so i have been trying to seek some erspective, I was employed as a frontend engineer by a startup company that I found on a famous startup ebsite and was able to get my work visa the previous month(1 year) and then I joined the company from 2nd of this month, Basically, it’s a startup company which hires people and finds projects for them, It has been over a week as of now and I still have not been assigned any tasks at all. It is a work from home kinda thing as of now so I have been staying at home basically doing nothing（except studying Japanese and working on my side projects, I have finally started doing some leetcode ）and just pressing a button to mark my attendance, I asked one other employee who joined the company 2 months before me and he told me that he also hasn’t gotten any projects but still got paid. But all this is making me worry a lot about the current situation since there is a probation period of 6 months after which they told me they will let me become 正社員 but I feel so worried now that what if they just fire me or something after 6 months then what are my options? since my parents kinda gave me the money I needed already and I thought I actually found a job but now I feel uneasy about my current situation since it’s my first time being employed in Japan and I Have nothing assigned to me … what are your thoughts about this? my contract basically says this ※契約社員として 3 ヶ月毎 2 度の更新後、半年後に正社員雇用切替予定。
since i already quit my language school , I feel like I have already wasted a lot of my parents money and if some shit like this happens then it would be the biggest low in my life.
what would you do in my situation and what should i prepare for.
side note: I have 2 years of experience as a programmer and can speak and understand Japanese at a mid n3 level, that is my qualification as of now .
11 comments
Sounds like you have an engineering/specialist in humanities status of residence now. If you don’t like your job, you can spend your time finding a new job and it’s no problem to start at a new company. If you want you can just not list your current company on your resume to avoid questions of “why so short”.
My understanding is that the legal enforceability of probation periods is often not what your contract says, but I’m sure someone else can chime in with something specific to your situation.
If they try to let you go, don’t sign anything and consult with the labor office or lawyer up.
Personally though, sounds like this company is happy to pay you for not doing much, so if I was you I’d just coast for a while until the VC money runs dry.
I’ve been in a similar situation, although I did have work (it was just way less challenging than my previous job that paid half as much).
It might be attractive to stick with a job that pays you to do nothing and use the time to develop skills, but there are some important skills you can only get working on stuff professionally as an engineer, and you are currently missing out on that.
I would use this time instead to focus on hunting for a new job, you already have the visa it will be easy (companies won’t have to wait for you to start). don’t even add your current job to your CV. Be frank in interviews and tell them you are currently employed but the company doesn’t give you work, hence you want a job that does. Make sure you ask questions and filter out any black companies. If interviewed by people you’d be working with, ask them what a day of work looks like for instance. Good luck.
Keep the job and keep doing and learning things. Try to make good contacts with other people in the industry, although I guess it’s not the best environment for that.
You can probably get a better job after this one, however it may end.
Hey… this is a question, sorry, But whoch famous startup website are you talking about, where you found your employer?
What company is this?
The best time to look for work is when you are already working. You are in probation, might as well look for more stable job if you are worried. You are not forbidden from applying for other job, just refuse it at the end of them if u trust your current one enough
I work in a big company doing back end work, and I have like one proper assignment every few months.
Sometimes they just want to maintain a certain number of employees even if there isn’t a ton of work to be done.
Sounds a little bit shady. I would take advantage of the free paid time and practice for code interviews to get a better job. Unless the pay is exceptionally good.
Legally probation periods are 2 weeks..
>since i already quit my language school , I feel like I have already wasted a lot of my parents money and if some shit like this happens then it would be the biggest low in my life.
If you didn’t get refunded you should see if you can go back to class until you get assignments haha. If you don’t actually have specific work you need to do you might as well use the classes, though they may not be so open to just letting you come back, if you’re paid up and can’t get it back then nothing to lose.
Otherwise, your visa is yours; nothing at all stopping you from going around and looking for jobs that say you need to be in-country with a visa and jumping ship if you have to. May burn some bridges but if you get something better or get a notable bump in salary then that is what it is.
My engineering job had me doing translations for a year and often I also had no tasks at all……also a Japanese company and 99% home office. So…maybe it’s not so uncommom here? Got me into several depressive episodes though 😅