Keys to Knowing Industries and Projects with a Shortage of Engineers
Industries and projects requiring development are significantly impacting the current situation in the IT industry. Furthermore, industries will see more and more new technologies and software code continuing to be developed in the future.
This means that the ability to take on projects where conditions are good depends on whether you can understand and predict the kinds of engineers, and the fields in which they work, which are in demand now and will be in demand in the future.
Let’s take a look at several ways of doing this.
First, this advice is for engineers involved in upstream processes such as system architecture. If you want to guess which jobs will be big in a year or more, you should pay attention to articles in economic newspapers, such as the Nikkei Shimbun, regarding which kinds of companies are taking orders for which kinds of government projects.
For example, if you see an article that reports that a Japanese company has received an order for a bullet train from the Indian government, it’s likely that this will lead to related system development about two years later after the study and design phases are complete.
It’s also probably a good idea to search for articles using keywords such as “大型受注” (large orders)
However, there may be some of you who think that you’re a downstream process kind of engineer, or that you’re a programmer and don’t really want to think about that kind of job, or that you can’t wait that long.
For such people, searching on temporary IT job placement portal websites can give insight into trends regarding which kinds of engineers are currently needed and the fields in which they are needed.
All of you are probably already doing that, but there’s more to my suggestion.
If you search on the keywords “システム開発 通訳” (system development, interpretation) you can find development sites that require simultaneous interpreters.
A simultaneous interpreter is a very high paying job that requires experience and ability.
It is important to note that such employers may be in a rush because a project may need to go forward immediately even though the interpreter commands such a high fee.
Here’s a good trick you can use where timing is critical.
The best time to use this trick is in September as the end of the calendar year approaches, or in February as the end of the fiscal year approaches.
For many companies in Japan, the fiscal year starts on April 1 and ends on March 31.
Nearly all public agencies have this fiscal year.
Many companies and organizations therefore set their budget for the following fiscal year in February.
You need to keep this unique timing regarding Japan in mind when searching for lucrative projects.
Up until last year, there was a lot of development of global systems for major banks, but lately there is a lot of development of general administration systems for corporations.
The reason for this is that there is progressing globalization of human resources at companies that are proceeding with global deployment, and there therefore is a need at the head offices of such companies for uniform management of personnel having various nationalities.
This need is likely to continue for a while because the number of foreign employees is also likely to increase at mid-size corporations in addition to major corporations.
Also, Android-related development in Japan is increasing just like in other countries.
With the number of Android users approaching 2 billion worldwide, the Japanese android market is also growing large as the number of users in Japan rapidly increases.
Development for Android Auto and Android Fit is likely to flourish in the future because these technologies are tied to product manufacturing-a specialty of Japanese industry.
Whether it’s Android or iOS, this is an excellent field for English speakers because they have access to the information about the latest developments more quickly because it takes time to translate such information into Japanese.
In today’s environment, we could say that engineers need marketing sense.
In this sense, there are limits to how far you can stretch your own experience.
It is obviously important to keep working at making information easy to obtain by strengthening the network of excellent engineers and engineers with strong marketing skills.
