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+--- Thread: How best to find a translation job in Japan? (/thread-9015.html)
How best to find a translation job in Japan? - pudding cat - 2012-02-04
How do you go about finding a job? How much difference does it make looking for a job from within Japan/outisde Japan? Should I look at job websites? Newspapers? Any recommendations would be appreciated
How best to find a translation job in Japan? - Asriel - 2012-02-04
I can't say anything about translation jobs, but I just got hired in Japan as a software developer. I'll be heading out on Wednesday. So through my own experience, I'll answer some questions.
I found my job through Gaijinpot. Regardless of what you think of the site or the community around it, they've got some decent job postings if you keep a diligent eye out. Check postings day to day and see if any new ones pop up.
Other than that, the best way I've seen people get jobs is through connections. If you know people over there already, they can probably help you out. I've got a lot of friends who got over by doing that.
In my experience, the toughest part was finding a job that would accept people who weren't already in the country. Whether that means -has a working visa- or just -i'm in the country, so I can meet with you guys- I don't really know.
Anyway, sorry I probably wasn't much help. Good luck though!
How best to find a translation job in Japan? - chochajin - 2012-02-04
Gaijinpot usually isn't that great when it comes to translation jobs.
You didn't mention what languages you want to translate!! Japanese-English???
If so, then there's definitely a demand, but also a lot of people who can do it, so be prepared!
You might have more luck looking here:
http://job.japantimes.com/index_e.php?
http://www.daijob.com/en/
Oh, and I tweeted about this yesterday already, but Danny Cho is hiring right now, too!
http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/26415/Hiring+Now+-+Anime+Jobs.html
How best to find a translation job in Japan? - Jarvik7 - 2012-02-04
I also found mine from gaijinpot. Daijob isn't the place to look for your first job. It's more or less a tenshoku site, so you'll need substantial experience (min. 3 years full time pro experience, preferably 5).
Gaijinpot tends to be for entry level or unskilled positions (like eikaiwa), so the pay is almost always crap though (anything less than 30man/mo is crap for a translator).
How best to find a translation job in Japan? - pudding cat - 2012-02-05
Thanks for your posts! I am indeed wanting to do Japanese-to-English translation with a scientific/technical slant if possible. I don't have any job-related experience although I'm applying for a three month internship in technical translation.
How best to find a translation job in Japan? - jettyke - 2012-03-13
Hey, look at this site:
http://translatorscafe.com
How best to find a translation job in Japan? - mutley - 2012-05-21
I'm applying for translation jobs in Japan at the moment.
I think so far I've sent out about 7 resumes to different companies only one of which I knew was definitely looking to recruit someone. I think in the end I got replys from all of the companies. None of them failed to reply or straight out rejected me, although quite a few said they were only looking for freelancers at the moment and offered me trials for that instead.
Moral of the story I guess is if you think you have a reasonable resume then don't be afraid to send it to lots of agencies/companies even if they don't seem to be recruiting at the moment. Whether you actually get a job is probably going to depend mostly on your ability to do well on their trials. Hopefully one of the ones I've applied to will lead to a permanent job or at least some freelance work on the side.
Note that this is coming from someone living in Japan, with a masters chemistry degree and JLPT 1, it might be different for someone living outside Japan. However, my actual translating experience is minimal so lack of experience doesn't necessarily seem to be a massive stumbling block.
There are quite a few Japanese magazines about getting into the translation industry. If you can get hold of one of those they usually contain a huge list of different agencies' addresses, specialties and recruitment info.