Advice Needed!! Got a full time job offer (Junior Software Engineer) at Sapporo

7 comments

1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

   —

   **Advice Needed!! Got a full time job offer (Junior Software Engineer) at Sapporo**

   Hello 22M here from India. I’m in my final year of engineering at an IIT (Top engineering college in India). I haven’t ever been to Japan also new to the language.
   In this summer break, I got an internship at a Japanese Startup as an SDE intern, the per hour pay was around 1500 JPY with 8 hours of work, 5 days a week. After some over time ~1/2 hours daily I made around 280,000 JPY which was great considering my internship was remote (I stayed at my home in India) and I received around 150,000 INR which is a good stipend in India.
   Now I’ve received a full time job offer from the company as a Junior Engineer but this time the location is at Sapporo, Hokkaido but they haven’t increased the per hour payout considering full time employee make more than interns. The total annual compensation is something around 4,000,000 JPY but that too requires an additional fixed overtime of around 45 hours a month. Monthy Salary ~ 330,000 (base + overtime pay) JPY no bonuses nothing just Visa support and a flight ticket from India to Sapporo with first month stay arranged by the company (paid).

   Now my questions apart from difficulties that I’m gonna face while living in Japan, the one haunting me the most is am I being underpaid? Because given my experience and skills I’m sure I can easily get placed in a good company in India.
   Can someone throw some light on my situation here??
   Thanks in advance.

   *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/movingtojapan) if you have any questions or concerns.*

2. 45h of included overtime is pretty nasty, so I wouldn’t be too happy with that. But 330k/month is a pretty good salary for a fresh grad in Japan (280k for an internship is a lot for Japanese standards). Especially since you are outside of Tokyo. Not too familiar with Sapporo prices/salaries I have to admit.

   Generally speaking tech salaries in Japan are not as great as in other countries. Bonus is a big part of the salary here. So check if maybe you didn’t misunderstand something. Usually you would get 2 times a year* 1-3 (Base-)salaries. No Bonus at all + 45h hours of overtime makes your package pretty weak.

   Also consider if coming from India you will be alright with Hokkaido winters. If your ultimate goal is to live in Japan, I’d say go for it. Do the job for a year or two and then move on to e.g. Tokyo. But if you don’t care too much about Japan itself, other countries might be better for your career and finances.

3. This is what my offer letter reads-

   Contents of duties- Junior Engineer

   Employment Type- Permanent Employee

   Probationary Period- 6 months

   Place of employment- Sapporo

   Working hours-

   Flexible time system
   As determine by workers based on opening (9:00) closing (18:00)

   Wages-

   A n n u a l sa la r y：4,000,008yen
   Total salary ; Gross salary, including social insur ance costs and taxes.
   * New employees shall be put on probation for six months from the first day.

   ＜Breakdown＞
   M o n t h l y S a l a r y：333,334yen (Including overtime allowance)

   *Base pay (247,334yen)
   *Fixed overtime allowance (86,000yen) for 45 hours a month

   B o n u s：No

   Retirement allowance ：No

   Wage change：Yes / May change once a year（August）
   May not change.

   Commuting Allowance Yes, accordance with the detailed rules of the companies.

   Overtime Pay Paid in accordance with Rules of Employment for working overtime,
   holidays or late-night that exceeds the fixed overtime.

   Days off/Leave
   Every Saturdays and Sundays, National holidays, New Year’s holiday

   Annual Paid Leave (3days granted on the start of employment, after 6 months 7days
   for attendance exceeding 80 percent of the scheduled workdays)

   Others

   -Social insurance (Employees’ pension insurance & Health insurance)
   -VISA application fee, flight fee from India to Sapporo would be supported by the company. (Up to upper limit)

4. Not worth it, considering the yen value right now and the offers you can get in India. They’re giving atleast 20LPA for new grads.

5. Depends on your goal. Sapporo has lower cost of living than say Tokyo. As a fresh grad, it’s not a bad way to get experience even for the first year. Are you getting interest from local Western companies?

6. Don’t take it brother, stay in India for now

7. I also graduated from IIT and currently working at a Fintech company here in Tokyo for about a year and half now. There is generally a trend of underpaying engineers from cheaper countries. You are getting underpaid with no bonus. Usually you should get bonus twice a year and it’s pretty significant compensation. even though in most of the contracts they include 45 hours of overtime, it depends on the company if they make the employees do that much overtime or not. Do a good research about your company. But in my opinion, you are getting underpaid.