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Recruit Is Japan’s Top Contender for Global Internet Domination

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Re: Recruit Is Japan’s Top Contender for Global Internet Domination

#81

Post by cdavid »

rurounijones wrote: post #54
VRay wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, it's true, man. I recently moved to Japan to live with family for a while. I interviewed at the top Japanese software companies in Japan, and even though I'm a senior engineer with 10 years' experience in FAANG in the USA, they felt like they were doing me a favor offering me 15 million JPY/year (150k USD at 100 yen per dollar, ~$130k USD at the time with the beefy US dollar). Tokyo is actually a little cheaper…

15 million JPY/year is a huge salary in Japan, even in Tokyo. I think your salary expectations have been skewed by your employment history.

It is not unreasonable at all. If you have 15+ years experience in domains in demand, 15-20 millions total is totally achievable, even staying in the Japanese companies. What is true is that many companies screw software engineers over, but if you are in Tokyo , reasonably good at your job w/ skills in demand, you can and should avoid those terribe companies.

Re: Recruit Is Japan’s Top Contender for Global Internet Domination

#82

Post by cdavid »

Ultramanoid wrote: post #57
VRay wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, it's true, man. I recently moved to Japan to live with family for a while. I interviewed at the top Japanese software companies in Japan, and even though I'm a senior engineer with 10 years' experience in FAANG in the USA, they felt like they were doing me a favor offering me 15 million JPY/year (150k USD at 100 yen per dollar, ~$130k USD at the time with the beefy US dollar). Tokyo is actually a little cheaper…

I am on my own ( which is not easy in Japan ) but many of my closest friends are manager-level engineers in big companies ( NTT, etc ) and rarely earn more than 5-7 million yen a year. This is with teams of dozens of people under them for which they are responsible. Reading your post is quite shocking for me.

I don't know about NTT, but 5-6 millions JPY for manager-level roles in general is terrible, even outside Tokyo. W/ decent engineering skills, you should be able to get at least the double after enough experience in Tokyo.

If you want to check your market value, you may want to talk to a recruiter (a quite scammy business in Japan, but a good way to check your market value).

Re: Recruit Is Japan’s Top Contender for Global Internet Domination

#83

Post by ascar »

Ultramanoid wrote: post #77
ekianjo wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living standards in Japan? You mean the minuscule apartments? The notoriously bad heating system (lack of isolation)? Overpriced food in general in supermarkets (with products made using 10x the levels of pesticides/fertilizers compared to other countries)? The fact that Japan rejected nuclear and now used coal and petrol to power its electrical grid (hence aerial pollution)? Don't get me wrong, there are positive as…

With the exception of the ( usual, but not everywhere ) bad isolation, I can't quite agree at all. Maybe we don't go to the same supermarkets. I'm baffled by how expensive food is in Europe when I can buy the same products for less in Tokyo despite being imported ( Italian olive oil for instance ) and even niche ( the organic kind ) so there you go. Agreed they compensated the closing of nuclear plants with coal and…

> Not to mention the fact that in many Western capitals you literally walk on garbage.

The discipline Japanese have in regards to garbage is astonishing. Especially if you consider how much plastic wrap they use. I was so surprised seeing basically no garbage on the streets, but also basically no public trash bins!

> I'm baffled by how expensive food is in Europe when I can buy the same products for less in Tokyo despite being imported ( Italian olive oil for instance )

I would be genuinely curious what part of Europe you are talking about here and what's the prices for what kind of quality of olive oil are in Toyko. I can imagine that for the UK or Ireland the prices are similar. Italian olive oil is imported and shipped to an island to the UK/Ireland as much as it is to Japan and the distance actually has a non-significant impact on shipping costs in that case.

Olive oil also ranges vastly in quality levels. I can buy the mid level for about 150en per 700ml, while I have to pay 600en per 500ml for "native oilive oil extra". The difference in taste is worth the four times price increase though.

In general I found Japanese supermarkets be way more expensive and eating out way less expensive than compared to Germany (can't speak for other European countries) as I have also pointed out here [1]. E.g. rice can be vastly more expensive, with rice in Germany being available in 1kg sizes for 120en/kg (even cheaper in larger sizes), while in Japan rice in 5kg or 10kg bags for 200en/kg is a bargain. Average rice prices are even cited at 466en/kg here [2] and foreign rice at 295en/kg cited as 20% cheaper and a good deal here [3].

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19238414

[2] https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?cou...

[3] https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-trends/Japan-s-pri...

Re: Recruit Is Japan’s Top Contender for Global Internet Domination

#84

Post by Ultramanoid »

ascar wrote: post #79
Ultramanoid wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The comparison you come up with makes sense if you consider Tokyo a city, which it is not, it is a bunch of cities, some quite large on their own, from the 23 central "wards" to another couple dozen outer ones, etc. And in a very specific circumstance in your example, needing to be close to Tokyo Station. It is not comparable to a European capital like Munich. If you live and work in Edogawa City, or Katsushika, or N…

> If you live and work in Edogawa City, or Katsushika, or Nerima I only used the data I found in the referenced article. I used the "budget" option that is "located outiside central Tokyo and about a 30- to 45-min train ride to a major Tokyo station." Edogawa city is even closer than that estimation (about 25minutes to Toyko station and less than 20 minutes to a major station). So if the numbers in the article are co…

> You might be correct though that you have less reason in Tokyo to go to the city center compared to a German city, e.g. for work, entertainment and night-live.

This is the misunderstanding most foreigners fall into.

There is no Tokyo City, there hasn't been for decades. You're travelling between cities, in Tokyo Metropolis, which is vast, think of it as a prefecture if that helps, since administratively speaking is closer to that. You can change cities by going from one train station in Taito to one in Chiyoda in a few minutes. Or spend 2-3 hours from Edogawa to Akiruno.

People do commute of course, millions of them from Saitama, Kanagawa or Chiba Prefecture into Tokyo. But it is equally normal for many other millions, and certainly desirable, to live and work in your city, which is one of many in Tokyo. So I take issue with "Tokyo is expensive"...

There are a myriad different offerings in living space in cities in Tokyo.

Setagaya, only one of the 23 central "wards" ( = cities, each with a City Hall and a Mayor ) has a million people. You can live, work, shop, go out and anything else you can think of without even leaving Setagaya.

To your point of foreign food in Japan, I find it to be of better quality than foreign food in Europe, where for instance 90% of Japanese restaurants are run by Chinese, and not that great, and Chinese restaurants have little or nothing to do with actual and good Chinese food. When in Japan you go to a pizzeria or trattoria where the owner / cook is Italian, or a Spanish tapas bar with a Basque owner, and they bring ingredients from Europe, that obviously is something you pay for.

Edit : I forgot to agree before on the very poor English skills of most Japanese.

Re: Recruit Is Japan’s Top Contender for Global Internet Domination

#85

Post by rtpg »

ascar wrote: post #5

I recently signed up to recruit to make a dinner reservation in Japan. They used a lot of dark patterns for their email marketing. Bombarding me with multiple different newsletters I didn't sign up for and I had to cancel every single one of them separately. And nearly a week delay after sign-off. One of the worst non-spam marketing I had to deal with in the last years.

Yeah I just outright block the email addresses (the marketing email addresses are different from the informational ones). Recruit is particularly bad because there are soooo many services linked to the system

Re: Recruit Is Japan’s Top Contender for Global Internet Domination

#86

Post by ascar »

Ultramanoid wrote: post #84
ascar wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you live and work in Edogawa City, or Katsushika, or Nerima I only used the data I found in the referenced article. I used the "budget" option that is "located outiside central Tokyo and about a 30- to 45-min train ride to a major Tokyo station." Edogawa city is even closer than that estimation (about 25minutes to Toyko station and less than 20 minutes to a major station). So if the numbers in the article are co…

> You might be correct though that you have less reason in Tokyo to go to the city center compared to a German city, e.g. for work, entertainment and night-live. This is the misunderstanding most foreigners fall into. There is no Tokyo City, there hasn't been for decades. You're travelling between cities, in Tokyo Metropolis, which is vast, think of it as a prefecture if that helps, since administratively speaking is…

I hope I'm not annoying you with my replies. I'm enjoying the friendly discussion.

> To your point of foreign food in Japan, I find it to be of better quality than foreign food in Europe.

That's mostly an illusion based on your expectation bias. Foreign food in Europe as well as in Japan is made to mostly cater for the local population. Pizza in Japan is twice the price and half the taste of most Pizza in Germany (in my small sample size of 2 pizzerias here, because I didn't like paying that much for something I don't like. Pizza is my favorite food though and I'm also very good in making it myself). But you probably like it more, because it uses less spices and Japanese food in general uses less spices. That's not an issue of quality, but of different expectation of taste.

I have been in Japan for 5 months and traveled for a month through 6 cities and to Okinawa, eating Ramen in every city at least once, but the best Ramen I had was still in Munich (by a Japanese chef). Not because the quality is better there, but because they added more species and more meat and that fits my taste. The sushi you get in German running sushi is mostly inside-out maki, with less nori and a higher amount of fish inside. I actually prefer it, but I would never say it's better quality than original Japanese sushi (I'm actually pretty sure the quality of the fish used is worse). Although I never liked miso soup before coming to Japan and I really like it here.

> Chinese restaurants have little or nothing to do with actual and good Chinese food.

Yes that's true and the same reason. Case in point, I personally strongly prefer German Chinese food over real Chinese food. Interestingly though "Chinese" food between Ireland and Germany have basically nothing in common but the name.

Re: Recruit Is Japan’s Top Contender for Global Internet Domination

#87

Post by Ultramanoid »

ascar wrote: post #83
Ultramanoid wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the exception of the ( usual, but not everywhere ) bad isolation, I can't quite agree at all. Maybe we don't go to the same supermarkets. I'm baffled by how expensive food is in Europe when I can buy the same products for less in Tokyo despite being imported ( Italian olive oil for instance ) and even niche ( the organic kind ) so there you go. Agreed they compensated the closing of nuclear plants with coal and…

> Not to mention the fact that in many Western capitals you literally walk on garbage. The discipline Japanese have in regards to garbage is astonishing. Especially if you consider how much plastic wrap they use. I was so surprised seeing basically no garbage on the streets, but also basically no public trash bins! > I'm baffled by how expensive food is in Europe when I can buy the same products for less in Tokyo des…

Well, I really wish I knew more about Germany. Last time I was there was 2005-6 I think ?

My most recent trips have been to France and Italy for work and have spent many months in both. I can't get into specifics as well as you do with brands or prices, but I certainly found everything expensive, I do get that consumer taxes are over 20% ( as opposed to the 5% we were used to in Japan until the recent hike to 8% and the next that's coming to 10% ) but even taking that into account. Incredibly dirty, people in general very rude, and a general air of conflict and hostility everywhere that makes me wonder how Paris or Rome can be such popular tourist destinations.

Edit : Not to mention the ubiquitous soldiers everywhere with weapons deployed in the streets. Something else you don't see in Japan.

Re: Recruit Is Japan’s Top Contender for Global Internet Domination

#88

Post by ascar »

Ultramanoid wrote: post #57
VRay wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, it's true, man. I recently moved to Japan to live with family for a while. I interviewed at the top Japanese software companies in Japan, and even though I'm a senior engineer with 10 years' experience in FAANG in the USA, they felt like they were doing me a favor offering me 15 million JPY/year (150k USD at 100 yen per dollar, ~$130k USD at the time with the beefy US dollar). Tokyo is actually a little cheaper…

I am on my own ( which is not easy in Japan ) but many of my closest friends are manager-level engineers in big companies ( NTT, etc ) and rarely earn more than 5-7 million yen a year. This is with teams of dozens of people under them for which they are responsible. Reading your post is quite shocking for me.

Are you sure your friends disclose their actual salary? Or might they be underselling themselves to meet expectations and not disturb 和 (Wa)? Would be a very Japanese thing to do, wouldn't it?

Re: Recruit Is Japan’s Top Contender for Global Internet Domination

#89

Post by Ultramanoid »

ascar wrote: post #86
Ultramanoid wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You might be correct though that you have less reason in Tokyo to go to the city center compared to a German city, e.g. for work, entertainment and night-live. This is the misunderstanding most foreigners fall into. There is no Tokyo City, there hasn't been for decades. You're travelling between cities, in Tokyo Metropolis, which is vast, think of it as a prefecture if that helps, since administratively speaking is…

I hope I'm not annoying you with my replies. I'm enjoying the friendly discussion. > To your point of foreign food in Japan, I find it to be of better quality than foreign food in Europe. That's mostly an illusion based on your expectation bias. Foreign food in Europe as well as in Japan is made to mostly cater for the local population. Pizza in Japan is twice the price and half the taste of most Pizza in Germany (in…

Well, this has gone off-topic quickly, but I certainly appreciate the notes comparing living standards and cultural differences. Whatever that may have to do with Recruit taking over the world, which I don't think is likely to happen at at all.

Certainly food talk is tricky, as it can be extremely subjective.

If you haven't yet, I recommend trying the local okonomiyaki in Hiroshima, cooked in front of you.

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial should also be a mandatory trip for every school or university in the world.

Re: Recruit Is Japan’s Top Contender for Global Internet Domination

#90

Post by jessaustin »

saagarjha wrote: post #17
segmondy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, folks thought Echelon was a joke in the 90's until Snowden showed that Echelon is child's play. The Big Hack might be true or not, but it's not far fetched. There might be more at play here. Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqQhWitJ1As&feature=youtu.be

The issue is that Bloomberg couldn’t provide any real evidence for their claims when pressed.

That's standard practice for media these days. One recalls the dozens of breathlessly reported then forgotten inside of a week "inside leaks" about "Russian collusion".
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