Hikari — Frontend Engineer at Money Forward (returned to Japan)
Career changer who built Canadian college, café, freelance, and internship experience over ~two years, then returned to Japan as a frontend engineer at Money Forward.
フロントエンドエンジニア（帰国後就職） · Money Forward
Profile
Hikari is a frontend engineer at Money Forward after returning to Japan (theme: return-japan). Career changer (未経験); city null in attributes. Interviewed with classmate Yuto.
Current role
Frontend engineer at Money Forward in Japan. Uses English for some teammates and runs English PR review practice. Values stable full-time growth vs. prior freelance pressure.
Japan experience
Career changer into engineering (未経験). About four years of Japan work before departure: one year admin as a new graduate, then IT product technical support (phone how-to for gadgets/hardware/apps—not coding) at a customer-support company. Left for Canada around age 26–27. No professional software engineering role in Japan before the trip.
Path to Canada / North America
Long-held overseas goal; chose Canada for tech opportunity after considering working holiday broadly. ~Two years in Canada: college study (first year as student), Starbucks for English/income, freelance + café juggling, Toronto startup internship (~July; React Native mobile, pair programming with CTO). Growth plateau and personal factors drove return; Canadian experience heavily cited in Japan job search.
Outcome
Hired at Money Forward after rebuilding portfolio post-return; Canadian projects helped offset shallow formal SE tenure. Open to returning to Canada if a strong full-time role appears later.
Based on Frog’s Japanese-language interview. English summary for scanning (partners / employers). Original interview (Japanese)
Return-to-Japan hire; college name not specified in provided excerpt.