Mika’s slow burn to a BlackBerry iOS Co-op

Mika’s Canada offer looks sudden only if you skip the patience chapters. She studied international economics, joined IBM as an IT consultant when strategy consulting was the dream, and spent a first year thinking the assignment was wrong—until a mobile localization project, including Spain travel, hooked her. About two years in she moved inside IBM toward engineering, touching server-side and a little web front-end before concentrating on iOS. A short side stint as an app architect ran in parallel. Then LinkedIn recruited her to Yappli, where she spent about two years as a dedicated iOS developer on a no-code mobile platform, surrounded by seniors and conference culture that raised her ceiling.

Overseas desire cooled during COVID, then returned. She contacted Frog in March 2022, but chose to deepen iOS experience at Yappli first—an uncommon pause she kept alive for roughly two more years. Cautious about a single working-holiday year, she picked college for visa optionality and English-on-the-job practice, arriving in November 2023. TOEIC had reached 900, yet speaking lagged. She joined events weekly, took on NPO iOS volunteering found via LinkedIn (two at once for a stretch, plus Japan freelance), and used those rooms to talk tech in English until referrals finally appeared in a thin mobile niche.

Applications were a grind: on the order of 120 sends, sometimes one reply in twenty or thirty. Resumes improved through Frog mentor Kaz and a U.S.-based engineer friend. Around late spring documents started clearing. BlackBerry’s Co-op posting surfaced on LinkedIn; she applied through the company site for an iOS software developer student role capped around four months. One technical interview with engineers—including live coding—was enough. Relocation to Waterloo, with support, replaced her Vancouver preference because a real job mattered more than the city. Start details were still fuzzy at interview time; she hoped performance might extend the engagement, as Reddit anecdotes suggested.

Her counsel to newcomers is unglamorous: bring remote Japan income so money stress does not break you, expect the search to take far longer than Japan’s seller’s market, prefer being on the ground for referrals, and do not over-anchor on Vancouver when the goal is employment.

BlackBerry’s Co-op offer was her first yes after nearly a year of hunting, and she received it without the luxury of industry shopping—just gratitude and relocation logistics toward Waterloo. Reddit stories of extensions after strong internships sit in the back of her mind; nothing official was promised. Reflecting, she wishes she had cast a wider geographic net sooner, including U.S. options from the West Coast, instead of over-anchoring on Vancouver for permanent-residency vibes when employment was the real mission. Money stress, she warns, poisons judgment—so carrying Japan freelance through the Canadian year was not a side quest but infrastructure.