Q&A answers! (Finally)

So I didn't get that many questions yet, but here are the ones I got:

From the G+ post about my Q&A:

Stefano Ceci

9 Apr 2013

Hello! I am also a programmer. What is the career of a programmer in japan?

 

From the Comment thread of the Original post:

Nate River said...

Is it more stressful to work in Japan than it was back here in Quebec ?

Is being a gaijin difficult ?

Have you found a club or a group of Otaku ?

April 14, 2013 at 12:22 PM

 What is the career of a programmer in japan?

To tell the truth, it's not so different than elsewhere. I guess it's different in every company, but where I work, mostly everyone I need to comunicate with, understand english enough that the language isnt a problem. The biggest problem in that sense is, when facing complex (or just plainly badly written) code, if there's any comment, they are in japanese, which doesn'T help so much. Where I work now, I have to bring my own computer, there is no computer for the employee in the office, everyone is expected to have his own laptop. Some terms you'Re used to use may change, I forgot the exemple that hapened to me, but They told me to use, a term for a POST field, which was a really poor choice of term, but apparently "it's what everyone use in Japan".
The programming languages used stay the same, I've done PHP and Java since I got here.
Working with strings can be really complicated if they were not given to you prior.  I often just put placeholders and placeholder names for string thtb I can't write and don't have any idea what they do, then just replace them all when I get them.
If you want more specific nformations of certain points that I have forgotten, please ask again in a comment.

Is it more stressful to work in Japan than it was back here in Quebec ?

It was at first, I was really nervous, because I didn't know about how they judge people in japan on their performances, so I really wanted to look awesome. It made me nervous, but I've learned a lot since then.  First I learned that this company if really different from most company, and it's people are really nice, and understanding. They also offer me a great freedom, I can pretty much work whenever I want, as long as I finish my projects on time of course. Second: apparently, firing someone in Japan is really hard, and a really bad thing to do. So most employee never get fired, even if they do a sucky job. (it also has the reverse effect that, if you're looking for work past a certain age, it's almost impossible to find anything).
So I stopped being nervous about it. It's a pretty nice working condition, and doing my best is more than enough.

Is being a gaijin difficult ?

Yes. Especially if your japanese isnt good enough to have real discussion with other people. It feels lonely. Some people clearly avoid sitting next to gaijin in train. But it's not really that bad. Japanese people are usually nice people, and there's also a lot of people ready to help you. I was lucky to get a couple good friends from work, and they also help me a lot, which makes it a lot easier.
Though If I didn't have google maps and google in general, it would be a lot worse.

Have you found a club or a group of Otaku ?

I haven't found a club of otaku, but a lot of people who work with me are Otaku. I got a couple of friends in them, and every week i get to know more of them. I went to Reitaisai with 2 of them last week-end. I often go out to karaoke with them too.

That's all for this edition of answers, if you have more questions, of if I didn't answer your question correctly. please write a new question in the comments!