Pros: Innovative Environment: Rakuten is at the forefront of e-commerce and technology, constantly pushing the envelope with new ideas and projects. This makes it an exciting place to work, especially for those who thrive on innovation. Work-Life Balance: The company places a strong emphasis on work-life balance. Flexible working hours and the option to work from home are significant perks that help maintain a healthy balance between professional and personal life. Diverse Culture: Rakuten is a global company with a diverse workforce. This multicultural environment fosters creativity and offers a unique opportunity to learn from colleagues with different backgrounds and perspectives. Employee Benefits: The benefits package is comprehensive, including health insurance, retirement plans, and generous paid time off. Additionally, there are often discounts and perks related to Rakuten's various services. Career Development: There are ample opportunities for career growth and development. The company offers various training programs, workshops, and mentorship opportunities to help employees advance in their careers.

Cons: Communication Barriers: Given its global nature, communication can sometimes be a challenge. Time zone differences and language barriers can occasionally lead to misunderstandings or delays in project timelines. Fast-Paced Environment: While the fast-paced environment can be exciting, it can also be overwhelming at times. Employees need to be adaptable and ready to handle multiple tasks simultaneously. Bureaucracy: As with many large companies, there can be a fair amount of bureaucracy. Decision-making processes can sometimes be slow, and navigating the corporate structure can be challenging. Compensation: While the benefits are excellent, the base salary could be more competitive, especially when compared to other tech giants. This is an area where Rakuten could improve to attract and retain top talent. Resource Allocation: Occasionally, there can be issues with resource allocation, leading to some teams being overburdened while others have less to do. Better management of resources could help balance workloads more effectively.

Pros: They're good at sponsoring engineers so you can come to Japan to change to a real company.

Cons: - Inept and overpopulated middle management that grinds any progress to a halt through bad decisions or micromanaging things. Rakuten usually promotes internally for management positions, usually to male Japanese staff. Management are generally all sycophants of Mikitani's cult and have long tenure at Rakuten. - Insanely conservative and cult-like corporate policies that are pervasive in your everyday work. Monday mornings you'll have the privilege of coming to work an hour early to attend what is essentially a Rakuten political rally and get a 15-minute speech from Mikitani himself. It's clear he has little clue about anything tech-related and is only attempting to repeat whatever he read over the weekend or overheard at some event from actually influential people. - Low pay and worthless stock benefits. RKUNY is down nearly 50% YoY and nearly 75% down from its all-time high 3 years ago. I have little confidence in this changing anytime soon. 10 yearly paid days (legal minimum) for all new hires, regardless of rank, and, depending on your manager, you may not even be able to take them. - Terrible project management policies. Over-sharing of information and endless repeated meetings. For example, in my group, we had 3 kickoff meetings for each new project: first for management (4 middle managers for 15 developers), then to full-time staff, and finally to all staff in the group. By the time of the final presentation, the project would be about half complete, and you'd be preparing presentation material for its release. And naturally, you'd have to present the release material another three times, too. - Bad classical music playing in all the hallways and bathrooms constantly at fairly high volume. The same few songs on repeat all day. We joked that it's probably to stop people from idling in the hallways as much, but it's probably true. - There's always a queue for the men's toilets since each floor is overcrowded, and people are lazy and sleep or use their phones in the toilets. The above points lead to very low morale overall, and people come and go fairly quickly. It's pretty common to see people sleeping at their desks for hours every day, and months of delays are very common, especially for feature requests to internal departments. I couldn't take it anymore after a year and found a much better job, thankfully.

Pros: Good environment, free meals three times a day, clubs, and culture integrity.

Cons: Pay is lower than other companies. Environment depends on your team, and some teams are too lazy and toxic.