Day 189 of writing every day.
Going to work for 8 hours a day might take some getting used to, but studying for the same amount of time a day feels much harder. I’ll be logging my study progress for the time being instead of writing my thoughts as much for the time being
Morning:
I planned on studying for two hours. I managed to study for about an hour before I got a call regarding my concerns about my visa status. Unfortunately, the permanent residency application fell through and I’ll have to try again maybe next year at the earliest. This meant I really only had two weeks left to find a job offer I felt comfortable with, and I got spooked. My advisor said while those on student visas can apply for a job hunting visa, people like me on work visas don’t qualify for such extensions to find a job. Still, immigration isn’t as strict as to revoke my visa the day I go past 90 days without a job. As long as I can find a job, there may be a case for me to retain my visa should the job hunt drag on into July.
After being spooked by the news, I couldn’t focus on studying and instead turned my attention to applying to more job postings that looked palatable and also tried what I could to properly open my portfolio on GitHub up so the hiring manager for a company I interviewed with last week could see if I’m actually worth considering as a hire.
To my credit, I remained focused, perhaps driven by fear, and went two hours without feeling the urge to procrastinate and play games.
Afternoon:
I said to my advisor that I’d be going to Hello Work to find job postings, which I had already intended after thinking about my situation over the weekend. I guess the weight of what I have at stake never really hit me until that phone call. It makes me feel like I slacked off midway through this whole plan I had and picked up the pace too little too late. I felt what probably should be described as despair.
I was probably hungry as it was past one thirty when I went to Hello Work and hadn’t eaten anything since a modest sized breakfast in the morning. Still, driven by the need to find a job fast, I poured through the postings on the system and spent close to an hour just clicking and scrolling for what seemed doable for me. I ended up asking for referrals to four jobs and got two of them sent in to the hiring managers this afternoon.
Having sent something out does literally increase my chances of finding a job before the deadline I’m faced with, so the act was calming if anything. If things don’t pan out with the company I met last week, some of the companies I applied to looked to have comparable if not better perks as well on top of not demanding necessarily as solid a foundation for coding either.
Unfortunately I did not get any studying done, but I think finding a job and securing my ability to stay in Japan legally easily takes top priority.
Before I left my room, I went and sent in a message to the company I wasn’t feeling too good about working with to decline their invitation to offer me a job. No contract stating the terms and conditions had been given to me, but the details on the job posting seemed rather shabby in retrospect after seeing companies that give housing cost assistance, stipends for books, and the mention of study groups, water servers, etc.
I suspect I might have walked into a trap if I took the offer. Who knows if I’ll just get the bare minimum of something that passes for training before getting sent somewhere to work alongside people I don’t even know and who don’t know what to expect of me. But there’s also the chance they could have been a decent company to work for, but I’ll never know.
Night:
I spent some more time checking for job postings and applied to a couple more. Two applications through Hello Work came back with the expected we regret to inform you after a lot of thought that we had come to a difficult decision not to hire you (because you’re a foreigner). If memory serves, I may have applied to them before in the past when changing jobs and hoping to get a tech sector job that required no experience.
There was also one applied to online that was through Hello Work, but I think it may have been the one where they asked the Hello Work office if I was a foreigner. The office staff was polite and helpful every time I went in, and informed me that the policy is not to answer any questions from hiring managers about the nationality of job seekers. After all, there is still racial discrimination, even against ethnically Korean and Chinese people who were born and raised in Japan, and to basically protect them, many have been given the choice to take on Japanese names.
Anyways the online one I sent my application to that I found through Hello Work quickly replied back with the “we put a lot of thought into this decision and regret to inform you that you’re not getting the job” with 2 hours of submission. Yeah, screw them too I guess.
Unfortunately some companies are still very backwards looking in regards to hiring practices. I think it’s inevitable that foreign workers will start coming to Japan and filling up the jobs the Japanese just don’t have enough people for, and my thinking is that Japanese labor practices are part of the problem causing population decline in the first place. Well those companies should probably drop dead if they refuse to adapt and think foreigners aren’t going to be good enough to work alongside them if given the chance to prove themselves on equal footing.
It’s not like foreign engineers will want to come to work for Japanese wages unless they’re from a poorer country where engineers are better off finding opportunities elsewhere. I’ve heard enough people say that it’s better to work and get paid in dollars in the US or for a foreign company as a tech worker if you got the skills and know English to know that too many get treated like dirt in Japan. So if you’re going to need foreign workers to fill those tech jobs, you better start hiring and be open to the idea of training foreigners here who actually like Japan and want to contribute to it as a resident as opposed to some tourist out to live out their exotic vacation fantasy.
I’m not sure if I’ll squeeze in any study time before I sleep but I definitely want to just relax after this emotional rollercoaster of a day.
Thanks for reading!
One Chance Works 