • Exchange information on who is doing what ▪ Casual interviews with companies • Not as stressful as real interviews • You get more information on what companies are doing • You make contacts within the companies for when you are ready How and where to Start?
I was in Spain ◦ Applied to Cookpad and Kumapon ◦ Cookpad interview went really well, while Kumapon one was a disaster. ◦ …. But I was rejected in Cookpad and got hired at Kumapon ▪ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ◦ I came to Japan 3 -4 months latter ▪ Arrived to Tokyo December 25th 2010 What went well
4 Million users - Ruby on Rails + lots of caching miracles - 99% Japanese company - Some foreigners… - ...that left shortly after I joined - No English speakers and I could barely speak Japanese - Attended Japanese lessons twice per week by myself - Was REALLY hard at the beginning but also really fun.
(GMO Group) - Ruby on Rails (sort of) - 70% Japanese company - Engineering mostly foreigners - All engineering work was in English! - Very challenging service from the very beginning. - Lots of technical / organizational challenges. - Rewrote the service from scratch in 3 months. - This was really fun. - Also did LOT of mentoring and in general helped people to grow and have a good time.
Complex backend in Ruby, Python... - 99% Japanese company - Only 2 foreigners - Only 2 Englishs Speakers - I was working fully in Japanese - Doing both management and development. - Rewrote the activity feed. - Very challenging and interesting. - Learned a lot. Also it was fun. - Lots of opportunities (speaker at meetups, attending Ruby Kaigi, etc ) What went well
- Complex backend using both Go and PHP - Doing full time management - Managing several multicultural engineering teams - 60% Japanese - I can use English at work! - … sort of - Lots of challenges but also lots of opportunities What went well
and never fully managed to become fluent. - I can speak but barely read - Working in a 100% Japanese environment was always a huge handicap for me. - At the same time, working in a Japanese environment helped me to become fluent at talking (sort of) in about 1 year. What went wrong
hard. - Lots of unwritten rules that makes no sense for westerners. - … and leads to conflicts. - You either adapt or move on. - I would say is impossible to change this culture for medium/big companies - Maybe some hope for small startups? - Glass ceiling is real What went wrong
exciting city in the world, but also can be ruthless. - Being alone in this city can be really hard. - Lots of people around but difficult to make long lasting friends. - Most of the expats here spend 1-3 years - NEVER get in trouble with Japanese police. What went wrong
environment can be really challenging from the cultural point of view - Kohai / Sempai culture can be puzzling. - Staying until your boss leaves - Japanese language (written and read) is going to be vital - Good for deep immersion in the Japanese culture - ...but I would say not so good for your sanity. Advices for newcomers
is an opportunity to expand your network. - Miles, the guy who interviewed me at cookpad ended up being one of my pals here in Tokyo - People you meet at events and meetups can become an important part of your life here. - Making an effort to step outside your comfort zone can help. Advices for newcomers
of helping people do so. - Chances are that you will meet people looking for a job, or trying to come to tokyo. Be nice and help people if you can. - Not because they might be able to help you back, just because is the right thing to do. - If your company is hiring, create recruiting events, hackathons... - Share the info of who is hiring with people looking for a job. Advices for newcomers
is great, but so are many places around the world. - Not making it here doesn’t mean you can’t make it great somewhere else. - Enjoy the good things of Tokyo and Japan while are exciting. - Keep a curious mind. - Find a way to always have fun in what you do. Although this might be hard to do sometimes. Advices for newcomers
cdonderis
signer
coderdojojapan
masatatsu
mchowning
koic
cbtlibrary
uranoken
matleenalaakso
chriscoyier
addyosmani
jonrohan
vanstee
lynnandtonic
irinanazarova
ammeep
bcantrill
mza
sergeychernyshev
danielanewman
trallard
