Eight years into my engineering career

Eight years ago, I felt so stupid about my career plan that I didn't tell many people about it.

I quit a job I loved at Twitter to study programming by myself, all in a country where I didn't speak the language. I had no idea if I could really do this, but after studying for a year, I managed to get my first job as an engineer.

I didn't find any career-switching story like mine, so I wrote a blog post about my journey, which went viral. So many women contacted me asking for advice that I started a community to help more Japanese women and non-binary people start their careers in tech and get a job overseas.

Since then, many people have followed my path and become engineers, with some getting jobs outside of Japan. Women still come to tell me that they decided to be engineers after reading my blog post.

While I felt proud that I contributed to improving diversity in this industry, I couldn't stop thinking: am I still a good role model for them? Will I be able to show them the path forward?

Getting the first job is the hardest for sure, but continuing to grow your career in tech as an Asian woman is a challenge in itself. Most of us speak English with an accent and may not sound as smart as native speakers. There are always people who believe we’re diversity hires, and we still have to deal with harassment from men with "yellow fever". On top of that, it's hard to unlearn all the cultural conditioning Japanese society puts on us. Women should not take leadership, should avoid conflicts, and overall be the “flower” of the office.

When I started my career as an engineer, people told me that I was not a real engineer because I didn’t have a CS degree, or did only frontend, or didn’t code in my spare time.

At some point, I gave up looking for a role model, and decided to be a role model for others.

Whenever I lose confidence, I ask myself - if someone in my community was in the same situation, what would I say? I hate doing salary negotiation, but I negotiate every time I get an offer, because that’s what I tell people to do in my community (women don’t negotiate, especially Asian women). I often wish that tech was a more supportive and welcoming place, so I try to set an example and create such an environment within my teams.

Eight years into my engineering career, I’m still struggling. I don’t know how far I can go, but I will continue for other women.