Sales-to-design career changer who won student-period UI offers in Vancouver
Mai left Japan IT sales within a year, trained via Make School and Vancouver design study, and secured multiple offers (including local) as a mobile UI designer while still a student.
モバイルUIデザイナー · Vancouver
Profile
Mai is a mobile UI designer in Vancouver. Attributes mark background as career changer (未経験) for design. Age band: 20s.
Current role
Mobile UI designer while attending a Vancouver specialty school; design industry experience described as roughly two years since arriving in Canada. Employer name not stated; negotiating among offers at interview time.
Japan experience
Career changer into design. After university (economics), worked in sales at an unnamed Japanese IT firm proposing advertising/SNS plans; left in under one year to focus on design and English self-study (HTML/CSS and related topics explored while goals were still forming). No Japan design employment stated.
Path to Canada / North America
Preferred the U.S. but chose Vancouver for working holiday access, safety, cost, and proximity to San Francisco. On working holiday, attended Y Combinator–affiliated Make School’s intensive ~2-month iOS developer bootcamp in San Francisco, then refocused on mobile UI design strengths. Returned to Vancouver; with little WH time left, extended stay via specialty school (BC student visa work rights noted). Built visibility via Meetups/community (~40%) and LinkedIn/Dribbble inbound (~60%).
Outcome
By the time specialty school started, held three job offers in total including from Japan; title highlights two local Canadian offers. Negotiating which to accept at interview time. Months-to-offer not stated.
Based on Frog’s Japanese-language interview. English summary for scanning (partners / employers). Original interview (Japanese)
Outcome in flux at interview (offer negotiation); no employer name.