Tips for FE and the opportunity for a free 12-day trip to Japan!

That is a "completely free" 12-day trip to Tokyo to study IT in Japan, through a program called TOP GUN. 

Top Gun is a new program from Japan's Information-Technology Promotion Agency (IPA) to train and nourish leadership, in collaboration with Information Technology Professional Examination Council (ITPEC) and Japanese companies to promote the IT examination with Japanese standard. 

Although Top Gun is only a short-term program with only less than 2 weeks, it is a comprehensive program that incorporates the 2 goals: discovering the IT industry in Japan and the fascinating culture of the land of cherry blossoms. The program is in English, so Japanese is not required for candidates! 

These are some of my precious experiences in the 2019 program. 

Joining the Project Management course

Within 2 days, I got to join the Project Management course under the instruction of a pioneer professor with years of experience in Silicon Valley that has taught many businesses and universities. We spend the whole 2 days working on skills like teamwork, single-handedly dealing with a project, from brainstorming, work breakdown, adjusting progress with critical-path, problem solving v.v… What I take the most interest in is the instructor's calming and sagacious attitude in his way of facilitating a class. All ideas are received without judgements, everyone is equally encouraged to develop themselves. The sessions are exciting with learning by doing, such as teamworking or games, and also relaxing moments with oxymoron, or the engagement of fun facts about Japanese culture. 

Visiting the leading companies in the Japanese IT industry 

I also got to "expand my horizon", and I could not help but "wow" in admiration when meeting the leading companies in the Japanese IT industry like NTT, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Nadia studio, and the introduction of innovations like AI, ML, robotic…

One of my two most favorite sessions is the visit to the Fujitsu research lab, the engineers elaborated on their inventions and applications, which made me feel like I was lost in utopia. 

The second session is the first-hand experience of "acting" for the motion capturing technology in animation, at Nadia studio. It was out of this world!

What's more, I also met with "VIP" agencies like the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, or the Computer Software Agency Japan (CSAJ) in interpellation and proposal sessions on attracting human resources in IT industry from different countries. In some way, I felt like I was a politician, with a mission to promote the cooporation between Japan and Vietnam in technology. In fact, it was just an informal discussion from agencies, which really impressed me.  

Experiencing the culture of the land of cherry blossoms 

Apart from IT courses, there were also field trips to experience the fascinating Japanese culture. I got to immerse myself in the 400 years of history, from Edo era to the modern Tokyo in the Edo Tokyo history museum. What's more, I was lost in the future in another "musem" called Miraikan, showcasing the most innovative technologies. Looking in the eyes of the primary school students visiting, I can see the excitement of the future inventors. I hope that Vietnam will soon have such areas for children. 

Another thing is with one free weekend, I went on discovering all sorts of popular sites like: Akihabara, Odaiba, Sensoji temple, Sky tree, Tokyo tower, Kabukicho, Ueno park … (I even traveled all the way to the suburbs to find out about the life there, and I met interesting people).

Meeting international friends 

Apart from miraculous technologies, what impressed me the most was the diversity of participants. They come from 6 Asian countries (Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Philippines, Mongol, Bangladesh) with different ages, from students in their 20s to the senior in their 50s, working in different positions: programmer, lecturer, manager, student... It was such an excitement to listen to their different views and sharings. The current era is international and intercultural business. This experience is indeed of great value.  

 Journey to Top Gun?

The prerequisite to sign up for Top Gun is passing the FE or AP exam. 

In my point of view, the FE exam requires quite of a broad knowledge background, but not at all too tricky if you have a particular study plan a few months prior. 

The exam has two sessions: morning and afternoon. The morning session focuses on general knowledge in 3 fields, Technology, Management, and Strategy; the afternoon session goes more in detail on algorithm and coding. The Japanese programming test is in languages like: Assembly, C, Java, Cobol (replaced by Python from 2020), and Sheets. To the best of my knowledge, there are only 2 languages available in Vietnam: C and Java, so you should focus on these 2 languages. 

It seems like a lot, but here is a word of encouragement for you: Both exams are multiple choice, and sometimes the answers are already in the questions, so with careful consideration, you will easily find solutions.

With those who know Japanese, you can check out exams from last years, along with the answers, practice tests and trainings here: https://www.fe-siken.com/