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Bad Management, Low Salary

Senior Software Engineer
Former Employee
Worked at Rakuten for 2 years
September 26, 2018
Tokyo, Japan
2.0
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookNo CEO Opinion
Pros

Good work/life balance. Convenient facilities. You can meet many interesting employees.

Cons

I was laid off after working there for two years as a Senior iOS engineer.

Shortly after me, they laid off the other two experienced iOS devs on our team. The reason given by management was: "We now have enough iOS developers."

It's ironic to mention that shortly before, they hired many new grads, and we got two new grads as iOS devs on our team. So, in other words, they throw experienced devs out and take inexperienced, low-paid new grads instead. The hypocrisy is strong at Rakuten.

Rakuten also pushes the ridiculous "Diversity at all costs" scheme, like many other IT companies. What this means is that they choose employees based on ethnicity rather than skill or experience. And what many of these 'diverse' employees don't understand is that they are exploited as underpaid staff.

As an example, one very experienced Chinese Co-iOS dev of mine earned far below what he should have earned by current standards. My own salary was below average for my experience.

Some managers are biased against some of their managed employees.

A large open office is very noisy and makes it difficult to concentrate on challenging tasks.

Advice to Management

Have more of a backbone and be less of a tool of upper management.

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