Getting an Internship in Japan with Nearly Zero Connections and Beginner Level Language Skills
It’s no surpise that there’s been a Japan craze going on recently. More and more people aspire to visit or even live in the land of the rising sun, which I’m lowkey not too pleased about. I guess that’s just the hipster in me (I’m not too pleased about that one neither).
Eventually I let it slide because honestly, who could blame them? Japan’s culture sure is something else. The cleanliness; the history; the pop culture scene; the food! Don’t get me started on the food.
If you’ve been there, you know what I’m talking about.
I went to Japan for my summer internship, just before my final year of college. If I were to briefly describe my experience, I would go with — I had the time of my life.
I worked for a relatively small real estate agency aimed towards helping foreigners in Tokyo (lucky for me since I wasn’t by any means capable of conversing in the language).
My work involved some marketing tasks such as advertising on social media, blogging as well as some agency-related tasks — overseeing apartments, managing Airbnb spaces and what not.
All I could say is that it was a mixture of being blessed (lucky) and pouring out a great deal of work.
I’ve been into this Japan thing for quite a while now. I’ve watched my fair share of anime and coincidentally, my dad also worked in Japan for a quite some time. He actually met my step mom there. So in a way, I’ve had an affiliation with the country for quite a while now.
I first stepped foot on Japan nearly ten years ago on vacation and it was all “meh” to the 14 year-old me. Apparently, I didn’t have any taste back the
My dramatic growth of interest ( it’s pretty much an obsession at this point) really kicked in a couple of years ago when I got to visit again for vacation as a 22 year-old. Boy did it take my breath away. I came with a different set of lenses with a wider of persepective and appreciation for the world in general. I then said to myself; “why don’t I get my internship here?”
I know that my circumstances are obviously unique to myself and the way I was able to land that internship won’t obviously work for others.
For instance, there’s the fact that my parents were actually living in Japan during the time of the internship — obviously an advantage.
On the flipside though, I live in the Philippines where getting internships abroad is unheard of in Universities unless you belong to the 1% — the high achievers who get all the best extracurricular gigs.
And no, I didn’t belong to that group. I thought school was a drag and was aloof for most of my college years. As you can see, the odds are still piled up against me.
So then, what’s my secret?
Some people call it the law of attaction; and I personally don’t necessarily have a name for it. Bottomine is, I knew exactly what I wanted, put myself in the best position to turn it into a reality and went at it with everything I’ve got.
I started building a network connected to Japan in my own country by getting affiliated with the Japanese Community here, particularly in my hometown Iloilo. I made friends and constantly got in touch with them, building those relationships.
I was looking for networking opportunities online — scoured the various social media pages and sites for internship postings and spammed my resume like crazy.
Out of the twenty something companies I messaged ( it should’ve been more), the very last one said yes!
On top of that, of the many possible random locations in the country it could have been situated at, it was located within commuting distance from my parents’ apartment which is just outright insane!
I wanted it so bad that I basically willed it into existence.
I spent two months in Tokyo, ate Ramen , bought stuff at combinis and took the train everyday for two months. I was the only one in my batch who had the internship abroad and it felt great. It has since opened me to a whole multitude of international opportunities.
As I write this article, I have just graduated and am now one step into getting that coveted Japanese Working Visa. I expect to leave next year with my wife and start living my dream of being based in Japan.
This article was republished from my Linkedin. See the original here.
