Three years ago, Daniel left his wife and 1-year-old daughter for two months, and moved from Kobe to Tokyo to join Le Wagon’s Full Time Web Development bootcamp. At 36, he was looking for a career change after 4 years working as an English teacher in Hyogo prefecture.
Today he is a Server Engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS), working onsite to maintain the physical infrastructure that powers the cloud. Here is how Daniel navigated the journey from his first web development role to getting into Amazon.
Daniel’s first role after graduation was with Refactory, a company he connected with during Le Wagon’s Career Week.
Working remotely from Kobe after a month of training in Miyazaki, he spent six months building Shopify sites, primarily on the frontend using Liquid templating.
That is also where he started setting a habit that would become key to his career development:
“When I was at Refactory, I noticed that some of the websites they were working on were built with PHP. I figured that they were going to give me some PHP work, right? So I started learning up on it. I feel that this is one thing you guys teach at Le Wagon: being out there, taking initiatives, learning, reading.”
When his six-month contract at Refactory was about to end, a friend suggested he apply to Rakuten. The role was supposed to be a coding position, but during the interview process, Rakuten offered him something different: a server engineering role.
“They’re like: “we also have positions for server engineer because right now we’re kind of full on the coding side”“ Daniel recalls. “So I said: Sure, why not? (laughs).”
It turned out to be a natural fit: “I’ve always been a hardware guy. I love physical hardware, building computers and stuff. So it felt pretty natural to me, going from coding to working with actual hardware.”
After starting at Rakuten, Daniel kept his habit going and began researching certifications, eventually pursuing CompTIA A+, Network+, and Security+ – All from his own initiative.
“Everything I did, I just researched it,” he says. The progression made logical sense to him: servers need networks, and networks need security.
“Those are the three certifications that I felt are very helpful in working in this industry. Understanding how servers work, understanding how they connect to each other and communicate – it is definitely helpful.”
The AWS opportunity came after a couple of years at Rakuten, and the whole process took only 3 weeks. “I first went through a recruiter interview, then an online assessment. And after that, I did the Loop interview”, Daniel explains. If you’re not familiar with it, the loop is a famous sequence of four one-hour interviews with different managers.
“It can be over a few days, but I asked for it to basically be back-to-back. So I did four one-hour interviews in one single day. They were all people I actually work with now.”
But despite applying for a position in Osaka, Daniel had a last minute surprise: “They told me: so you’re applying for the Tokyo position, right? And I am like, no, I’m applying for the Osaka position.”
That’s when he realized he would have to make a tough choice: accept the role in Tokyo and live away from his family for a couple of years, or decline the job of a lifetime at AWS, a dream company for many.
“I told my wife: “You know, it’s Amazon.” It’s such a big company, right? And they did tell me that I could potentially transfer back to Osaka at some point”.
Starting at AWS brought one more surprise: “So when you’re thinking of networking, you have to configure all these kinds of ports, all these settings. But at AWS everything is pretty much automated, “Just run the script and that’s it””.
Despite being three months into the role, Daniel estimates he’s learned only 5 to 10 percent of what he needs to know. His role involves working on-site at AWS data centers almost daily, hands-on with the infrastructure that powers cloud services globally. And if you are wondering: “Yes AI is part of my job, but I can’t really discuss specifics (laughs).”
Does he enjoy what he does? “I can 100% honestly say I love my job. I love doing what I do. So I’d like to, you know, stay in this industry, but definitely move up.”
Daniel has already passed his probation and earned his blue badge: he’s a permanent Amazon employee. And of course, he did not stop the habit that took him there: “Right now I am studying for the CCNA, and keep moving up on the networking side of things.”
He has also integrated AI tools like Claude into his study workflow, using them as a verify-and-check system rather than just a generator: “If I’m learning a concept and I’m not too sure, I’ll pass it to the AI and ask, ‘Is what I’m thinking correct?'”
Reflecting on the last three years, Daniel credits Le Wagon for providing two essential pillars of his career: the network and the mindset.
His entry into the tech world was a direct result of the bootcamp’s ecosystem. “I got my first job from you guys”, referencing the connection made during Career Week that led to his role at Refactory.
However, the more lasting impact was the autonomy he developed during those nine weeks:
“Definitely, the bootcamp helped me with initiative… learning things on my own. As a programmer, it’s one of the things that you really have to do.”
Do you have any questions about Le Wagon programs in Tokyo? Feel free to book a call with our admissions manager.
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