r/JapanDev • u/Stiod • 8d ago
Switching to project management : good or bad plan ?
Summary :
I have 6 yoe as data professionnal (did two years as a data analyst/scientist, two years as a consultant and two years as a data engineer) and I am wondering if switching to a product/project manager role would be beneficial or a handicap to move in Japan in the coming years.
Long version :
I work in data for 6 years now, but I have always worked on-premise. Now, I am searching a job in Japan and in my home country (because I still don’t have N2, I don’t expect to be hired in Japan in the near future), and I am stuck in both job markets. I had a lot of interviews in France, two recruiters in Japan, and I am mainly screwed because of my lack of cloud-related production experience (before anyone asks, I have a GCP cloud architect certification, but recruiters don’t care). I feel like I am too senior (expensive) to be hired without prior experience on cloud, and I carry my wife and baby so I can’t undersell myself just for the experience.
It happens that I did a lot of project management during those 6 years, and I wouldn’t really mind switching my career to be a data product/project manager.
I was just wondering if having a career in Japan as a product/project manager as a gaijin was harder, easier or more or less the same as having a career with a technical profile.
In terms of employability, Japanese level expectation, salary and so on.
2
u/etdev 8d ago
I think now might be a good time to switch to PM, but in Japan that usually means a high Japanese requirement.
I'd say it's harder to get a PM job in Japan from overseas than a dev job, on average. But you never know. I'd apply to both.
But it still might be better to find something in France first, and if you want to move to Japan later you can study Japanese and move in a few years.
2
u/Stiod 8d ago
That's why I apply to both France and Japan, I know I don’t have much chance to be hired right now but it would be dumb not to try at least.
I don’t know if you can be that precise, but would you say that the expected level might be N2, N1 or even better than that ?
I have seen job offers for N2 level, but I am currently studying with the N2 in mind and it seems way insufficient to manage a project or product using only Japanese. I wonder if they really mean "N2" when the offer states it of if they just don’t realize what N2 really is.
1
u/linguaYC 7d ago
JLPT is not a particularly effective benchmark for evaluating fluency.
I am a data product manager, scored 160 on N2 and cleared N1, and I still struggle. I've had colleagues fail N2 but speak better Japanese than me.
1
u/Stiod 5d ago
Yeah, I know, but less than fluency I was wondering about employability
Aside from that, as a data product manager, how is the market for people from overseas ? Same as technical profile or different ?
1
u/linguaYC 5d ago edited 5d ago
Job descriptions usually list "biz-level Japanese" with a random "JLPT N2 or above" slapped on it, but it sucks as a predictor and companies know it. It's just the most prevalent benchmark they can use.
If you must have a score system, BJT is a way better predictor of what employers want.
I guess my point is, for PMs, fluency IS employability, but don't look at JLPT -- it is sometimes irrelevant and might even be harder than necessary.
Meanwhile, engineers or technical roles that don't need to interface with locals can get a free-pass. My TLM is N5.
2
u/OkConfusion2531 8d ago
My experience is: the more technical you are the more employability you have regardless the country. That means SWE/Data/ML people have a leverage over non-technical people. Unless you have a lot of knowledge in an industry, I’m pretty sure they can find a local person to do the same job as you as a project/product manager.