Prós
-Good for only new graduates, stay for 1 year, then move on -Rakuten is professionally recognised in Japan, so use it to advance in Japan -Bigger services have lots of users so there is some opportunity to impact them -Rather easy recruiting process to get into the company. -Get a visa for Japan -Free food
Contras
-A sinking ship and declining business -Mostly just copying (with a long delay) other companies, and not innovating itself -Utilising the worse of both worlds: the east and the west. Trying to be so global company with a western mindset but mostly still a Japanese company on a daily basis -The core principles and values of the Group are not followed on a daily basis -Most important KPI: money -Extremely slow in advancing and improving services with many layers of approvals -Very risk-averse -Unbelievably low salary vs competitors and thus cannot attract real talent. -The Group is mostly run by 1 man who is feared by everybody -Often times, the message/vision doesn’t get through to middle layers of managers or the latter is just so worried with protecting the status quo. -A hierarchical environment where people in upper levels practice subtle arrogance and disbelief towards whatever people say in lower levels -People are given responsibilities but not freedom to make decisions -Many unwritten local culture business rules and people get promoted mostly based on seniority of how long staying with the company -Managers have no idea how to take care of people and solve team issues. -Almost impossible to change departments as majority of positions need Japanese skill and mostly consist of Japanese people -Too many layers of people -Low budgets and small inexperienced teams, even for important projects -People constantly make sarcastic jokes about the company -Tons of people in many meetings to make simple decisions -The Group has a lot of services, and thus occasionally has issues with focus and priorities -About 11-14 annual paid holidays -Has been historically referred to as a "black company" You have been warned… Go work elsewhere. If you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig.