Lack of Japanese job experience...?

Hello guys,

Right now, I am still studying for N3 after graduating university. I don't have much practice with speaking, since I don't know any Japanese, but I am still trying to work on my vocab, kanji, and listening as often as possible. However, I am worried that it will be hard to get a job later on since I have no job experience. What a paradox. I can't get a job until I get to N2 or N1, but then, I might not get hired due to my lack of experience. I live in the US, and can't travel to Japan yet.

What kind of job can I apply to in order to improve my Japanese faster, and gain experience? Or am I supposed to keep doing something else unrelated (at least I make money, $18/hr...), until I master N1?

Many Japanese companies don�ft hire for expertise or experience.
Unless you are going for an elite firm it won�ft matter.

What will matter is your Japanese level.
N2 is not acceptable in most positions, but if you can get to N1 and can fluently go through the interviews in Japanese, then there should be plenty of opportunities for you.

The vast majority of foreigners working in professional services in Japan did not get their first job in Japan. For example, most of the foreigners working IT jobs in Japan previously worked IT jobs in their home countries, then leveraged that experience into getting a job in Japan. Same goes for finance, marketing, and most other "businessperson" type jobs.

On the other hand, the vast majority of foreigners who graduated from college overseas and then got a job in Japan right away are people who came on non-businessperson-type jobs. Teaching English is by far the most common path. Once they were in Japan, their language skills improved, and many are eventually able to leverage those language skills into getting non-teaching jobs.

Basically, right now you have neither job experience or language skills, which will make it difficult to convince a Japanese company to hire you all the way from overseas, and also presumably sponsor a work visa for you.

�uWhat kind of job can I apply to in order to improve my Japanese faster, and gain experience?�v
You said you're studying for the JPLT N2 test, which means right now you're at N3 at best. I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but at your current level, you're probably not going to be able to do meaningful work in Japanese. Your skills are simply too low to do professional-level work, and so you're not going to be entrusted with assignments that require professional-level Japanese. So by trying to find a job that will improve your Japanese, really you're looking for a job that will pay you to learn Japanese while not really using those language skills in a way that meaningfully helps the company.

That's probably not a job you're going to be able to find, and so you'd probably be better off doing one of two things:
1.
Looking for a job in your desired field that doesn't require Japanese, while continuing to study the language on your own. This will allow you to gain work experience and also to improve your Japanese skills, and that combination will make you more attractive to Japanese employers.

2.
Looking for a job in Japan that doesn't require Japanese language skills or work experience. As I sad above, teaching is the most common option for this. However, you shouldn't do this with the idea that teaching English in Japan will �uimprove your Japanese�v. What it will do is give you opportunities to practice and cement the Japanese you study, on your own, outside of your working hours. On the other hand, if you simply do you teaching job and make no effort to study, odds are your language skillswon't improve.

at least in biggest cities you can get a job with no japanese knowledge at all.

it is better to have some knowledge but let me tell you N2 is enough to get a good position.

I should have mentioned what my major is in the original post...
Major: Japanese, minor: business finance. Would love to get into a game translation company like Xseed. Or just any Japanese company would be fine. Hope I'll get decent pay, too.

1. But I'm talking about working in the States. How would Japanese companies (especially in the States) evaluate you if you have no experience and no expertise? I should mention that Japanese was my major and I only minored in business, and I barely remember a damn thing...

2. Which cities are we talking about here...? I'm not some expert programmer nor do I have any special talents. Even N2 is not good enough, huh... So I guess it's N1 or bust?

The same question & answers to it:
https://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+171186

Anyway, shouldn�ft you have time to get some work experience (what did you study at university???) AND study Japanese In the USA at the same time ?

They evaluate you on your �gpersonality�h.
That online personality test most companies have to take determine 70% of whether or not you are hired or not.
In the interviews, more personality questions (unless top tier firm then skills would matter as well, but personality test somehow still takes precedence)
So interviews is less important than the personality test, I�fve personally seen HR veto excellent candidates at the last moment due to the personality test results, force hire a mediocore candidate who we had to force out/fire within a year, and this is for skilled positions paying 10M+.

if you wanna be a translator then N1 is a must , i work as a medical translator.

And yes when you go through an interview , they barely ask about your resume but about your personality instead.

OK. Thanks for all your responses!

,It's N1 or nothing!
Hope whoever else in similar situation will see this thread and know what to do as well.

Indeed we get quite a few questions from people in the same situation: no real skills or interests or focus on any particular type of job, just "I speak Japanese somewhat, how do I work in Japan?"

That's where I suppose it can reasonably be said that you face very stiff competition from Japanese applicants, because Japan has very many university graduates who likewise have no real skills or interests, but their Japanese is better than yours will probably ever be.

So you want a job that doesn't require any particular skill, except maybe English, and where your rudimentary Japanese won't be a problem (which obviously excludes translation). Well, you have English teaching obviously. There are also companies, even Japanese ones like Rakuten, where English is the company-wide working language; you could try looking into them.

See also: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2019/09/11/how-tos/much-japanes...

If you majored in Japanese and have no other valuable skills, your only choice is to become fully bilingual, with an excellent command of the Japanese language. You're not there yet, but you can definitely work on it. At the same time, add some translation experience to your resume. N3 is not native level by any means, but at this point you should have a decent understanding of grammar and vocabulary to start improving on your own. When I passed N3 some years ago I was even discussing engineering topics at work. Of course, I made a lot of grammar mistakes, but I could make myself understood. What I mean to say is that N3 sets the foundation for conversational japanese and with the help of a dictionary and online resources, you should be able to translate even texts of middle complexity. Look for freelance translation jobs in the U.S. or volunteer for organizations or events looking for non-professional translators. After a while, if you study and pass N1, and can also say that you have some translation experience under your belt, then you can become a more attractive option to employers in Japan.

You MAJORED in Japanese but are studying for the N3?

Wow.