44 replies to this topic

[RenaiHunter]

My dream job rn is to be in the entertainment business in Japan as a male idol, but Im pretty sure its not going to happen. I'm graduating computer school next year and will probably go to a boring software university.

If you have tips for a future software developer please halp.

[JennyInTokyo]

I think if I didn't make it into acting or singing in the entertainment industry, I'd love to do marketing!

[webzine]

My dreams constantly changed, first I wanted to be an astronomer, then an archeologist, but since I stopped art school, the second one wasn't possible anymore.

 

Now I'm a professional Birthday Princess with my own company

[Yasser96]

Since I was young, my family really gave me three paths to go down as a future career: Medicine, Engineering or Law. I loathe both engineering and law, so medicine it was. I set my goals on going to medical school, I did all the necessary work experience at hospitals, GP's, care homes etc. Come exam time, I didn't get the grades at A level to get into med school...

My back up choice was to study Biomedical Sciences at university, but it's not a worthwhile degree if you don't get into medicine after, so I chose to study Chemistry (I'm currently in my first year). After my chemistry degree, I'm still going to go down the medical route since my dream is to become an Anaesthetist.
That's me so far.

Does anyone know how to get a chemical internship in Japan?

[bloop7676]

My dream job rn is to be in the entertainment business in Japan as a male idol, but Im pretty sure its not going to happen. I'm graduating computer school next year and will probably go to a boring software university.

If you have tips for a future software developer please halp.

I might not be the best person to give advice since I haven't had much success cracking the industry, but from the trends I've seen I can say a few things that are probably a good idea for computing students.  Here comes some rambling 

 

First, if possible, you'll want to get into a university that has good name recognition in the major tech industry communities in your country.  In the US, probably the ideal ones are Stanford and MIT because they have a lot of prestige in the Silicon Valley community.  You'll have a lot of extra recruitment opportunities if you're in the right institution.

 

Also, a lot of schools won't teach you all the things that the average employer is looking for.  A lot of employers want you to have skill with specific technologies, not just understanding fundamental principles.  This is kind of dumb because you can learn specifics fairly quickly when you know the fundamentals, but in the end employers will probably pick the people who say they have both the fundamentals and the specific skills.  To help counter this, it's a good idea to sort of know where you want to specialize, and work to learn the popular technologies used in that area (for example, something like the Spring framework or Ruby on Rails in web development, or big data platforms in the database/analytics field).  It's kind of a pain, but that's how it seems to be right now.

 

The last thing I'd say is that if you can, it's really good to get an internship or industry project of some sort when you're in school.  If you do, it's probably worth it to try and get back into that company full-time for a while, even if it wasn't that interesting.  As the field is really competitive right now, a connection like that is probably the easiest way to get off the ground.

[Da-manta-ray]

^ as another software developer, I can definitely attest to the whole internships thing. My current full time job was the result of a previous internship. Plus, even if the company decides not to rehire you, you are still ahead of the game because you have industry experience.

Bloop7676 is also very right about school. If you are looking to get into Silicon Valley, it helps to go to a good school, or at least a school that gets recruiters from those companies. In the states, I've seen Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, and MIT get a lot of them. I have also seen interns from a variety of other places like UCSD. If you're in Canada, they recruit at Waterloo and maybe a couple other schools. I'm sure that there are other schools around the world. Of course, this varies by company; the bigger companies will go to more schools than the startups I think.

Of course it is possible to do it without going to a specific school, but it will likely be somewhat harder since you'll have to stand out against a much larger pool of people applying for jobs.

[Bexie]

I always wanted to be a teacher. I was at university but due to personal reasons I had to quit and haven't been able to go back.

Stuck working in the same retail job I originally took on part time just while I was at uni. Looking for something else. Anything else. I hate my job.

[sachii]

I changed my dream several times, even in my early teen years i wanted to be an artist when i was little, then i switched to animator with my love for anime, then basketball player when i joined and love basketball. Oh and i wanted to be an idol when i got into J-idols.

When i hit 9th grade i revert my dream back to an artist, which eventually upgraded(?) to a seiyuu artist as i joined the seiyuu fandom. I'm still holding on to that dream, but i do have another dream if my journey as a seiyuu artist doesnt work out - a psychologist.

[Ohasumi]

Ohasumi, are you on LinkedIn ?

Yes I am! Well pretty much it's kind of required to be on LinkedIn nowadays for people to find you. I'm pretty new to it actually so my profile's pretty sparse. Feel free to criticize!

 

If you have tips for a future software developer please halp.

 

Internships definitely. But if you've never had an internship before (like me!) make sure to do side-projects. I've talked to a lot of employers during job fairs and they love it when you take the initiative to do projects and put those on your resume. Being in technology is more of a self-teaching field. Most of the time we find ourselves learning things on our own to supplement our classes at school. It's a struggle sometimes... but we just have to find something that we're passionate about and I'm pretty sure we'll take off with that.

 

I personally reaaallly want to get that internship for JPL this summer. It's 2 hours away but heck it's part of NASA and right by CalTech. ;___;

 

I guess I should chime in here too haha.  When I was young I thought I wanted to be a research scientist, probably in genetics or something similar (maybe thanks to Jurassic Park lol).  So I did a degree in microbiology/molecular biology, but it turned out I didn't really enjoy it all that much at the end.  Afterward, like you, I thought there was a lot of potential in software engineering, so I took a 2 year technical diploma in programming and computer systems.  Unfortunately, the job market in my part of the world has been pretty tough for entry-level developers, and I've been stuck in relative underemployment for a few years doing odd jobs in a biology lab.  I'm currently thinking I might want to try to specialize a bit further to get more of an edge, perhaps in data science or analytics.  Who knows, maybe I'll end up pursuing the life sciences after all but from a computational point of view.

Shoutout to the engineering people! I mean I would geek out about Astrophysics and Technology if I could, but let's not go there on this thread. I am assuming you're both guys by your usernames. Would like to make a graph of these occupations if we have enough replies on this thread.

 

I also agree with you about women being pretty sparse in the computing classes.  I think there were around 3 in my graduating class; there were maybe around 10 in the original intake but only about half the original students stuck around for the whole program  

 

Data Science is really big at the moment. Big Data and Computing especially, at least that's what I see in my professors. And no worries, software is in EVERYTHING. You can definitely go for a field that's totally unrelated to computers because everything uses software now. That was one of the reasons I went for software because your area of specialization could vary --- and you have a lot of options.

 

More women in Computer Science please! I'm in a club for women engineers and every week we gather, have tea and pastries and just go all nerdy. lol It's great cause I also love to bake, so I bring in tarts and cookies and macarons and stuff.

 

~*~

 

It's an interesting trend here that we're seeing more people who love singing and acting. I think it's a given though, I think at one point of our lives we came to love music, art, tv shows for us to branch out into something like JPop. I think it's great actually! I personally used to do fandubs on youtube way back when (2008 - 2010) and it was a lot of fun to collaborate with people and learn how to mix songs. Made lot of friends actually!

 

JennyinTokyo, heeeey are you an actress at the moment? Give us a linkedin or a social page so we can follow you! I'd love to see some of your performances! I think it would be awesome to meet or see fellow fans living their dreams on the stage. Plus, if you're in theatre in such, I personally love musicals. lol

 

Bexie, definitely pursue what you want. I used to also work at a restaurant and although I didn't hate it, the job got so mundane that it wasn't that fun anymore. I still liked talking to my coworkers and the customers but it was just really dead. Plus I needed more time for school so I stopped. If you're pursuing to be a teacher, what would you teach? Being a teacher's also sort of like software. You have so many choices honestly, so you can definitely teach people the things that you love doing.

 

webzine, that's great to own your own company! I think that takes a lot of courage tbh. I personally would be double or triple-thinking about it. But what do you mean by a birthday princess? Do you coordinate birthday parties or celebrations and such?

 

Yasser96, hmm it might be important to know what kind of internship you want, and what company you want to work for. Might be difficult to do internships abroad, but look into your school's study abroad programs. Some of them might offer internships abroad, though maybe not necessarily japan. My school's study abroad program offers japan for english and economics majors for some reason.

 

sacchii, go on the forums for Voice Acting Alliance! You might like it there, and you can practice your voice acting by participating in projects! 

[Torigoya]

I wanted to be a police officer.

 

I am a trained nursery nurse.

 

I work as a cashier.

 

Life is strange.

[JennyInTokyo]

 

Ohasumi, are you on LinkedIn ?

Yes I am! Well pretty much it's kind of required to be on LinkedIn nowadays for people to find you. I'm pretty new to it actually so my profile's pretty sparse. Feel free to criticize!

 

If you have tips for a future software developer please halp.

 

Internships definitely. But if you've never had an internship before (like me!) make sure to do side-projects. I've talked to a lot of employers during job fairs and they love it when you take the initiative to do projects and put those on your resume. Being in technology is more of a self-teaching field. Most of the time we find ourselves learning things on our own to supplement our classes at school. It's a struggle sometimes... but we just have to find something that we're passionate about and I'm pretty sure we'll take off with that.

 

I personally reaaallly want to get that internship for JPL this summer. It's 2 hours away but heck it's part of NASA and right by CalTech. ;___;

 

I guess I should chime in here too haha.  When I was young I thought I wanted to be a research scientist, probably in genetics or something similar (maybe thanks to Jurassic Park lol).  So I did a degree in microbiology/molecular biology, but it turned out I didn't really enjoy it all that much at the end.  Afterward, like you, I thought there was a lot of potential in software engineering, so I took a 2 year technical diploma in programming and computer systems.  Unfortunately, the job market in my part of the world has been pretty tough for entry-level developers, and I've been stuck in relative underemployment for a few years doing odd jobs in a biology lab.  I'm currently thinking I might want to try to specialize a bit further to get more of an edge, perhaps in data science or analytics.  Who knows, maybe I'll end up pursuing the life sciences after all but from a computational point of view.

Shoutout to the engineering people! I mean I would geek out about Astrophysics and Technology if I could, but let's not go there on this thread. I am assuming you're both guys by your usernames. Would like to make a graph of these occupations if we have enough replies on this thread.

 

I also agree with you about women being pretty sparse in the computing classes.  I think there were around 3 in my graduating class; there were maybe around 10 in the original intake but only about half the original students stuck around for the whole program  

 

Data Science is really big at the moment. Big Data and Computing especially, at least that's what I see in my professors. And no worries, software is in EVERYTHING. You can definitely go for a field that's totally unrelated to computers because everything uses software now. That was one of the reasons I went for software because your area of specialization could vary --- and you have a lot of options.

 

More women in Computer Science please! I'm in a club for women engineers and every week we gather, have tea and pastries and just go all nerdy. lol It's great cause I also love to bake, so I bring in tarts and cookies and macarons and stuff.

 

~*~

 

It's an interesting trend here that we're seeing more people who love singing and acting. I think it's a given though, I think at one point of our lives we came to love music, art, tv shows for us to branch out into something like JPop. I think it's great actually! I personally used to do fandubs on youtube way back when (2008 - 2010) and it was a lot of fun to collaborate with people and learn how to mix songs. Made lot of friends actually!

 

JennyinTokyo, heeeey are you an actress at the moment? Give us a linkedin or a social page so we can follow you! I'd love to see some of your performances! I think it would be awesome to meet or see fellow fans living their dreams on the stage. Plus, if you're in theatre in such, I personally love musicals. lol

 

Bexie, definitely pursue what you want. I used to also work at a restaurant and although I didn't hate it, the job got so mundane that it wasn't that fun anymore. I still liked talking to my coworkers and the customers but it was just really dead. Plus I needed more time for school so I stopped. If you're pursuing to be a teacher, what would you teach? Being a teacher's also sort of like software. You have so many choices honestly, so you can definitely teach people the things that you love doing.

 

webzine, that's great to own your own company! I think that takes a lot of courage tbh. I personally would be double or triple-thinking about it. But what do you mean by a birthday princess? Do you coordinate birthday parties or celebrations and such?

 

Yasser96, hmm it might be important to know what kind of internship you want, and what company you want to work for. Might be difficult to do internships abroad, but look into your school's study abroad programs. Some of them might offer internships abroad, though maybe not necessarily japan. My school's study abroad program offers japan for english and economics majors for some reason.

 

sacchii, go on the forums for Voice Acting Alliance! You might like it there, and you can practice your voice acting by participating in projects! 

 

Awww thank you! I currently have an actors website. But I'm updating it at the moment >.<

[kuromachi]

Childhood dream jobs : Gundam Pilot bwahahaha

Middle School : guitarist

High school : Sound mixer, Producers on H!P

now : Sound Mixer, Producers on Volunteer lol

[ensorcelledAubade]

Artist, and i'm currently studying art at college, and when i'm 18 I think i'll just work on my own art (I've started my Etsy) instead of university

[Fluffis]

I am so sorry Bexie, I hope things will get better for you soon! 

My current job is a substitute teacher, teaching my mother tounge to immigrants. 

 

Childhood dream job: librarian.

Current dream: Sociology/welfare-ish? Or a manager

[LoveRice]

Wanted to be a Vet or Nurse but Im stupid so it can't happen lol.

 

I have a certificate in pharmacy but it was super stressful and it's currently hard to find jobs so there's that.

 

I really dunno what I'm doing but rn I'm aiming for an Accounting degree

[rinafest'19]

Dream job would be a social media strategist. When I finish my Business-AA I want to join the Digital Technology and Culture program a university nearby me has.

[JennyInTokyo]

I remember one of my dream jobs when I was a kid was to be a police officer in the UK. However, I knew I wouldn't make it now because I'd be too short. I don't think any criminals could take a 5 foot 5 me seriously chasing them!

[HappySensation]

^ I'm a shortie too (4" 11) and I feel you, not being taken seriously kinda sucks!

My dream job as a kid was to be an animator, fell out of art cause I didn't enjoy it in school, now starting to get back into it again and I'd like to career change soon.

I work in a museum as a natural history teacher, so its not that bad.

[(AZN)animedude]

for some reason ever since i was a kid, whenever i was asked what i wanted to be, my answer was Computer Engineer.  Honestly, i didn't even really know exactly what that meant.  main reason was basically the cousin i looked up to was a computer engineer, and so kid me wanted to be one too.

 

Ended up getting my Comp Eng degree, but i never did internships (nor was i ever really proactive in seeking out/applying).  It's k, i just read people's inventions all day so at least what i learned isn't completely rotting away =D

[Ohasumi]

I posted up 2 really simple charts subdividing the mentioned dreams/jobs just for fun! Information is from the beginning until (AZN)animedude.