Hideyuki’s Exchange Year Broke—So He Transferred Into UW Computer Science Anyway

Hideyuki grew up in Japanese schools and began university in Japan with no study-abroad plan until he applied in year two and exchanged to the University of Washington in year three. Placed in business classes as a commerce major, he froze watching Americans debate aggressively. Needing credits, he concentrated on computer science—he had already self-taught programming and interned at a machine-learning company. Japan then refused almost every transfer credit. Repeat year locked in.

Shock flipped into strategy: could Japanese credits move to UW instead? Admissions said yes if he passed transfer requirements. A Japanese TA who had made the same jump filled in details. Most Japan credits transferred after self-translated syllabi and English transcripts—UW felt generous; UBC CS also admitted him but transferred almost nothing. Bellevue College covered academic writing and science gaps. He finished CS at UW.

A hot career fair put resumes into Facebook, Airbnb, Nvidia and more; some wanted only near-grads or master’s for visa support, but most took paper. Airbnb interviewed him the next day—his first coding interview ever, so panicked he asked to solve it together and advanced by narrating thought until the role filled and canceled round two. Facebook progressed until he pushed for a security team; the bar (“Master or PhD Recommended”) crushed him. Salesforce gave time to prep after an online assessment: coding rounds, then a behavioral with a hiring manager who locked an IAM/security internship.

Interning on Identity and Access Management, he and two peers spent a month on design docs, then two months prototyping auth systems with internal libraries, measuring engineer feedback. All three earned return offers. Full-time year one deepened production security work on the same org. H-1B lottery misses complicated U.S. continuity; at interview time he worked from Salesforce Vancouver on ICT with plans to return to Seattle, aiming at U.S. permanent residency. Near-term focus: impact plus onboarding September newcomers for two to three years. Outside work he earned a scuba pro card and volunteers on marine surveys with an NPO (Salesforce-sponsored), including an eight-night Mexico boat trip studying mantas. Timing, he warns America-bound students, rules everything—post-grad visas and frozen markets can close the window permanently.