Hello. I am currently an English teacher in Japan, but after two years, I’ve realized that teaching isn’t for me. I genuinely enjoyed the job at one point, and the pay and benefits are better than most English teaching positions. However, I’ve grown bored and tired of the work and feel the need for a career with more long-term growth and development.
During my first two years in Japan, I focused on earning my JLPT certification and obtaining a Japanese driver’s license. Now, I feel it’s time to move on and pursue something more aligned with my interests.
Here’s a brief overview of my background:
• Associate’s degree in Networking
• Bachelor’s degree in Japanese
• JLPT N1 (2024)
• CompTIA A+ (2023, now a bit dated)
• 28 years old
I am very fluent in Japanese and would consider myself near-native. I’m looking to transition into the tech field as soon as possible, whether that’s programming or networking. My main challenge is figuring out the best way to approach this transition, especially given my age and lack of hands-on experience in tech.
I’m also concerned about compensation. Ideally, I’d like to start at or near my current salary of ¥360,000 per month, though I’ve heard that may be difficult. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
TLDR: English teacher who wants to switch over to networking or programming with no experience at 28.
by SwanParticular9261
6 comments
28歳なら急いだ方がいい。ネイティブレベルなら、普通にリクナビとかで探せばいい。wantedlyならスタートアップだから英語話者を求めて採用されやすいかもしれない（わからないけど、プログラミングならなんの言語ができるのかが大事なんじゃないかな？） まずは応募するのがいいと思う。
Recruiters. Entry level / tier 1 support roles.
N1 is good, but the lack of experience will let you down massively. There’s already plenty of unskilled native level speakers in Japan who are easier and less of a risk to hire.
If you want to go into programming I’d try and get some experience, an internship – you can check out the startup hubs in Fukuoka and Tokyo, there’s loads of small companies there that you could intern for. It’ll likely be unpaid and I do fundamentally disagree with unpaid internships, the cards are going to be stacked against you somewhat in Japan so take what you can get here to build your resume. You’ll also unlikely to get 360,000 a month with your first job, more likely 200-250k.
I don’t mean to discourage you at all and it definitely can be done, I was actually in pretty much exactly the same position as you when I was 27 and now I run a small software company. It took years to get to a place where I felt comfortable and loads of hard work networking, navigating Japanese businesses etc but it can be done.
TLDR, just try and fill your resume up with relevant experience as having N1 will never fill that gap.
Get a CCNA and some introductory ansible skills and you should get a solid boost to your resume.
You can look at dispatch companies that fill temporary roles at other companies, usually some kind of simple follow the manual kind of tasks initially. A system integrator like Fujitsu, Hitachi, or MSP/support roles with someone like CTC or NetOne can be great choices if you are comfortable with Japanese customers. They also deal with international customers in Japan and vendors too so bilingual will help.
Get a data center role, not office support.
I was in the same boat – I was 31 when I got my CCNA and transitioned to networking with native-passing Japanese and no experience. If you’re looking for 360k salary (and if this number does not include your bonus) it’s probably pretty unrealistic as you’re not much better than a fresh graduate. My initial pay was around 250k not including bonus, taking bonus into amount it worked out to be around 320k with the year’s bonus averaged out.
Some people are suggesting looking for an international company but I suspect that’s easier said than done. With no experience and being in my 30s already, I went to a Japanese company. If you get into an international company this doesn’t apply, but being able to speak English gives you a huge advantage over your colleagues because you can read documentation and other information sources in English and because many technical terms are English-based. Even if you don’t actually use English otherwise (none of my colleagues speak a word of English)
Why not do something you enjoy? Sure, you have an associate’s degree in networking, but then you say you have no hands-on experience. Have you not done any tech projects in your free time?
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