Moving to Japan
Attempts to find work in Japan, I began to take a long time, pursuing two goals: one - to try to work abroad, and the second - to work in a team with professionals in various fields of IT. The first attempts ended without a hint of success. Practically everywhere, knowledge of Japanese was necessary, at least at the middle level. And in those rare cases when it was not required, I, for some reason, could not reach the HR of these companies. Then I abandoned this idea, but at the same time I created a profile on LinkedIn and tried to keep the profile up to date. A few years later, the situation has changed.
In my case, LinkedIn was the only tool with which I could get at least to the interview. At that moment, when I returned to the search (the beginning of 2015), the site already had quite a lot of IT-vacancies in Tokyo without requirements for knowledge of Japanese. As it turned out later, this was a new trend in attracting specialists from abroad.
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I found a job that I was interested in, clicked on a link, filled out a questionnaire, recorded a video interview, and for a while forgot all about it, because I did not expect anyone to answer me. But they answered me.
Invited for an interview on Skype. In total there were 4 or 5, and only one of them was technical. For the rest, it seemed to me that I was the interviewer. I was told about the company, projects, work, and I asked questions. As a result, during these interviews (which took about 2 months), I met someone from HR, my future manager, almost all team members and L2 manager (one of the executive). Those. even without knowing whether they will hire me, I already knew all those with whom I have to work. It seemed to me something incredible.
Since English is not my native language and I don’t have any certificates, before the second or third interview I was sent a link to the online test (Versant). A score of 50 points was a prerequisite for moving to the next stage. This was perhaps the most exciting moment. I did not have to communicate many times in oral English, and Versant is not just an oral test, it is also checked by a “robot”.
Before the last interview I was sent two books in English, which I needed to read and write two small essays. I did not know how to write an essay, in the end I just wrote my thoughts on the topics covered in the books.
I indicated the desired salary in the questionnaire at the very beginning and it was no longer discussed. Approximately the same figure I received in the offer, plus semi-annual bonuses. As I understand it, salaries are rarely discussed and give what he requested. The subtlety is that the larger the request, the greater the probability of failure at one of the stages. It can be said roulette, because The threshold depends on many conditions, including the budget of the team or project.
In my calculations, I proceeded from how much I had for a normal (in my understanding) life in Tokyo with my family. When making calculations, it should be borne in mind that within the company the salary usually grows slowly and does not depend on the role it takes.
There is almost nothing to write about a visa. Received documents, passed to the embassy, ​​waited and received a visa. Receiving documents from Japan for a spouse with a child (dependent visa) may take a little longer (up to 3 months) than for a hired specialist.
The company offered several real estate agencies. We began to correspond with one of them and chose several apartment options (having previously walked on Google Street View). I arrived first (visas for the family were not ready yet) a week before the start of work, stopped at the hostel and started driving to watch selected apartments. Somewhere in 2 weeks settled in one of them.
There is an interesting point regarding the compensation for the move. Compensation is calculated in advance and indicated in the offer as a bonus. This bonus is paid at the end of the second (if I remember correctly) work month.
What my new team was doing covered significantly more areas than the system administration that I did before. We had our own project in which we were responsible for everything: architecture, development, support and even promotion. For me it was incredible. What was happening was like an endless startup. A large number of creative and personality every day. From what I needed to work with, I knew practically nothing, and only a good knowledge of Linux allowed me to begin to delve into it.
For three months I had a trial period, which was more a formality. For this period I was assigned a mentor who set tasks for me and helped me with difficult questions. Also during this period I had to pass another test in English (TOEIC IP, quite simple).
In our team there is a manager (deciding mainly organizational issues and providing all possible support to the team) and a team leader (or technical leader). There are no distinctions regarding who and what we do not have. It works like this: about once every six months, we collect ideas, set priorities, design them into new projects and fix (usually volunteer) each of them to one of the team members as responsible. Work on the project, at the same time, anyone from the team can. Then the projects are divided into tasks, and someone takes on (usually volunteer) these tasks. This whole system is weak and from time to time we change certain rules if we notice that something is no longer working or we find more efficient ways of working.
Looking back, it seems that I was incredibly lucky with the team, the manager and, possibly, the company I was in. For two years of work here, I have gained experience and knowledge (and not only technical) comparable to the previous ten, and it seems that this is far from the end.
The family feels good here. The son (4 years old) went to the garden six months ago and already speaks Japanese with might and main.
Work searches
In my case, LinkedIn was the only tool with which I could get at least to the interview. At that moment, when I returned to the search (the beginning of 2015), the site already had quite a lot of IT-vacancies in Tokyo without requirements for knowledge of Japanese. As it turned out later, this was a new trend in attracting specialists from abroad.
')
I found a job that I was interested in, clicked on a link, filled out a questionnaire, recorded a video interview, and for a while forgot all about it, because I did not expect anyone to answer me. But they answered me.
Interview
Invited for an interview on Skype. In total there were 4 or 5, and only one of them was technical. For the rest, it seemed to me that I was the interviewer. I was told about the company, projects, work, and I asked questions. As a result, during these interviews (which took about 2 months), I met someone from HR, my future manager, almost all team members and L2 manager (one of the executive). Those. even without knowing whether they will hire me, I already knew all those with whom I have to work. It seemed to me something incredible.
Since English is not my native language and I don’t have any certificates, before the second or third interview I was sent a link to the online test (Versant). A score of 50 points was a prerequisite for moving to the next stage. This was perhaps the most exciting moment. I did not have to communicate many times in oral English, and Versant is not just an oral test, it is also checked by a “robot”.
Before the last interview I was sent two books in English, which I needed to read and write two small essays. I did not know how to write an essay, in the end I just wrote my thoughts on the topics covered in the books.
About salary
I indicated the desired salary in the questionnaire at the very beginning and it was no longer discussed. Approximately the same figure I received in the offer, plus semi-annual bonuses. As I understand it, salaries are rarely discussed and give what he requested. The subtlety is that the larger the request, the greater the probability of failure at one of the stages. It can be said roulette, because The threshold depends on many conditions, including the budget of the team or project.
In my calculations, I proceeded from how much I had for a normal (in my understanding) life in Tokyo with my family. When making calculations, it should be borne in mind that within the company the salary usually grows slowly and does not depend on the role it takes.
Visa
There is almost nothing to write about a visa. Received documents, passed to the embassy, ​​waited and received a visa. Receiving documents from Japan for a spouse with a child (dependent visa) may take a little longer (up to 3 months) than for a hired specialist.
Moving
The company offered several real estate agencies. We began to correspond with one of them and chose several apartment options (having previously walked on Google Street View). I arrived first (visas for the family were not ready yet) a week before the start of work, stopped at the hostel and started driving to watch selected apartments. Somewhere in 2 weeks settled in one of them.
There is an interesting point regarding the compensation for the move. Compensation is calculated in advance and indicated in the offer as a bonus. This bonus is paid at the end of the second (if I remember correctly) work month.
Job
What my new team was doing covered significantly more areas than the system administration that I did before. We had our own project in which we were responsible for everything: architecture, development, support and even promotion. For me it was incredible. What was happening was like an endless startup. A large number of creative and personality every day. From what I needed to work with, I knew practically nothing, and only a good knowledge of Linux allowed me to begin to delve into it.
For three months I had a trial period, which was more a formality. For this period I was assigned a mentor who set tasks for me and helped me with difficult questions. Also during this period I had to pass another test in English (TOEIC IP, quite simple).
In our team there is a manager (deciding mainly organizational issues and providing all possible support to the team) and a team leader (or technical leader). There are no distinctions regarding who and what we do not have. It works like this: about once every six months, we collect ideas, set priorities, design them into new projects and fix (usually volunteer) each of them to one of the team members as responsible. Work on the project, at the same time, anyone from the team can. Then the projects are divided into tasks, and someone takes on (usually volunteer) these tasks. This whole system is weak and from time to time we change certain rules if we notice that something is no longer working or we find more efficient ways of working.
Two years later
Looking back, it seems that I was incredibly lucky with the team, the manager and, possibly, the company I was in. For two years of work here, I have gained experience and knowledge (and not only technical) comparable to the previous ten, and it seems that this is far from the end.
The family feels good here. The son (4 years old) went to the garden six months ago and already speaks Japanese with might and main.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/346172/
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