Profile #19: Jayson Cunanan – AI engineer, mathematician, guitarist
Paul: Jayson Cunanan moved to Japan from the Philippines in 2011 to follow his dream of using higher education to find a better life. Jayson and I spoke about his … Read more
Paul
Profile #18: Drew Terry – founder of OpenSalary.jp
Paul: Drew Terry is the founder of OpenSalary.jp, a website promoting salary transparency for the tech community in Japan. Drew and I spoke about starting his career as a software … Read more
Profile #17: Raymond Murphy – Tokyo-based creator & marketing creative and now founder of the Irish apparel brand ‘Cnota Gaelach’
Paul: Raymond Murphy is a creator and marketing creative who first arrived in Japan in 2004. He launched ‘Cnota Gaelach’, a Tokyo-based Irish apparel brand in 2021. Raymond and I … Read more
Profile #16: John Rajeski – Silicon Valley veteran, educator, mentor, data analyst
Paul: John Rajeski is an aspiring people / data analyst, a recent global educator, and a former Silicon Valley start-up co-founder. John and I spoke about his early career in … Read more
Profile #15: Arnout Hemel – Product Management leader, new Tokyo resident, adventurer
Paul: With 15+ years experience in Product Management, Arnout Hemel’s team at Grab in Singapore grew GrabInsure into one of the largest InsureTechs in South East Asia. Arnout relocated to … Read more
Profile #14: Lawrie Cate – software developer at Tokyo travel tech startup KabuK Style
Paul: Originally from the UK, Lawrie moved to Tokyo in 2018 to work as a software engineer at Mercari, the Japanese marketplace unicorn. Lawrie is now at travel tech startup … Read more
Profile #13: Sushant Pandey – IoT entrepreneur & future Tokyo resident
Paul: Sushant Pandey is the founder of Scurid, a distributed digital identity platform bringing scalable security to the world of IoT. A Shibuya Startup Visa holder, Sushant will be relocating … Read more
Profile #12: Jatin Kumar – software developer, HR specialist & curry enthusiast
Paul: I first learned about Jatin Kumar after stumbling upon an online post about his GoCurry community last year. I was fascinated to learn more about Jatin’s background as a … Read more
Profile #11: Tanmay Goel – product manager and community organiser
Paul: Tanmay Goel is a Tokyo-based product manager and organiser in the product management community here, with a background as an international student & entrepreneur, and interests including tech, the … Read more
Learning to code (again) at 49 – part 1
A few months ago I got an itch. It started gradually, arriving unannounced, so quietly at first I barely noticed it. But then, over time, it became more noticeable. This … Read more
Flexibility key for Japan IT job movers
In early May I posted a poll on LinkedIn asking those thinking about changing their Japan IT jobs this year what was most important to them in looking for a … Read more
Profile #10: Miho Tanaka – supporting entrepreneurship in Shibuya
Paul: A recent introduction to Miho Tanaka from Sasha at Le Wagon Tokyo was a case of perfect timing, as I’d just been reading about Miho’s work at Startup Welcome … Read more
Guest Post #3 – Andrew Bishop on NFT Baseball Cards and the Blockchain
Paul: I’m delighted to welcome back Andrew Bishop with another guest post. Andrew dipped his toe into the NFT market last week and I thought it would make an interesting … Read more
Profile #9: Greg Jeanneau – freelance UI/UX designer
Paul: Greg Jeanneau is a talented UI/UX designer who moved to Tokyo from his native France in January of this year. We talk about Greg’s background as an engineer, his … Read more
Guest Post #2 – Nathan’s Magic Missile D&D spell in Python
Paul: Today we have a guest post by my friend Nathan Dibley. It’s Magic Missile code in Python for all you D&D fans! Nathan: Hi there. This is a D&D … Read more
Guest Post #1 – Andrew Bishop on Travel in Asia During the Pandemic
Paul: Andrew Bishop moved his family during the pandemic from Hong Kong to Tokyo late last year. His story focuses on the differences in quarantining between Tokyo and Hong Kong … Read more
Profile #8: Sylvain Pierre – Entrepreneur & co-founder of Le Wagon Tokyo
Paul: Sylvain Pierre is an entrepreneur, co-founder of the Le Wagon Tokyo coding bootcamp, and Tokyo resident since 2016. We talk about how Sylvain got into entrepreneurship, his experiences in … Read more
Profile #7: Andrew Bishop – APAC Head of Human Resources and Chief of Staff
Paul: I met Andrew Bishop way back in 2000 when we worked together in the IT recruiting team at PANACHE, a Tokyo-based technology, staffing and services company. We’ve been friends … Read more
Profile #6: Misha Yurchenko – Author, Blogger and Entrepreneur
Paul: I met Misha Yurchenko for the first time a couple of years ago after coming across his excellent newsletter (you can find it and more of his writing at … Read more
Appearance on Lydia Beukelman’s ‘Business Success Japan’ podcast
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Lydia Beukelman, a US-based corporate Japanese instructor, for her ‘Business Success Japan’ podcast. We spoke about culture, burnout and life in Japan. … Read more
Profile #5: James Ryland – Head of HR at Wellington Management
Paul: James Ryland and I met at 8:25 am on Monday, November 15th, 1999. I remember the date and time well as it was my first day of work in … Read more
Profile #4: Ji Youn Yoo – In-house recruiter at Google
Paul: Ji Youn Yoo is an in-house recruiter at Google’s Tokyo office in Shibuya Stream. We worked together a few years ago in the IT team of a recruiting agency … Read more
Profile #3: Asumi Saito – co-founder of Waffle.org
Paul: Asumi Saito is a young data scientist turned non-profit organisation founder from Tokyo. We met over Skype in 2017 when Asumi had just finished her master’s degree at the … Read more
Profile #2: Gerard Noakes – In-house recruiter at Indeed
Paul: Gerard Noakes is an in-house recruiter at Indeed’s Tokyo office. We met in the summer of 2016 when Gerard joined the recruiting agency I was working at. His first … Read more
How to Write an IT Resume for Japan – A Guide
I’m often asked how to write an IT resume for the Japan market. Over the past 20 years, I’ve read thousands of resumes written by IT people from all over … Read more
Profile #1: Andy Hall – Tilting at GameDev Windmills
Paul: Andy Hall is an indie game developer, originally from the US. Now living in Kawasaki, Japan, Andy and I met in early 2000, when Andy joined a Tokyo-based IT … Read more
50 is the new 40 (unless you’re job hunting)
I originally wrote this piece for LinkedIn and it received far more exposure than anything else I’ve ever written for the platform (almost 40,000 feed views so far). The topic … Read more
Employer Branding. When donuts are just not enough.
All the Employer Branding activities in the world will not help you hire the best talent if your current employees think you’re a crap place to work. Posting photos of … Read more
Do call me, I won’t call you…
I saw an advice post that a “busy” recruiter wrote: If I don’t get back to you in 2 WEEKS send ME a follow-up email. This recruiter was very busy … Read more