I have a master’s degree in computer science and have been working in Tokyo for the past 5 years, previously in Osaka for 3 years, but I feel like my salary growth is terrible. I read some posts here saying that getting a PhD is a good way to increase your salary. Is it a common experience or a one off experience? Is the AI job market booming? I don’t need detailed information but I’ll appreciate any opinions especially from real life experience. My Japanese is terrible so any options that don’t require good Japanese speaking level would be nice.
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I don’t think the years you’d spend getting a PhD would pay off in salary growth.
Switch jobs every 2-3 years if you want to increase salary and learn Japanese, it will probably pay off more than a PhD.
In my personal opinion , I think it is better to go for PHD for the sake of research not for the salary hike. You might feel get trapped in the middle if you don’t have that passion to do research .
Or work in the US for big money.
Japan will never pay well. It only pay by seniority and ass kissin
Probably better to ask this question in CS forums than in /r/japanlife… my brother in christ, you have an M.S. in computer science, we should be the ones asking you!
As someone with a PhD, I am going to say no.
Personally, I’d just look into getting another job.
> I read some posts here saying that getting a PhD is a good way to increase your salary.
First time I hear that. Sure you read that about Japan? The PhD is quite easy in Japan and companies still have the mentality that you don’t learn something important during the PhD. So yes, you get a bit more money but nothing substential. Considering the time you put into a phd, you would make much much more staying in the industry.
> Is the AI job market booming?
Of course it is. The old execs in the world jump from one hype to the next following each buzzword they can find. The more buzzwords on your cv, the better you are. However, if you do the phd, it takes at least 3 years (no way to make it quicker in Japan but at least it’s rather uncommon to do it longer too). So what are the new buzzwords in 3 years? Fair chance they still look for something AI related but it can shift as well.
> I don’t need detailed information but I’ll appreciate any opinions especially from real life experience.
The thing is, the Japanese phd isn’t really comparable to western standards. If you do the phd here it means more or less nothing in Europe or the US. The other way around is more promising. Afterall, however, the phd in Japan isn’t prestigious. People see it more as a hobby project than as serious work. Japanese companies don’t even consider phd time as work but as additional bonus education. Phd is something you do if you want to proceed in academia, than it’s a necessity.
> My Japanese is terrible so any options that don’t require good Japanese speaking level would be nice.
For the phd, you don’t need Japanese. You have the bonus on publishing papers much easier due to your English ability. I know a bunch of Japanese phds who’s English is quite bad. They often stick to local Japanese conferences (now you can see why the Japanese phd is worthless in the west if you only publish at local Japanese conferences).
In my opinion, if you want to stay in Japan and don’t want to become a prof, it’s not worth it. And if you don’t want to stay in Japan, do the phd elsewhere. The phd is not valued, not by the society and especially not by companies. The only exception is if your phd topic is exactly what a company needs. But that’s not AI but something much more specialized and narrow, like question answering system on Japanese languages. Hence, a phd can pay off but it’s quite unlikely and not worth the risk of throwing away 3 years of industrial progress. In the end, if you had the phd or three years industry experience, the industry gets you much further, pays better, and opens more doors. Unless you want do switch to academics and teaching.
Disclaimer: I’ve made my PhD two years ago in computer science. Please note that there is a huge gap between phds in different disciplines. So my experience and opinion above is only applicable for CS phd.
Rather than a PhD, I think you should study Japanese – I think that’s probably what’s holding you back in terms of salary progression. If you look at job ads and salary bands, you’ll likely see that researcher positions are typically not paid as well as SWEs. Other than that, if you want to pivot into AI, doing a PhD might be one way to go about this. But it’s not the only way. If you care about your salary progression, the best move would probably be to teach yourself what you need to learn, work on 1-2 spare time projects and then use that to apply for an AI related position. With 8 years worth of work experience and a CS Masters, you’ll know what you need to learn and how to bridge those gaps. Unless you are more interested in research than doing engineering work, and money isn’t as important to you, doing a PhD is not a good idea imo.
hi! i’m working in a similar field like yours. can i message you to ask a few questions? thanks before
Is any salary increase you’ll get from a PhD make up for the income you’ll lose by being a student for 3-6 years? No. Get a PhD because you want to get a PhD, if you’re doing it for the money you haven’t thought it through and considered the actual cost of doing such a program.
If you have a masters in CS in one of the most hyped technologies of our time and you’re having trouble with career growth I’ve lost all hope in the job market altogether.
To add on to some of the posts here, research and development is heavily undervalued in Japan, especially if you’re a foreigner because people with PHDs from less well off countries are getting paid a pittance of what they’re actually worth.
Experienced Software engineers are still pretty highly desired despite the fact that chat GPT is coming for (very) low level devs in the near future, because someone still has to know what to tell chatGPT to make it work, and it’s still not sufficient for big, complex projects. If you can make and maintain software with your skills, you can probably make better money.
If you just want the big bucks, look for jobs in the US, or learn Japanese (getting your n2 from the JLPT is probably enough) and leverage your knowledge as a tool to train other employees.
Unrelated to Japan: AI jobs are something different than AI research.
If you want to go into AI research, a related PhD is helpful. The salary will be bad, and you will be competing for the position, but you’ll be doing something interesting.
If you want an AI job, the PhD is useless, because what most AI jobs these days are is “selecting training data”. You’re not expected to improve the algorithm, only understand it to the point where you know what you need to feed it to make it do impressive tricks. The pay is good, because it’s an awful boring job and there are not that many people who can do it right now, but long term that will change, and “AI trainer” will become the next outsourcing target.
I can’t speak for the CS field but when I was getting my master’s a prof told me that a PhD would actually *limit* my career options by funnelling me into a single area of expertise.
The real question is… Is a PhD really necessary or worthwhile to getting jobs in AI? My gut right now is no. AI is booming but the companies leading the way are not based in Japan.
>My Japanese is terrible so any options that don’t require good Japanese speaking level would be nice.
Given this, your best opportunities for advancement aren’t going to be in Japan, particularly if you’re looking to break into AI related work.
Answering as a 30 year old who is getting a PhD this September in mechanical engineering, with a job offer.
I don’t recommend it. Not for work in Japan. Especially if you don’t have good Japanese. If you are already working, you might make it work by asking your employer to fund your PhD. This is the only way I would recommend it.
If that is not possible, it’s probably better to just find a better job. You can get the same positions and same type of work by just going through the usual hoops in a company as a masters (or bachelors even). What PhDs do is they usually give you a better head start. But since you’re already a working adult, that does not apply to you.
Again all of this is restricted to Japan. I hear other countries are capable of valuing PhDs more.
Best of luck.
Sort of, but not really and it depends on what you want to do. The more traditional Japanese companies have different tracks for people that have PhDs, but really you only start to see more money as you get to the top and that also entails a lot of management. Furthermore seeing as how you have already been working you will be at a disadvantage vs people who went straight to their PhD. Yes it’s stupid but that’s the way it is. Like you I briefly considered getting mine but when I saw the career prospects (often with maximum age restrictions) I opted not to.
As someone with a PhD: unless you luck into a PhD thesis topic that’s extremely relevant by the time you graduate (~4 years), the PhD is not going to do wonders for your salary.
If your concern is salary growth, a PhD is only worth in very few and limited fields.
You will do much better just changing jobs or learning Japanese.
Haven’t been here for too long, but to me it seems clear that there is a salary glass ceiling for non-Japanese people in Japanese companies. Also, Japan is a more integrated society and salary growth is often seen as a reward for loyalty rather than skill. I would say your best chance is to look at foreign companies with Japanese branches or for remote work. By the way, I heard that PhD is supposed to have a higher minimum salary in most positions and because of that, it is really difficult to get hired as you would likely be seen as overqualified. If you want the money, I’m not sure if Japan is the best place to get that. Of course all of this is just my opinion so don’t take it too seriously 🙂
I will sidestep your question and say you need to play a different game and work for foreign companies, not Japanese companies. Japanese companies will pay badly because that’s what they do and given your lack of Japanese that’s another reason to shun them altogether. How can you win at a game you can’t even understand?
PhD is not a good way to get salary growth.
At the same time, getting to good laboratories which do cutting-edge research is extremely competitive and if you do not have any publications in competitive venues already you probably will not get accepted.
And going to low tier labs is just a waste of time in my opinion.
In many cases you need to pay to do a PhD in Japan. There’s not always a salary and you need to enroll and therefore pay tuition fees. I’d say there’s other ways to increase your salary better such as switching jobs
No
The AI job market is booming *now*. Will it still be by the time you’ve finished a PhD? I would bet not, personally.
Getting a PhD primarily to increase your salary is probably not the best idea (although you also said you like the idea of doing research as well). Instead, I would reconsider a few things:
– even if salary growth is low, does the amount you earn overall allow you to have a comfortable life and save some money for the future? Maybe it would be good to check where you want to be financially. “I want more money” is not going to make you happy in the long run. “I want to earn enough so I don’t need to worry about money” is better, or maybe you have some specific things you want to buy at some point (an own house etc.). Get a better understanding of how much you need will get you further than striving to earn more. That said, it might be worthwile checking if your current employer is taking advantage of you (financially) and stay aware of other options. With a master’s and work experience in CS you should be in a good position to negotiate if they take advantage of you. But also consider non-financial aspects: How much do you like your colleagues, how convenient is the work place for you etc. Check some of the threads here around workplace bullying, consider how terrible a life can be if you hate going to work every morning, and how expensive therapy/alcoholism/other ways to cope can get.
– if you need more money than you can currently get, consider some other options besides a PhD. You can look for a side hustle or start your own company.
Generally speaking, it makes more sense to think about how you want to live your life first, what you want to do on an everyday basis (research, software development, …), where you want to live etc.. Money is important, but it shouldn’t be the guiding criterion. Especially if you work in tech and don’t need to worry how you pay your rent as in some other professions.
(also, study some Japanese, it makes life easier!)