JOB CHANGE GUIDE
Change jobs in Japan, without the stress.
Four steps.
For Data & AI, ERP, CRM and Cloud professionals: so you can compare more than one offer and choose with confidence. We stay with you from CV to resignation.
What support you get
Our service is free for candidates. Fees are paid by the hiring company.
Positions we do not list on the site, and roles where the company name is kept confidential.
On many roles we work directly with the hiring manager, so we can share the background and what they actually evaluate.
Based on data from offers that actually closed: where the market is and how much room there is to negotiate.
The questions real candidates were asked and how each company evaluates, shared per company.
Talk to us before you name a number. We handle salary and terms.
We confirm company by company before submitting. We never contact your current employer or related companies.
How long it takes
Roughly 3 to 6 months in total. It varies with each company's hiring speed and your current company's rules (notice periods of one to two months are common).
Write your CV
Screeners look for what the situation was, what you owned and what changed, not just what you did. Scale and results in numbers beat a list of tools.
Basic structure
- Open with a 5–8 line summary: field, years of experience, strengths
- Group skills by area (e.g. data platform / ML / BI)
- For each employer: role, team size, results, in that order
- Keep it to 2–3 A4 pages
Self-check before sending
- Do results include numbers (volume, money, time, headcount)?
- Is your role clear (lead vs. member)?
- Do you separate skills used in production from skills you only touched?
- Does your wording reflect the language of the job description?
Prepare for interviews
We share company-specific questions and evaluation points in our conversations. Below is what applies to almost every company. Tap a section to open it.
Research the company and interviewers
- Listed companies: read the earnings presentation and mid-term plan. Foreign firms and startups: the latest funding news and press releases
- Try the product (free plan or public demo) and be ready to say what you thought in one sentence
- Check interviewers' LinkedIn, blogs and conference talks for their interests and background
What each role type gets asked
- Data engineer: pipeline design, how you guarantee data quality, cost vs. performance trade-offs
- ML / LLM engineer: how you choose metrics, handling degradation in production, why RAG or fine-tuning
- Data scientist: framing the problem, connecting analysis to a business decision, the impact you had
- Solutions engineer / pre-sales: how you uncover customer problems, building a demo and proposal, handling technical objections
- FDE / consultant: structuring vague requirements, working inside the customer's organization, managing scope and deadlines
Questions almost everyone gets
- Why you are changing jobs and what you want next (frame it around what you want, not what you dislike)
- Why this company: answer with facts about its business, product and organization
- Your hardest project, and what you learned from something that did not work
- Current salary and expected salary
Questions to ask them
- What results are expected in the first 3 months and the first year?
- How is the team structured and how are decisions made (who decides what)?
- Why is this role open (growth, backfill, new business)?
- How is performance evaluated, and when are raises and promotions decided?
Interviews with foreign or overseas-HQ companies
- For English interviews, prepare a 3-minute version of your career you can say smoothly
- Technical rounds such as live coding, case studies or system design may appear. Confirm the format in advance
- In a new Japan entity, roles are broad. Prepare examples of how far you can act on your own
When they ask about salary
- You do not need to fix a number in the interview itself. Talk to us beforehand about how to state your expectation
- Be ready to explain your current pay split into base, bonus, allowances and equity
Offer documents and reference checks
After the final interview, terms are negotiated and paperwork begins. Being unprepared here can affect your start date and terms.
Documents commonly requested
- Latest CV and résumé
- Most recent withholding tax slip (gensen choshuhyo)
- Graduation certificate, if requested
- A copy of your residence card, for non-Japanese nationals
Reference checks
- Common at foreign firms and startups, around the offer stage
- Referees are usually a direct manager or colleague. They must consent in advance
- If you do not want your current employer to know, ask the company whether a former manager is acceptable
Accepting the offer and resigning
Confirm the terms in writing before you accept. Resignation is where doing things in the wrong order causes trouble.
What to confirm at the offer meeting
- Breakdown of base salary, bonus, allowances and equity (RSU / options)
- Probation period and its terms
- Team, role and reporting line
- Location, remote work and flex-time rules
- Start date (leave room for your resignation process)
How to resign
- Sign the offer letter (employment terms notice) before telling your employer
- Tell your direct manager verbally first, then submit the resignation letter
- Check your work rules. Under the Civil Code you can leave two weeks after giving notice, but many companies' rules require one to two months
- Offer a handover plan yourself, and arrange paid leave early
Working together
What we ask of you, and what we promise.
What we ask
- Tell us before applying to the same company both through us and directly (it can stall the process)
- Reply to scheduling messages quickly, so you do not miss a slot
- Share other offers and process status where you are comfortable. We use it to coordinate timing and terms
What we promise
- We submit your CV only after your consent, company by company. Tell us on the spot if there is a company you do not want it sent to
- We do not contact your current employer or related companies
- Your personal data is used only for placement, staffing and training information
Tell us where you are right now.
You do not have to have decided to move. We will share where you stand in the market and what your options are.
Let's start with a conversation.
Whether you are exploring a move or planning to hire, you are welcome. You do not need a fixed direction. In a 30-minute online call, we share the market picture and your options.
Japan Lead, Data & AI · ERP & CRM · Cloud