How I Found My First Software Developer Job in Japan While Being Overseas

Adler Hsieh

Adler Hsieh

— 4 min read
How I Found My First Software Developer Job in Japan While Being Overseas


  • 0:00 intro
  • 0:41 Check company websites
  • 1:54 Get help from recruiters
  • 3:01 Use job-hunting platforms

Big-Name Companies That Are Actively Hiring Non-Japanese Speakers

  • Mercari/Merpay
  • Rakuten
  • Yahoo
  • Amazon
  • LINE
  • Indeed
  • Google

Japan Dev

  • https://japan-dev.com

Keywords for Searching for Recruiter Companies

  • recruiter company in X city
  • software developer recruiter X city
  • software developer jobs X city
  • technical recruiter X city

Job-hunting platforms in Japan that I know

I have used: - LinkedIn - Indeed - GaijinPot - Daijob

I have not used: - Glassdoor - CareerCross - Nippon Shigoto - Japan Career - Jobs in Japan - YOLO Japan

About Me

Adler, currently a software developer. Have some experience in PHP but hate its syntax. Love Ruby & Go. Work hard to be lazy.

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My Video Production Gears

  • Camera: Sony ZV-1
  • Microphone: RODE VideoMicro
  • Tabletop Tripod: ARTCISE CS20C
  • Video Editing: Final Cut Pro X
  • Image Editing: Pixelmator Pro

Thanks for Checking the video! Let me know if you have any questions, or what you want to see in the next video!

Transcript

Today I’m sharing 3 approaches to find a software developer job in Japan, EVEN IF you’re currently overseas.

Hi, my name is Adler, and welcome back to my channel where we talk about software development and career. In a previous video, I shared the must-knows for those who are interested in working here. In this video, I’m sharing the most practical ways to find a job in Japan, whether you’re in Japan or not. I used these approaches to find my first job, so I believe you can find yours with these same approaches.

Before we start, consider giving this video a like or subscribe to the channel if you’re interested in videos like this one.

The first approach to find a software developer job in Japan is to check the official website of each company. It is old-fashioned, but it is the best and the most efficient way. The positions listed on the websites are up-to-update and usually have the most detailed information. All we need to do is to Google “company name + career”, or “company name + jobs”, and you’ll see the career page at the top of the search results. There are several big-name companies that are well-known for actively recruiting from overseas. That includes:

YAHOO!, Rakuten, LINE, Amazon, Indeed, Google, and Mercari / Merpay By the way, if you’re interested in working as a software developer in Merpay, check out the video I made here.

Some positions from these companies would require business-level Japanese, so make sure to read the job description before you send an application.

Apart from these companies, I would also recommend japan-dev.com, which is another job listing website. This website is specifically designed for English speakers so most job positions have language requirements listed in the job description.

However, one issue with japan-dev.com is that the positions are sometimes out of date. So for me, the value of this website is not about current job positions, but the fact that it has a list of companies that are willing to hire non-Japanese speakers. For each company, we can do the same in Google search, and see how many available positions they have.

The second approach is to get help from recruiters. The biggest benefit of using recruiters is that they have a lot of local experiences, and they know some available positions from smaller companies.

To find recruiter companies in Japan, we’ll start from Google as well. We can search for “recruiter company in X city”. There are also some other keywords that I recommend. I’ll put them in the description below so you can scroll down to check the details.

Each company will have a “contact” page for job seekers. The quickest way to get in touch is to fill out the information and wait for their response.

Or, if we want to be more active, we can bring that information to LinkedIn, and look for anyone who is currently working in that company. Find those persons, and send a connection invitation, or just send a message saying that we’re looking for a new opportunity. The best strategy is to spam the recruiters and send as many invitations as we can. Just like in any other country, without a residence status, and having no local experience, it’s very possible that we’ll be ignored. We might send 20 messages and get only 1 response. The more recruiters we find, the more possible we can find a job that we are happy with.

The third approach is to send job applications on regular job-hunting platforms like LinkedIn & Glassdoor. I wouldn’t say this is very helpful because I didn’t get any interviews from this approach. But if we have time, this is something to think about. Here is a list of job-hunting platforms that I know in Japan. I’ll also put them in the description below.

OK. I hope you find this video helpful. Let me know if you have any questions, and let me know what kind of videos you want to see about software development. I will see you next time.

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