Ayaka — Software Engineer at Workday, Vancouver
Career changer from Japanese logistics sales/ops into software engineering; landed Workday as her first engineering employer after one year at CICCC.
ソフトウェアエンジニア · Vancouver · Workday
Profile
Ayaka is a software engineer at Workday in Vancouver. She is in her 20s and entered tech as a career changer (未経験). Attributes list about 15 months to offer; she describes roughly three months of job search after academic term, alongside freelance contract work from Japan to build résumé experience.
Current role
Software engineer at Workday (B2B SaaS for finance and HR). Workday was her first engineering employer; at interview she had been there about two years and seven months. She worked on an internal platform supporting employee side-project “GIGS” and was moving toward AI-related product work. Company provides visa support; hybrid remote (about two days remote, flexible by team).
Japan experience
Career changer into engineering (未経験). New graduate hire at SG Holdings (logistics); mainly warehouse operations design at a logistics consulting unit for four years. In years 3–4 she joined digitalization initiatives, including requirements work with an external SI on a sales performance SaaS tool and light SQL/BI work—sparking interest in web development. No prior professional software engineering role in Japan.
Path to Canada / North America
Long-term goal to work abroad; chose Canada mainly for visa/border timing during COVID (arrived summer 2021; Australia/UK were alternatives). Studied web development for one year at CICCC (community college), then job-hunted. Limited pre-arrival coding prep; learned HTML/CSS seriously after starting school. Used LinkedIn and peer mentorship from classmates with Japan engineering backgrounds.
Outcome
Hired at Workday as first engineering role after college and ~3 months of search (with Japan freelance experience added). Continues at Workday with visa support and plans to deepen AI/product skills while managing life-stage tradeoffs.
Based on Frog’s Japanese-language interview. English summary for scanning (partners / employers). Original interview (Japanese)