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How I Landed an IT Engineering Job in Japan as a New Grad — International Student's Guide
A graduate's journey through Japan's new-grad IT hiring — summer internships, coding tests, student communities, and the path to a job offer.
The Route the Author Took
Japan’s official new-grad hiring schedule is set by the government: information sessions open in March of the junior year, selection starts in June, and offers come in October. That’s the official story. The author’s experience (class of 2023, master’s degree, backend engineer) was quite different.
MyNavi — Japan’s largest job hunting portal, central to Japan’s standard employment system — was registered at university orientation but never opened once. The university career center wasn’t used either. No ES (entry sheets) or SPI (standardized aptitude tests). Instead, the author relied on engineer-specific job platforms and student IT communities.
Here’s the route the author took:
Student IT community / engineer job platform → Summer internship → Fast-track selection → Early offer (fall of M1)
The Author’s Job Hunt Timeline
Here’s how things unfolded chronologically for the author — a 2023 grad, master’s student in computer science.
Year 1 of undergrad: Part-time work at an IT startup
Right after entering university, the author started working part-time at an IT startup. This wasn’t about job hunting — it was just an interest in programming. But in hindsight, that hands-on experience became a significant asset during job hunting.
Among the author’s peers, most had some kind of practical work experience by the time the main selection rounds started. You don’t need to start in your first year, but having some real-world coding experience through part-time work or internships before the main round helps. Without it, talking about technology at a practical level in interviews gets tough.
Summer of M1: Summer internship
The author met companies through Supporterz 1-on-1 events — events where you can have short meetings with multiple companies in a single day. That led to a summer internship invitation. It was a 3-day short-term internship. The author was focused on just 2 companies from the start.
Fall of M1: Fast-track selection → Offer
Summer internship participants were offered a fast-track selection route. Where the normal process required document screening plus 5 rounds of interviews, the author’s document screening was waived and interviews started from round 3. The HR contact from the internship continued providing support and advice throughout the process.
By early November, offers came from both companies, and the job hunt was over. Some of the author’s peers also wrapped up around the same time.
The deciding factor
The final choice came down to two things: the team felt like a good fit, and the company’s wide range of business areas meant there’d be opportunities to try different things through internal transfers. These were things the author could only judge because of the internship — actually talking to employees and experiencing the workplace atmosphere firsthand.
The Student IT Community Divide
The most important factor in this whole job hunt was student IT communities.
The author knew about Supporterz from the first year of undergrad. Supporterz is one of the major IT job hunting platforms in Japan. It runs 1-on-1 meeting events, hackathons, and tech study sessions (Geek Project) over 150 times a year.
Whether you’re part of communities like these or not changes everything.
Large B2B companies (companies that provide services to other businesses rather than consumers) aren’t well-known to the general public. Without being in a community, you might never learn these companies exist. Companies that are hard to find even on MyNavi or Rikunabi show up naturally at Supporterz 1-on-1 events.
Services International Students Should Know About
Supporterz — A major platform for IT engineer job hunting. 1-on-1 events let you meet companies directly. Often serves as the entry point to summer internships.
connpass — A platform for IT study groups and meetups. Hundreds of events run every month, and students can attend for free. Go to a meetup on a topic you’re interested in and talk to people at the networking session afterward. If things go well, you might get involved in organizing events — which itself becomes something you can bring up in interviews.
University and regional student IT communities — Engineering student communities exist at universities and in various regions. Job hunting information flows naturally from senior students, so finding and joining one early gives you an advantage.
What the Author’s Interviews Were Like
In the interviews the author went through, technical topics and extracurricular activities were roughly 50/50.
Technical side
Some companies the author interviewed with required “live coding” — writing code in front of the interviewer while explaining your design decisions out loud.
One interviewer asked: “If you could use any AWS services freely, what architecture would you design?” The author drew on personal development experience, explaining a cost-efficient architecture and the reasoning behind each technology choice. It felt like they were testing hands-on experience rather than textbook knowledge.
The author also took Track, an online coding test platform, at several companies. Think of it as the IT equivalent of the SPI aptitude test.
Extracurricular activities and motivation
Non-technical questions came up too. “What did you work on during your student years?” and “Why this company?” are asked at IT companies just as they are elsewhere. The author talked about student council work and serving on the university festival organizing committee. The impression was that teamwork and communication skills were being evaluated alongside technical ability.
Proving yourself through code
IT company hiring processes include opportunities to demonstrate your skills through code. Coding tests and live coding sessions let you prove your technical ability. Unlike traditional job hunting that relies heavily on ES essays and interview responses, engineer hiring gives you a chance to show what you can actually build.
When Things Don’t Go as Planned
If you don’t get a summer internship
There are fall and winter internships too, though there may be fewer opportunities compared to summer. You can also get an offer through the regular selection process (general entry).
If you don’t have practical experience
It’s not too late. Attend study groups to get into tech communities, build a portfolio through personal projects, join hackathons. All of these become material you can talk about in interviews. There are plenty of free hackathons and study sessions out there — look around.
If you’re not getting information
This is the most concerning pattern. If you rely only on the university career center or MyNavi, you might never discover how IT job hunting actually works. Meanwhile, don’t neglect practical setup like getting a phone number and bank account if you’ve recently arrived. Start by signing up for services like Supporterz that specialize in IT engineer recruiting, and look for study groups. Once you’re in a community, information starts flowing to you naturally.
Alternative Routes
Supporterz isn’t the only route for IT job hunting.
| Service | What it offers |
|---|---|
| Supporterz | 1-on-1 events and hackathons. Also functions as a student community |
| paiza Shinsotsu | Your coding test skill rank determines which companies you can apply to |
| Track Job | Match with companies through programming challenges |
| Gaishishukatsu.com | Find IT positions at foreign-affiliated and major Japanese companies |
Regarding salary and benefits, many IT companies use annual salary systems and tend to list compensation clearly in job postings. The information is out there if you look. Once you start working, your employer will handle health insurance and pension enrollment automatically.
Related Articles
- Japan’s Employment System for Foreigners — The big picture of Japanese hiring: new-grad batch recruitment, resumes, visa changes, and more
- How Payments Work in Japan — Money basics you’ll need once you start living in Japan
- Health Insurance & Pension in Japan — What you need to know about insurance and pension after getting hired
References:
- Cabinet Secretariat “Requests Regarding Job Hunting and Recruitment Activities” https://www.cas.go.jp/jp/seisaku/shushoku_katsudou/index.html (accessed: 2026-02-18)
- Supporterz, Inc. Official Site https://biz.supporterz.jp/ (accessed: 2026-02-18)
- connpass Official Site https://connpass.com/ (accessed: 2026-02-18)
- Givery, Inc. “Track Test” https://tracks.run/ (accessed: 2026-02-18)
* This article was translated from the original Japanese with the help of machine translation. Some expressions may not read naturally.
