There are a lot of chances in Japan
What attracted me at first was Japan’s beautiful views. Japan looks so beautiful in people’s stories, videos, and other media. I also have an interest in Japanese culture, especially Japanese people’s discipline. Apart from that, there are also many traditional and special festivals in Japan I’d love to see. Since I’m curious about Japanese customs, living in Japan is a good opportunity to learn how the people live there firsthand. I also really love J-pop, where I can get a lot of energy from.
The main reason why I want to work in Japan is because there are a lot of opportunities that could make my career dreams come true. I wanted to study to get a master’s degree and I think Japan was one of my “target” countries to study for my master’s degree. I knew that some of the professors in my college studied for their master’s or doctor’s degrees in Japan. It made me even more interested in Japan.
I’ve never been abroad and have always stayed in Indonesia. Working in Japan will pull me apart from my family and friends. Maybe I will feel homesick a lot. It will be a challenge for me. But I’m not too worried about it. Although my Japanese is not very good now, I’m trying to learn Japanese from ASIA to JAPAN’s Japanese online lesson. When you learn a new language, you also learn how to live in the country and learn their culture at the same time. This process is very interesting.
I think the quality of life would be better in Japan and living alone is not a problem for me, because I will have more freedom on my hands. Therefore, I’m very excited about the new life and looking forward to experiencing it.
Passionate about software engineering
I am a passionate software engineer with a little bit of a perfectionistic attitude, having a good command of programming, such as MySQL, Go, JavaScript, Java, Python, C++, and so on.
My love for computers and programming goes back to high school. I loved math when I was in high school, but my parents did not allow me to study math major. Therefore, I thought that the closest thing to math is computer science so I chose computer science as my major. I’m grateful for my decision now because I have found where my passion is.
I enjoyed the process of my Final Year Project, which was a part of my university’s project to create an autonomous tram for Indonesia. I was on the simulation team with the responsibility of creating a simulation system with a HILS (hardware-in-the-loop-simulation) scheme. The simulation system is for testing both the autonomous tram’s software and hardware. My final year project’s main purpose was to create the communication system for the simulation system. The simulation system used two computers: a computer to run the autonomous tram software and another computer to run the simulator (CARLA). To exchange data between the programs running on these two computers, a communication system that was fast enough was required. In my final year project, I was also tasked to adjust the autonomous tram software so that it could use sensor data from the simulation software instead of the built-in virtual sensor provided by Nvidia Driveworks SDK.
I’m happy to see that I’m able to apply what I’ve learned to real life. That inspired me to work harder with passion for my future job.
Job-hunting process through FAST OFFER
I applied to FAST OFFER about 2 years ago through one of my university’s programs. During the time I participated in FAST OFFER, I studied a lot of Japanese. Along with studying Japanese, I also honed my programming skills. By working and challenging myself with my college’s tasks. I also did an internship as a Software Engineer at a college and then a part-time Software Engineer job at a startup where I improved my skills. Both soft skills, like communication and work ethics, and hard skills, such as programming and designing SQL database relations.
My turning point occurred in early 2023 or late 2022 when I was offered a chance to take a coding test for my prospective employment by one of ASIA to JAPAN’s staff. That was the first company I had an opportunity to show my ability. Although I couldn’t pass the code test, it helped me to learn how to do a code test for a Japanese company. Then, in the middle of 2023, I was offered to do the coding test again but with no expectations of getting to the interview stage. Fortunately, I did well in the coding test and I was lucky enough to get an interview offer.
Before the interview, language was my biggest concern, because I can’t speak Japanese well. But the interview process was pretty straightforward for me. The process was like many other companies with coding tests and a couple of rounds of interviews. Fortunately, because some of my interviewers were also foreigners and the Japanese interviewers spoke good English, I was able to communicate with them fully in English without speaking Japanese.
Finally, I was lucky enough to get both the interview and job offer. To be honest, I was more surprised than happy when I was told PASSED because my expectations were very low (although I tried my best during the interview).
Vision and Message
I do have expectations for my future work in Japan. But right now, I’m very satisfied with my prospective employer. Not only because this is the first company inviting me for an interview and giving me the chance to work in Japan, but I also like their vision and ideology for their mission, which align with mine.
I expect to improve my skills as a software engineer during my work time. I also expect to be challenged, both by the job I do and the need to learn Japanese. What I want to say to students who are looking forward to working in Japan like me is “Just do it! Don’t be afraid of failure and move forward”.
Sometimes I feel like people hesitate because they don’t have the self-confidence or are scared because they have previously failed. That’s why I say just do it, especially when you are given the opportunity. Don’t let your past or yourself stop you from moving forward. Failure will happen, but if we try hard enough and don’t give up, we will be able to move forward. Even I, although still considerably as lucky, need two tries to get a job.
