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Start to work in Japan in the early 30's - Slateman - 2015-08-06
Hello everybody, I know that this question has been written trillions of times but I still feel the urge to share my situation in order to receive a useful feedback.
I worked as an actor, writer, stage director, event and casting organiser and I also pursue my activity with a theatre company of my own (during these times I also worked as a waiter, web promoter, salesman and children entertainer), but I was forced to stop my artistic career and reinvent my life due to persistents health and family issues and the strong necessity to embark on a new path. After a harsh period of confusion and depression I finally found my way studying japanese. I started to study the language by my own completing all hiragana and katakana and I also studied more than 1100 kanji, an encouraging start that made me think to start a relative degree. (I never pursue university due to a mix of bad high school experiences and disinterestedness) After completing my undergraduate degree I'd like to continue my studies with a master in UK (I saw some interesting courses in japanese studies and east asian relations in Edinburgh and Warwick, just to say a couple) or in Japan. I'm aware that I should be open minded and I should't force myself to the idea to live in a specific place, but let's go back to the title: if I follow my described plans I'll complete my studies at 31/32 (I'll be 27 in september) and I want to know if, besides teaching my mother language, I could still have chances to work in Japan, even for interships and entry level positions. I specify that I'm italian (and sadly there's no working holiday visa reserved for my country...) with multilingual skill (I also speak french and I must study in my degree for a minimum of one year another asian language, and I think I'll choose korean) and I'm currently working as an instant messaging operator. (but I'm also consider the idea to juxtapose some freelance translations)
Thank You in Advance, I hope to receive some realistic but encouraging answers.
Start to work in Japan in the early 30's - vix86 - 2015-08-07
This comes down to your skills. I'm not sure how well even your past skills would work in Japan, honestly. The more experience you have at something the Japanese want, the more easy it'll be to get a job that's not teaching. Problem is, humanities degrees are going to have very limited worth I think. If you were pursuing something more technical or business oriented, then that might be a different story.
I won't say you'd never find a job, because that's not true, but it'll be difficult.
Some things you should/could do are:
1) Consider what job/industry you want to work in. If you don't have this figured out then you are really screwed. Get on Japanese job search sites: daijob.com careercross.com japan.careerengine.org and see if there are jobs. You probably won't qualify for any but knowing they exist is half the battle.
2) Research Co-Ops. Honestly, you should have looked into this before Undergraduate and picked your school around it. They aren't very common but some schools do have co-ops where you can go work at a Japanese company for a year or so. These can be used as segways into a full time position. These might exist for Masters programs but it'd be incredibly unlikely I think.
3) Try and find internships. Entry level jobs don't really exist for foreigners, there are some exceptions to this, but most companies hiring foreigners need experience for something usually. Also, I think you'd have trouble trying to go the native "Fresh graduate" route that Japanese usually do. Hence, internships are your only leg up really.
4) Do your masters in Japan. This is kind of a last resort and I wouldn't go into it believing you'll be able to find a job easily afterwards.
Translation is always an option too, assuming you are really good at what you do. You could theoretically land a job at a company that does literature translation. This is where you might be able to leverage your past skills. Some people/places want people that actually know how to write instead of someone that just tries to turn out a better version of a Google Translate.
Start to work in Japan in the early 30's - Slateman - 2015-08-07
Thank you for your reply, I try to comment any of your points.
vix86 Wrote:This comes down to your skills. I'm not sure how well even your past skills would work in Japan, honestly. The more experience you have at something the Japanese want, the more easy it'll be to get a job that's not teaching. Problem is, humanities degrees are going to have very limited worth I think. If you were pursuing something more technical or business oriented, then that might be a different story.I know that I couldn't be very very useful with my artistic career, but I've thought that putting it next to the other work experiences could prove that I'm an active person with experiences and a useful element for teamwork. I know that humanities could't be strong like, for example, engineering or business, but I felt like I could strenghten this degree with my work experience (I forgot to mention that in high school I was graduated in tourism services with two apprenticeships as a hotel receptionist) and I couldn't fake myself by doing something that I haven't skills just to live in a determined place. Maybe business could be an option, but I haven't really the predisposition to pursue a specifically undergraduate degree, especially with the study of the language and my job to carry on. By the way, I could consider to do something specific in my master degree (I saw also some courses in japanese business, east asian business and international management in Leeds, Sheffield and SOAS London) and I thought that doing a master abroad could prove me that I'm an ambitious, brave and open-minded person.
vix86 Wrote:I won't say you'd never find a job, because that's not true, but it'll be difficult.I'm trying to take more open doors as I could by thinking to pursue a job in the field of media, diplomacy, management, business, HR, interpreter and translation, with a special thought to foreign companies based in Japan. (not necessarily italians) I'm not confused by not mentioning a "specific job" like saying "I want to be a doctor, a lawyer etc...", but I learned in my experience that I should focus primarily in a section instead on a specific role.
Some things you should/could do are:
1) Consider what job/industry you want to work in. If you don't have this figured out then you are really screwed. Get on Japanese job search sites: daijob.com careercross.com japan.careerengine.org and see if there are jobs. You probably won't qualify for any but knowing they exist is half the battle.
vix86 Wrote:2) Research Co-Ops. Honestly, you should have looked into this before Undergraduate and picked your school around it. They aren't very common but some schools do have co-ops where you can go work at a Japanese company for a year or so. These can be used as segways into a full time position. These might exist for Masters programs but it'd be incredibly unlikely I think.I searched on the site of my future university, but I haven't found something similar...
vix86 Wrote:3) Try and find internships. Entry level jobs don't really exist for foreigners, there are some exceptions to this, but most companies hiring foreigners need experience for something usually. Also, I think you'd have trouble trying to go the native "Fresh graduate" route that Japanese usually do. Hence, internships are your only leg up really.I was expecting this answer about "Fresh graduate" route. By the way I already found some resources about internships, I think I'll focus better on these in the future.
vix86 Wrote:4) Do your masters in Japan. This is kind of a last resort and I wouldn't go into it believing you'll be able to find a job easily afterwards.This is an option that I've already took under consideration, and I'm aware that it couldn't offer me an automatic job. Anyway I believe that I should improve my chances by doing a master in an important university like Todai or Keio, I think...
vix86 Wrote:Translation is always an option too, assuming you are really good at what you do. You could theoretically land a job at a company that does literature translation. This is where you might be able to leverage your past skills. Some people/places want people that actually know how to write instead of someone that just tries to turn out a better version of a Google Translate.I know translation is an option, but I also read about that is advisable, especially at your first steps, to be open with more sectors as you could and to not think strictly to a singular category.
Anyway, I also read in another forum (I don't know if I could mention the name of it) a topic similar to mine, and I read some useful advices and this closure:
"I know several people with a degreee in Japanese and those who are still in Japan work as
+ HR manager for a foreign company in Japan
+ a university professor
+ at the french chamber of commerce
+ at a German car company"
As you can read it's a variegated list of jobs, do you think that I could reach a similar result if I work hard?
Thank You again
EDIT: I forgot to mention that here in Italy isn't possible to do a minor in japanese and a major in something else, that's why I'm considering one of the masters degree I wrote.