Software Development Engineer-II • Former Employee
Pros: - Customer-focused company: if you don't understand why you are doing something, it's either you're doing something completely wrong (and it's better to raise it up immediately), or you just don't know something (and it's better to learn it ASAP).
- Almost no communication barriers: you can directly approach anybody, go and even edit almost any information source and codebase – and that would be very much welcomed.
- Processes in the company are a great help and not an obstacle to almost anything you'll want to do, be it some personal stuff or some initiative.
- Unlimited PTO was a great thing for me for personal things. I'm guilty of borderline abusing it:)
- Truly international company with a huge amount of people from the US, China (including new grads), Japan (including new grads), and literally countries all across the globe (Brazil, Israel, Spain, Singapore to name a few).
- Data-based everything, from evaluation presentations to product decisions to interviews.
Cons: The Tokyo office steadily becomes an execution office, with all the interesting/impactful work steadily being moved to the US.
I'd suggest avoiding Japanese managers. Even if they're great people in person, I'm not aware of a single case where they didn't bring Japanese-style management under guise: shifting responsibility, blaming your team, micromanaging, bossing around, etc. This doesn't apply to non-Japanese managers, who are the majority.
Advice: Impact matters above everything else. Management doesn't communicate this clearly, so expect to adjust for the first quarter or two. Optimize for maximum impact with minimal effort; push back everything else.