Quote:
Originally Posted by noodle
You've said to many people on this forum, "Why would a Japanese company employ a foreigner when it's far less hassle to employ someone Japanese?". If you take this into consideration, other than his 5 years experience, what has he got to offer above other Japanese IF the experience wasn't something valuable to the company? It might not be the same "system" or "project", but when someone decides to change company after 5 years, it's generally for pay, and is generally working in a VERY similar field, especially in Engineering! Most engineers specialise right out of school. Once you specialise, it's pretty much the same thing all over the world, it doesn't matter if it's Japan or Argentina!
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But it does matter - that is why he would be starting with low pay.
Read what I said before. You start out at the bottom of the ladder regardless of past experience. The experience may be valuable, yes, but that doesn`t mean you get to skip the steps. That is what I am trying to tell everyone who thinks he should be getting higher pay from the start.
Think of it this way - He has experience enough for them to go through the hassle of hiring him even though he is not Japanese. This means that they are hoping he will be of use to them. But even with a lot of experience, he will not be of use to them the day he starts. Pay is set on rank, and unless he goes up inside the company, his pay will start the same as that of a new recruit.
HOWEVER, because he has the experience and will (likely) be able to be of use to the new company much more quickly than that of a new graduate... He will (likely) be promoted more quickly than a new graduate.
But companies don`t hire on "potential" pay - they hire on the base pay you receive starting out. This is the 20万.
Two people, one with experience and one without, starting at the same line will have quite a gap between them after a year or so when they reevaluate for promotions and pay changes. Regardless of experience, unless you were pulled in after being lent out to another company, you start out at the bottom. You pretty much NEVER start out in a ranked position (like what someone with 5 years of in-house experience would have). That is just the way Japanese companies work.
Plus... Japanese students don`t specialize. That IS a big difference, and why this sort of thing is the norm in Japanese companies. You specialize once you`ve been hired - in school you only do a broad study. The company trains you and you specialize once hired. This means that someone coming in from another company needs to be trained regardless of experience. This is also why once past a certain age - no matter how much experience you have, and how high a post you had in your previous company, etc... You can almost never find a new position. It is assumed you will be too set in that company`s "way of doing things" to be trained in the new company`s "way of doing things".
It is just the way Japanese companies function, and it seems to lead to all sorts of shock and confusion when people with 5 or 10 years experience get a job in Japan as they expect to get the same type of pay they`d gotten before and expect to be dropped into a cushy position... But instead start in the same place in the same way as everyone else entering anew.
Japan is Japan, not "the rest of the world"...