I am from Morristown, New Jersey and studied Japanese from my Junior year of high school up until my third year of college. I studied for two and half years at the University of Vermont, spent a semester at Rikkyo University, and then finished my senior year at Temple University Japan Campus. I graduated in the summer of 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in International Business.
I work at a company called FXSpotStream in Tokyo, Japan. FXSpotStream is a bank owned consortium operating as a market utility providing a multibank FXStreaming and RFS service, supporting pricing in FX Spot, Forwards, Swaps, NDF/NDS, and precious metals Spot and Swaps.I found out about the job through connections that I have. I was looking to speak to expats living in Japan and their experiences. One of the expats that I spoke with mentioned that they were hiring and asked if I wanted to apply.
Q: What was the interview process like?
A: The interview process took a total of one month. My first interview was in English, and the person who would be my boss was interviewing me. He asked if I had any background in the foreign exchange market and if I had any sort of tech background as well. He also asked about my Japanese skills and how long I have been living in Japan. He spent a long time explaining the background of the job and the expectations. Overall, the first interview was very casual. More like a chat rather than a formal interview. It is important to note that my interview was done over a phone call, not a video call. In fact, all of my interviews were via phone call. At the time the entire office was work from home due to covid so they were not holding in-person interviews. My second interview was also in English and that was held by the head of my department. He asked me questions about my resume and background. He did not ask any questions about my Japanese or Japanese skills. He was more interested in why I wanted to work for the company. My third and final interview was held in Japanese. My company does not care about the JLPT, but instead will have a native speaker call you in Japanese. The questions were mainly repeats from my previous interviews except this time they were all in Japanese. The interviewer asked about my hobbies and what I like to do in my free time. He also asked where I studied Japanese and why I lived in Japan. The interview lasted about 30 minutes and we went over each line of my resume, and the interviewer asked me questions about each new section. I found out I got the job about two weeks later.
Q: What was the placement/moving process like?
A: At the time I was already living in Japan so I did not have international moving expenses.
My company is an American company with three global offices. We have an office in New Jersey, London, and Tokyo. However, that being said, the Tokyo office and the New York office are different from each other. The office environment is quite serious and not as relaxed as most US offices. In my office not everyone speaks Japanese, however I would say most of the office does. I personally use Japanese only 10% of the time in my job, as most of the time I am speaking with English speaking clients. However, when I do have to use Japanese it is more technical Japanese. People in the office speak to each other in both Japanese and English depending on who they are talking to. I work Monday-Friday 7:30AM-4:30pm. Sometimes I work different hours but usually I am on that schedule. Office attire is business casual, more on the side of casual. My job title is client service support specialist. My main job duties are to monitor our live platform in order to anticipate and quickly handle any potential issues that might arise as well as investigate FIX logs to identify issues. I also monitor and handle email conversations with clients.
While I have Japanese co-workers, none of my bosses are Japanese. Every person who works in my office is required to speak fluent English, so the Japanese people who work in my office are not the typical Japanese person. As most of the Japanese people in my office studied abroad in America or England. I really have no after-work obligations except for the occasional dinner. I only go out a few times a year with work. I have not really run into any issues at all in regards to culture. As this is my first full time job out of college I cannot really compare it to anything else.
I really recommend trying to make connections with people, it does make a big difference. Even connecting to different people on LinkedIn can help. Also do not be discouraged from being denied positions. A lot of companies only want to hire native Japanese speakers even if they want English skills. You usually are competing with native Japanese people for the same jobs. Keep trying and keep applying until you find somewhere that is the fit for you.
Working in Japan has been a great experience but also has been a challenging one. Don`t forget if you are a US citizen and work abroad you still need to file your US taxes!