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Job Hunting Advice for Bootcamp Grads (& others) in Japan – A Guide

11/25/202211/21/2022 by Paul

I’m often contacted by bootcamp grads in Japan who are looking for help finding an entry-level software engineering role here. Although I’m not usually in a position to help directly … Read more

Categories Guides, Recruitment Tags Coding, Living in Japan Leave a comment

Recommendations of books, podcasts, games, movies & TV from my interview guests

12/09/202211/19/2022 by Paul

I ask everyone I interview for recommendations of their favourite or recent books, movies, TV shows, games, and podcasts. This page is a running compendium of their recommendations, along with … Read more

Categories Guides Tags Books, Movies, TV Shows Leave a comment

Profile #21: Philippe Khin – Solo founder of SewaYou

11/25/202209/07/2022 by Paul

Paul: Philippe Khin is the Tokyo-based founder of SewaYou, an app that helps you easily find language partners in your area. Philippe and I talked about him coming to Japan … Read more

Categories Profiles Tags Coding, Entrepreneur, Living in Japan, Startup Leave a comment

Profile #20: James Balcombe – software engineer at MODE, Tokyo

11/25/202208/17/2022 by Paul

Paul: James Balcombe pivoted his career from international school computer science teacher to software engineer at a startup in Tokyo. James and I spoke about his early interest in computers, … Read more

Categories Profiles Tags Coding, Living in Japan, Startup Leave a comment

Profile #19: Jayson Cunanan – AI engineer, mathematician, guitarist

11/25/202208/03/2022 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles Tags Coding, Living in Japan, Startup Leave a comment

Profile #18: Drew Terry – founder of OpenSalary.jp

11/25/202207/11/2022 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles Tags Coding, Entrepreneur, Living in Japan, Startup Leave a comment

Profile #17: Raymond Murphy – Tokyo-based creator & marketing creative and now founder of the Irish apparel brand ‘Cnota Gaelach’

11/25/202206/02/2022 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles Tags Entrepreneur, Living in Japan, Startup Leave a comment

Profile #16: John Rajeski – Silicon Valley veteran, educator, mentor, data analyst

11/25/202203/25/2022 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles Tags Living in Japan, Startup Leave a comment

Profile #15: Arnout Hemel – Product Management leader, new Tokyo resident, adventurer

11/25/202202/27/2022 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles Tags Living in Japan, Startup Leave a comment

Profile #14: Lawrie Cate – software developer at Tokyo travel tech startup KabuK Style

11/25/202202/17/2022 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles Tags Coding, Living in Japan, Mercari, Startup Leave a comment

Profile #13: Sushant Pandey – IoT entrepreneur & future Tokyo resident

11/25/202201/22/2022 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles Tags Coding, Entrepreneur, Startup Leave a comment

Profile #12: Jatin Kumar – software developer, HR specialist & curry enthusiast

11/25/202201/11/2022 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles Tags Coding, Entrepreneur, Mercari Leave a comment

Profile #11: Tanmay Goel – product manager and community organiser

11/25/202211/08/2021 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles Tags Entrepreneur, Living in Japan Leave a comment

Learning to code (again) at 49 – part 1

11/23/202209/03/2021 by Paul

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

Categories Uncategorized Tags Coding 3 Comments

Flexibility key for Japan IT job movers

11/23/202206/25/2021 by Paul

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

Categories Employer Branding, Recruitment Tags Employment Leave a comment

Profile #10: Miho Tanaka – supporting entrepreneurship in Shibuya

11/25/202205/26/2021 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles Tags Entrepreneur, Living in Japan, Startup Leave a comment

Guest Post #3 – Andrew Bishop on NFT Baseball Cards and the Blockchain

11/25/202204/29/2021 by Paul

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

Categories Guest Post Tags BlockChain, NFT 1 Comment

Profile #9: Greg Jeanneau – freelance UI/UX designer

11/23/202204/29/2021 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles Tags Entrepreneur, Living in Japan, UI/UX Leave a comment

Guest Post #2 – Nathan’s Magic Missile D&D spell in Python

11/23/202203/31/2021 by Paul

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

Categories Guest Post Tags Coding, DnD, Magic Missile, Python Leave a comment

Guest Post #1 – Andrew Bishop on Travel in Asia During the Pandemic

11/23/202203/31/2021 by Paul

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

Categories Guest Post Tags Covid Leave a comment

Profile #8: Sylvain Pierre – Entrepreneur & co-founder of Le Wagon Tokyo

11/25/202202/03/2021 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles Tags Coding, Entrepreneur, Living in Japan Leave a comment

Profile #7: Andrew Bishop – APAC Head of Human Resources and Chief of Staff

11/25/202201/27/2021 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles, Recruitment Tags Human Resources, Living in Japan Leave a comment

Profile #6: Misha Yurchenko – Author, Blogger and Entrepreneur

11/25/202201/07/2021 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles Tags Entrepreneur, Living in Japan, Writer Leave a comment

Appearance on Lydia Beukelman’s ‘Business Success Japan’ podcast

11/23/202212/18/2020 by Paul

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

Categories Interviews, Recruitment Tags Living in Japan, Podcast Leave a comment

Profile #5: James Ryland – Head of HR at Wellington Management

11/25/202210/22/2020 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles, Recruitment Tags Human Resources, Living in Japan Leave a comment

Profile #4: Ji Youn Yoo – In-house recruiter at Google

11/25/202210/13/2020 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles, Recruitment Tags Google, Living in Japan Leave a comment

Profile #3: Asumi Saito – co-founder of Waffle.org

11/25/202209/10/2020 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles Tags NPO Leave a comment

Profile #2: Gerard Noakes – In-house recruiter at Indeed

11/25/202209/05/2020 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles, Recruitment Tags Indeed, Living in Japan Leave a comment

How to Write an IT Resume for Japan – A Guide

11/11/202208/30/2020 by Paul

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

Categories Guides, Recruitment Tags CV, Living in Japan, Resume 1 Comment

Profile #1: Andy Hall – Tilting at GameDev Windmills

11/25/202208/26/2020 by Paul

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

Categories Profiles Tags Coding, Indie Games, Living in Japan 1 Comment

50 is the new 40 (unless you’re job hunting)

11/23/202208/21/2020 by Paul

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

Categories Recruitment Tags Ageism, Living in Japan, Rants 1 Comment

Employer Branding. When donuts are just not enough.

08/04/202208/21/2020 by Paul

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

Categories Employer Branding, Recruitment Tags Rants Leave a comment

Do call me, I won’t call you…

08/04/202208/20/2020 by Paul

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

Categories Recruitment Tags Rants Leave a comment