So I was curious if anyone around here knew what degrees were useful for netting good jobs in Japan. Obviously you should pursue something you are interested in first and foremost, but I'm not really sure what that is at the moment.

I'm currently in software engineering, but this field doesn't really seem to be up my alley as much as I was hoping it would be. I find it somewhat interesting, but more frustrating than anything... I believe I speak C++ with a greater accent than my novice Japanese.

So I'm more or less just trying to get ideas and try and decide if I should trudge through the degree I'm working on and maybe I will like it more with more experience or if trying something else would be a better idea.

I'm currently a sophomore, and I was hoping that after 1 year of classes I would be able to make a solid opinion on this field, but I'm still iffy on it so I'm not sure what to do.

Here are some rough ideas:

1) Get a job in your own country with a company that has offices in Japan. Hope that a position comes up in Japan and that you get transferred.

2) Get a job in your country with a company that does global work (business, finance, etc). Look around for openings at companies in Japan which suit your line of work.

3) Compete with native speakers by attending events like the Boston Career Forum.

4) Get into Japan (i.e. study abroad, JET) and look around for sponsored work while you're there. I'm not exactly sure of the legality of this, but plenty of people seem to do it.

Generally speaking degrees are universal: a business degree is a business degree. This is how so many people are able to study abroad in the first place. The corporate world will typically welcome anyone with a respectable degree from a respectable university. Obviously if you want to work in something more specialised you'll need to take the appropriate route.

The key to landing what I'm guessing you have in mind when you say a "good job" will be your language ability. Someone who is genuinely bilingual is a serious asset whereas someone who stumbles over their words and lags behind is a serious hindrance.

There are good jobs in Japan which don't require high-level Japanese, of course, but I'd never explicitly aim for them. They seem to be the kind of thing you end up in by accident.

I can't speak for experience or anything, but from my understanding, a 4 year degree is preferable if you want better odds of being sponsored for a visa.

A Bachelors degree in Comp Sci is never a bad thing to have anywhere.

My mom made boatloads of money just with that.

zachandhobbes Wrote:A Bachelors degree in Comp Sci is never a bad thing to have anywhere.

My mom made boatloads of money just with that.

true say. A degree can get you places.

I can't say anything about Japan, but let me say a little something about your SE degree.

A breakdown of how I viewed SE and CSE and the students that took it. This comes up so many times because I see so many students intimidated by SE/CSE and drop out early because they don't know how interesting it gets later on.

Category 1: Nerds that programmed back in high school and even primary school, and grew up using linux or whatever

These guys would blitz through first year and second year, perhaps even third year, and fourth year, would probably scare the shit out of people in first year, making them think their efforts are futile because they finish their assignments in a matter of hours whereas you and I take days, weeks, and cannot even complete the full assignment because of that ultra tricky question that the lecturer put there intentionally to distinguish the students who excel from the mediocre ones.

I suggest you not get intimidated by them, just think about it this way, they've had years head start over you. They speak the language, as you have put it. While you're worrying about getting your assignments to work, they're toiling about making them more efficient, using less memory, less function calls and what not.

Category 2: Semi-Nerd
The semi nerd has had some experience programming, but very basic stuff, never challenged himself further than basic html, basic scripting, simple data management and can make their way around the computer with no external help.

I think this category makes up the majority, I fall into this category (though I didn't do SE, I did EE, but I did a few programming courses at uni). These guys can go in both directions too, I took the direction of "get the darn thing working at least", that was as much as I cared for unfortunately, my interests lay elsewhere

Category 3: The NFI bunch

The last category who either took up SE because they had nothing else to do or whatever. Again, these guys can go both ways as well. I've seen students who didn't know what command prompt was complete assignments that I couldn't complete. It was an inspiring thing to see actually, makes you wonder how easy something is to achieve if you really work at it, especially with cse assignments. And the crew that just drop out because they think it is not for them

I don't know where I'm getting at here, but I do suggest giving it another year, if you decide to drop you can still move onto maths or any other engineering without having wasted too much time. I personally found EE interesting just before I hit my 3rd year, and from there I got bored of it again and realised my interest was somewhere much closer to physics.

liosama Wrote:I suggest you not get intimidated by them, just think about it this way, they've had years head start over you. They speak the language, as you have put it.

This. The thing with programming is that it tends to involve fairly heady concepts, that once mastered make what was impossible pretty easy. If you've never programmed before, even getting a simple message to display on the screen can be an exercise in frustration as you grapple with even the basics of syntax. The guys that already understand these concepts before they get to uni *will* run circles around the people for whom it's all new. To the point where the gap can seem hopeless. But it really isn't. Often it's just a few key concepts that someone isn't getting that take them from full marks to fail. Programming just really isn't that hard, any more than speaking japanse is hard (5 year old japanese kids can do it...). Just consider those people in the class more or less native speakers and don't compare yourself to them.

Compounding this of course is that nerds often lack social skills and will be out to prove how awesome they are. The thing is, when it comes time to interview for jobs, you'll probably get the job over them. Companies don't need super programmers, they need good ones who can work in a team.

Sorry I rushed my post because my dad was turning off the electricity as we needed to fix up the lights in one room.

Don't get me wrong, when I say nerd, I don't mean it in the derogatory sense, a nerd is a nerd, I use it synonymously with 'smart'.

But so right zigmonty, so many guys at my work are REALLY weird. I find it easier to, communicate with one guy over email than in person because of how strange he is.

I feel like I'm in a similar situation. I'm doing CS; my school doesn't have SE, and their CE is more hardware related. Regardless, I find myself in the "semi-nerd" category, where the concepts are easy, but some of those "separate my A students from my B students" questions and assignments are tricky. So gradewise, I probably come down as just a 'regular' student.

I'm also majoring in Japanese Language and Literature and, while language ability is worth more than a certificate, I like the fact that I'm a double major. However, the trouble comes in when I realize that I enjoy my Japanese studies way more than my computer studies. Part of me wants to go over and teach English in order to search for a computer-related job. I'd like a career as opposed to an 'English teaching job.'

So my worries are that a) my interests lie in Japanese more than CS, b) I'm kind of so-so at CS, and c) I'll end up drifting in Japan for a while, run out of time, head back to the states and not be able to find employment.

So yeah, I feel ya buddy