Preface
My name is Camille Fujisaki and I just joined airCloset this fall. This article is the 20th in the 2023 airCloset Advent Calendar!
Because I was able to change careers as a 30-year-old mother of two in a foreign country, I am often asked for advice by people in similar situations on LinkedIn and other social networking sites. So, in this article, I will write about how I became an engineer!
How Did You Study?
At first, I set about studying on my own using books like Eloquent Javascript and Udemy online courses. However, after a few months I realized that keeping up momentum on my own was very difficult, so I signed up for a coding bootcamp. At the bootcamp, we studied the foundations of Object Oriented Programming, Javascript, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, HTML and CSS.
How Did You Manage Studying With Small Children?
Shortly after starting the bootcamp, I became pregnant with my second child, and really struggled to keep up momentum. Every day I was sick, vomiting, and completely exhausted. However, making a schedule and doing peer programming helped keep me on task (it is harder to procrastinate when other people are counting on you!) I gave birth shortly after graduating from the program and kept studying and working freelance in whatever “free” time I could scrounge up. Having deadlines gave me enough pressure to ensure I didn’t stop coding. I also learned React and continued studying on my own while job hunting and taking care of my infant son. Having some form of commitment device really helps to keep you on track!
How Did You Job Hunt In Japan? Do You Need Japanese?
While studying programming I simultaneously prepared and passed JLPT N2 which was IMMENSELY helpful while job hunting. While there are many foreign Engineers and a good number of people who can speak English or Vietnamese at airCloset, I mainly use Japanese at work. However, your Japanese does NOT need to be perfect in order to work at airCloset. You need to be willing to communicate in Japanese and work to continue improving your communication skills!
Did You Ever Struggle During Job Hunting?
I began to doubt myself a little bit while job hunting. “Who wants to hire a 30-year-old mother of two with barely any engineering experience and speaks Japanese like an elementary school student?” Luckily, airCloset did! They saw that I was more than just a mother. I was a developer, a person with motivation and potential that could be realized at their company. A person who could appreciate and understand their product. Likewise, I saw in airCloset a company which valued, challenged, and invested in its employees and cared about supporting working women. I joined without a doubt in my mind.
How Is Life After Becoming an Engineer?
After joining, life of course got much harder. The reality is, working as a mother of two in a new career in a foreign country is extremely demanding. The things I need to study (various languages (including Japanese)) are never ending and I am always in catch-up mode. However, I am doing something that I find meaningful, challenging myself, and fulfilling my goals. My kids get to see their mother working hard and enjoying what she does, and I hope that they too in the future will challenge themselves to do hard (fun!) things and to refuse to stagnate.
Afterword
Thank you for reading until the end!
The AirCloset Advent Calendar 2023 is still going on, so please check out the other articles by other engineers, designers, and PMs!
AirCloset is also hiring engineers, so if you are interested, please take a look at this page!