Re: [tlug] Looking for Summer Internship in Japan

[Attila Kinali <attila@example.com>]

On Mon, 9 Mar 2015 16:12:03 -0700
Ryutaro Morgan <rj@example.com> wrote:

> My name is Ryutaro Morgan and I am a college student from Portland, Oregon,
> USA. I am currently looking for an internship in Japan this summer and I
> was wondering if any members in the group are looking for summer interns at
> the moment?

As a few have written here, i would also suggest you go to a
multinational company, best to a non-japanese one and apply there.
Most of these companies are willing to get you an internship in
a different country, if they have a suitable subsidary there.

When i did my internship in Japan 10 years ago, i wrote many applications
to a lot of companies (IIRC something in the range of 70). Of those
only 5 had the decency to reply and say that they are not interested.
The internship i got in the end was organized by a guy i met by chance
over lunch in Switzerland and i ended up doing it at an engineering
group at IBM in Kanagawa-ken/Yamato-shi.

What i learned then is, that for having any kind of success in Japan,
you need to know the right person. If you end up in the wrong group,
you will have a hard time getting anything (like it took me 6 months
to get the necessary paperwork to be able to apply for a visa, while
it should have been something that could be done in 3-4 weeks).
If you know what there is someone who is willing to help you on the other
side, but you depend on the work of someone else who cannot be bothered,
it helps to be a little rude to the former one, so he can clearly see
that there is a problem that you got stuck with, and maybe can kick
the other persons ass.

Also: for anything around Tokyo, the TLUG is a very good source
for help. There are many people monitoring the TLUG mailinglist
who never write here, and they can pass your call for help around
to people who might be able to help you (as has happend to me).
But for this to work, you need to be kind of specific what you need.

HTH

			Attila Kinali

PS: i still don't know where my call for help exactly passed trough,
10 years ago, but i'm very gratefull to all the people involved back then.

-- 
It is upon moral qualities that a society is ultimately founded. All 
the prosperity and technological sophistication in the world is of no 
use without that foundation.
                 -- Miss Matheson, The Diamond Age, Neil Stephenson