
Japanese companies seek international graduates - ylem
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/25/world/asia/japanese-companies-seek-international-graduates.html?_r=0
======
deciplex
I wonder what sort of work most of them are doing? The article doesn't really
go into specifics. For software development, at least, the job market seems
really shallow, and you pay the price literally, and in what sort of work you
can do as well. Compare the job market in e.g. Seattle with 1/10th the
population, yet somehow there is more to do. Tokyo is nice, but there is never
going to be a thriving tech community here if the pay is terrible and projects
pointless and boring. For my part, I will probably leave soon :-(

e: In many cases, the graduates won't actually know what they'll be doing
until after they're hired. So maybe that's why there isn't a breakdown by
field of work.

~~~
intruder
Did you find something here? It's really a pity with Japan, the country is
amazing but the work culture here is terrible.

What good is all the nice stuff when you're slaving away half your life?

~~~
deciplex
Yes, I've been a software developer here for a number of years. You _can_ find
something, but you will be a lot more limited in the kind of work you can do,
and the salary you can demand. Over the long term this can have pretty serious
career consequences. If you just want to come here for a few years as a semi-
temporary thing, you'll do fine. But, if you are thinking about putting down
roots here, well, good luck :-)

------
bfwi
The "etiquette" of these companies sounds absolutely soul-crushing.

~~~
kyllo
Speaking as someone who was recruited out of university into the management
training program of a Korean conglomerate, the life these kids are headed for
is indeed soul-crushing. Common activities will include trying to stay awake
during two-hour meetings with no agenda, surfing the internet while pretending
to work, but still having to stay for at least 10 hours, and mandatory evening
drinking/karaoke parties with the boss. And consuming a fuckton of instant
coffee and cigarettes.

~~~
w1ntermute
If Korean conglomerates are so terribly managed, why have they been so
successful?[0]

0:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_on_the_Han_River](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_on_the_Han_River)

~~~
judk
I know nothing about Korea, but one possibility is that a small phenomenal
success generates an industry or makework that is effectively just siphoning
off the value of the core success.

Imagine a startup that generates a $billion in profit from factory made
gadgets, but reinvests the profit in bad ideas poorly implemented by office
non-workers, effectively middle-class welfare jobs program.

~~~
kyllo
This.

Koreans have a strong sense of community, and are extremely group-oriented.
Sharing, fairness within the group, and conformity to social norms are highly
valued.

As a side effect, when a product becomes commercially successful, a large
bureaucracy is quickly established underneath it, which subsidizes a lot of
other unproductive activity and becomes dead wood over time.

------
triton3156
Even large Japanese companies already started to think the overly standardized
screening process didn't fit the current world of internationalization. So it
unlikely happen that just wading a blue shirt or carrying a nylon bag cause
your interview failure.

------
siliconc0w
Wow, companies are actually willing to invest in training graduates? Those
crazy japanese.

~~~
ronnier
Just speaking from my own observations here, I don't think this is unheard of
in the US. For example I work for Amazon and we hire a lot of college
graduates, usually after completing a paid internship. These new hires are not
expected to come in with any experience outside of their university work.

From what I can tell, all the other big players do the same.

~~~
potatolicious
I think they're talking about something at another level of scale and
formality. I worked for Amazon too, but the "training" was more "toss you into
the deep end and help as needed".

Don't get me wrong, I think trial by fire is largely a fine way of training,
but it is very different.

Google has an actual, formalized Noogler course that you take when you first
get there. This is closer to the model of training that exists at the large
Asian megacorps - but think formalized, time-off, dedicated training courses
rather than the ad hoc "tap your team lead on the shoulder when you need help"
model of the modern American tech industry.

