vix86 Wrote:Flamerokz pretty much stated what needs to be said. BCF if for natives in the US that don't have the opportunity to perform the job hunt in Japan.

I'll pull out the anecdote that I always do with the BCF. I have a friend/acquittance that did his 4 year in Japan and has skills way above N1. He also brushed up on some of his keigo before going. His degree was business. Even with being pretty on par with most Japanese at the event, he still only got a few people that were interested in him and those jobs weren't anything he was even interested in.

So my opinion is that if you aren't interested in wasting the money, then it might not be worth it to go. I've been told again and again that there is a demand for foreign developers as they are seen as generally better, but I think the context of this statement is usually "developers w/ experience."

There are some companies in Japan that might look at you, and its worth checking them out, but I want to warn you OP that pay for developers is far below what is usually paid in the US (get on Daijob and check you'll see what I mean). For a company like Rakuten, a fresh grad would make at most $30-40k/year their first 6-12months there. Compare that to the $55-65k which is pretty common for junior dev positions around the US which any grad could probably get.

Your best bet would be to try at Daijob for "staff positions" or look at individual company sites and apply through there. You can probably pull it off if you keep at it. But don't put all your eggs in one basket, keep searching in your home country too.

PS: The line you were fed by Google and them about visas and graduation is kind of BS since many of the Eikaiwa/ALT companies will take students if they can supply proof that they will have graduated by time they leave for Japan. Try applying to Google 3-6 months in advance of graduating. Considering the way Google interviews, it may take about that long to just get through the process.

snarfel Wrote:Haha yes, I'm well aware of how little the pay is in Japan for software engineers at BCF, which is odd given that the places where the companies are located (e.g. Tokyo) have some of the highest cost of living rankings in the world which is rather concerning for my GF since she wants to have 4 kids which I really don't think is possible in the Tokyo Metro area given all of the above.

snarfel Wrote:the places where the companies are located (e.g. Tokyo) have some of the highest cost of living rankings in the world

snarfel Wrote:the two foreign companies that are hiring SE (Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs) in the hopes of a more reasonable living salary and less of a chance of having to work 9am-8pm and a better chance of raises/increasing rank (e.g. no anti-foreigner mindset or Japanese style of seniority over skills mindset).

snarfel Wrote:I'll definitely check out Daijobs too. It's really strange to me that the pay discrepancy between BCF and Daijob is so high, but I think it might have to do with Daijob being more mid-career professional oriented (although I managed to find a couple of positions that didn't require '3+ years of professional experience in X').

tokyostyle Wrote:

snarfel Wrote:the places where the companies are located (e.g. Tokyo) have some of the highest cost of living rankings in the world

Thus people get by with less space and no cars. While a family in the midwest might have a 2,000 sq. ft. house with two or more cards a family in Tokyo might have half to a quarter of that space and zero or one car. The cost of staples aren't all that different especially if you ignore specific goods and foods in favor of local substitutes.

snarfel Wrote:the two foreign companies that are hiring SE (Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs) in the hopes of a more reasonable living salary and less of a chance of having to work 9am-8pm and a better chance of raises/increasing rank (e.g. no anti-foreigner mindset or Japanese style of seniority over skills mindset).

You will be fairly disappointed if you think this is the case. The hours are extremely long for new hires and those that rise the fastest in the Tokyo offices are still the native bilinguals. However after a few years at either company you can jump ship to a more reasonable company. (Finance companies being brutal the first couple of years isn't really unique to Japan of course.) I've known two guys who have done this and have excellent work, life, and salary balance.

tokyostyle Wrote:

snarfel Wrote:the two foreign companies that are hiring SE (Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs) in the hopes of a more reasonable living salary and less of a chance of having to work 9am-8pm and a better chance of raises/increasing rank (e.g. no anti-foreigner mindset or Japanese style of seniority over skills mindset).

You will be fairly disappointed if you think this is the case. The hours are extremely long for new hires and those that rise the fastest in the Tokyo offices are still the native bilinguals. However after a few years at either company you can jump ship to a more reasonable company. (Finance companies being brutal the first couple of years isn't really unique to Japan of course.)

snarfel Wrote:So for not new hires (3+ years with the company?) do the hours get more 'reasonable' hence negating the need to find a more reasonable company, (potentially Amazon, Microsoft, or Google?). Not sure what companies are reasonable that hire SE given GS and MS are transnational but the work culture in Japan is still Japanese from the sounds of it.