¥2.35m for the first year was the number my university recently shared in an article about the expected average salary for new grads software dev. Not sure how accurate this number might be, if you work full-time at a konbini earning 1200y/hr that’s already ¥2,304,000/yr, does this mean that the average SWE only earns ¥50,000 more than a full-time konbini worker?
Obviously anecdotal but none of the people I know got offers < ¥4m as a new grad. Not a huge sample size I know, but still. I don’t consider myself an exceptional programmer by any means, started coding after starting university and was only doing 50 hours of Leetcode max before I started looking for internships and job-hunting. Ended up with 4 offers at the end of it, and none was less than ¥5.5mm a year. Took the highest offer for ¥8.5m. Now that one was rather tough but the 5.5m\~ ish ones were VERY easy to get.
One of them was literally just 1 Online Assessment(Leetcode baby level) -> interview with technical manager(past experiences, projects) -> paid internship offer. 4 months after working got a return offer for ¥5.8m.
So what’s the point of this post? I guess mostly to show that if you have some skills and can communicate reasonably well in English(if you can read this post, you definitely do), it’s 100% possible to make 2x,3x, or even 4x the average salary. I came from a developing country and was salivating at my mouth when my friend got that juicy 350,000y/month offer, now I will be making double that. Sometimes you don’t even know what’s possible if you haven’t talked to someone who has done it before. If a guy from a 3rd world country who doesn’t even speak English natively can do it, anyone can.
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8.5MM for a new grad sounds pretty high, but I’ve never been a new grad in Japan. From what I understand though, that’s the ballpark of end-career for most people here.
Your conclusion is wrong though. Not everyone can. You might think it’s humble to pretend so, but it’s very much the opposite.
Congratulations! 8.5M as a new grad is definitely a very good offer. I think it took me around 4~5 years to go above that. And yes, my first job in Japan paid around 2.3M (190k per month, no bonus).
Some of us don’t have the time or mental space for 50 hours of leetcode, is that per month?
That’s great you got a higher paying job than your peers, you should feel good about finding a better salary!
But if your parents were paying for your schooling and all you really had to do was study or a baito to kill time, it’s a little different from having to work to survive while also paying for school. Or working while trying to balance workplace drama. Or having the ability to take time off from a full time job to go to interviews.
Everyone has their own pace and their own stuff to deal with and let’s have a little grace.
Anyways, enjoy the new job and welcome to the work world!
Well, I am a PM not a coder, but I don’t think anyone in your profession should take 2.3M or 3M for that matter. I can see taking maybe 4M if you are going to be a seishain in an attractive large company with good benefits.
I am genuinely confused also, at some of the salaries I see on the sub for coding. I know what we pay and what my last company paid and what we pay the guys in China. And it ain’t 3 or 4 or even 7M. It’s definitely higher. I will say we don’t hire freshman in Japan. But it is crazy that they do in China and the benchmark I have from that team is also far higher than 4M or 5M.
Anyway – congrats on your offer!
New grads: approx 2.5M/yr with an insulting 50k bonus is normal.
Op supposedly works at a FAANG tho….but that was a year ago.
2.3 would be expected for a high school graduate no priori experience SWE.
8.5M with 50h of leet code is a very lucky find.
How did you go about finding these jobs? Were you talking to recruiters on LinkedIn?
I job hunted for a year. The majority of new grad positions were 2~3m yen. I managed to get higher than that, but it took me the entire year to find a position offering higher.
Most people can’t risk being jobless for months doing an internship they may or may not get a job offer from.
I job hunted for a year. The majority of new grad positions were 2~3m yen. I managed to get higher than that, but it took me the entire year to find a position offering higher.
Most people can’t risk being jobless for months doing an internship they may or may not get a job offer from.
> 1 Online Assessment(Leetcode baby level) -> interview with technical manager(past experiences, projects) -> paid internship offer
All 3 of these steps are well beyond the norm. I think you might not realize just how low the bar gets and what Japanese new grads are willing to accept. Lots of new grad positions require zero expertise and have no technical assessment whatsoever.
> if you have some skills and can communicate reasonably well in English
lol this already puts you in the 90th percentile at least
> If a guy from a 3rd world country who doesn’t even speak English natively can do it, anyone can.
Sounds like you had boatloads of free time for interviewing from your other comment, so not quite everyone can. But you’ll find that out on your next job hop when you have to take PTO to do interviews.
The 2m salary assumes no software engineer study in university. In america and europe you simply dont get the job at all.
Tokyo junior dev salary is like 6M, but ofc that assumes person can do well at interviews.
Fresh grad may or may not be a decent junior — it really depends what they did apart from the degree.
Good Tokyo SWE internship is like 3M.
Lastly, averages are not informative for a single person. Median is more meaningful, though ultimately no statistic is great. Remember you’re a snowflake!
You don’t write in what city you work. I guess Tokyo though. Salaries in tech in Tokyo are double those in other cities, even places like Osaka. But even in Tokyo 8.5 million per year is definitely on the high end side for new graduates. I expect the average is more around 6 million.
You missed to mention if all of it is a guaranteed salary or performance based, if you are hired as a contractor and what type of company it is. Anyway, congratulations.
This comes across super braggy and disrespectful btw
What about someone who learnt to code themselves without any IT degrees? Same chance or maybe a lil low?
My first job was like that, but that was in Kyushu. I think it is the salary for new grads who want to be software developers, but have no experience or skills at all. If you already have an internship and with the lack of new graduates these days, I guess you were lucky and did everything right?
There is a lot of people from developing countries that don’t speak English natively that make way more money than that in Japan, as also do professionals and entrepreneurs from developed countries. What’s your point?
Skillful people have plenty of chances in Japan… As anywhere in the world. Just check the income ratio by nationality in the US, most of them are from developing countries that managed to have decent careers, because their background isn’t as important as the skills they posses.
Yes, software engineerings pays good. Yes, traditional japanese companies don’t pay enough to fresh graduates. Yes, the big names in tech and consultants pay extraordinary salaries. You could probably make twice that by working in keyence or woven or an international bank, but those are not available for everyone. And no, your nationality isn’t something that motivated anyone.
You got lucky, and the sooner you understand it the more grateful will you be to be at your position, instead of trying to give mentor advices of something you clearly know nothing of.
Congratulations lmao
If you don’t mind, could you provide the name of the company?
I would think it’s FAANG but I’m not sure if they do internships, and there aren’t many offices in Japan.
99% of uni fresh grads earn 3M or below the last I checked. Most overseas-born people around me started around 10M so your experience is average.
0 hours of leetcode btw. But won several competitions.
Average for BA grad is like 3.00 〜5.00 iirc. MBB/Tier 1 IB pays 8〜12, Tier 2/Big 4 Consulting maybe 5〜7. So I guess your anecdote, for BS grads feels pretty “normal” to me.
What a great story. ⭐️I love this!
OP did what he needed to do, took the challenge, found the right companies, and is now proud of his efforts.
Contrary to being “privileged,” OP came from a developing country, got his degree, studied, and achieved his goal. That is not a privilege; that is work, talent, some luck, and, honestly, a bit of naïveté, which worked in OP’s favor.
It is so nice to read a success story here in the evening instead of complaints and tales of woe.
Good job, OP, and best of luck. Get ready to work with an honest recruiter and find that ¥10M position in the near future, or open your own firm and be an entrepreneur. Your positive attitude will be a big part of the success.
Congratulations!
Wow new grad posts to boast to the rest of the world he’s making 8.5M yen.
Not sure if this post could be possibly more condescending.
When i as a new grad 7 years back i had gotten 5M from the company and i think that amount is pretty common in tokyo
Must be nice to be good with numbers. Feels like I’ve drawn the short straw in life because I just can’t deal with maths and programming. Congrats on your life.
Man this is the saltiest comment section I’ve ever read lol. Guy gets himself a good first job and tries to encourage others that the salaries aren’t as low as they’re constantly posted about, but gets met with opposition and claims of humble bragging.
I guess you need to post a few paragraphs at the beginning stating your privileges before you post anything positive OP!
Congrats by the way!
I know Indeed was offering over 8M back in the day for new grads but they hired too many engineers and I doubt they are hiring any new grads now.
Traditionally new grads in Japan get crap pay for the first year or two with the understanding that they are doing OJT and they get raises to bump their salaries within a couple years. For overseas companies they tend to pay quite a bit more for new grads compared to Japanese companies.
This is more complicated than most foreigners think. Yes the average is that low but that doesn’t tell the full story. The mean is much higher, about 5 million yen.
The Average is for average grads. Students that study some random major and spend class sleeping off booze. This is the majority of graduates in Japan. That doesn’t mean all graduates get that. Companies like Toray, Panasonic, Sony, and a few other international firms will hire talented graduates for much more money. Multilingual students with reputable advanced degrees in specific fields see offers of 6 million to 12 million depending on their individual skills.
All I’ll say is that everyone has their circumstances. There isn’t one way to wind up somewhere. What worked for you and works for many people don’t necessarily or couldn’t necessarily work for everyone. The world isn’t that black and white.
3 years of experience under my belt and I got hired for ~4 mil as a haken. FWIW.
Your way is shit, but yes the average start salary is not high in Japan. Always negotiate. Try to have competing offers, and never settle in the same place if you think you are delivering more value than your salary. Having competing offers may be the best way to negotiate. Congrats, BTW!
What’s the point of this post?
I make 375k a month and honestly I feel like I’m being robbed after taxes, rent and utility bills. I can barely save 150K. I work as a front end developer, turning figma and xd designs into working code.
2.35 is what’s expected for Japanese students who go through the typical shukatsu route – do “extracurriculars”(sports, clubs or some pt job that don’t give you any hard skills) during university, then do interviews following the same rubric that has existed for decades, for Nikkei companies that look at university grads as babies with 0 hard skills. If you do some research, you’ll find that top nikkei companies in software like CTC, NRI, Line, Mercari and others pay 4m-8m for new grads. I think you need to show proficiency at programming though, and be from a top university and also show that you’re smart.
Also, could you give me some more info on when you started programming, how long you’ve studied until you got an internship and what you majored in etc? I’m in my first year of university in a liberal arts major but I want to get software internships and hopefully a job in it by self studying.
OK, so let me be captain obvious: average is that most (Japanese) people get. Not the foreigners who go to FAANG, not the top Japanese companies, not the graduates who come from top 5 university, not the “I have seen once out of 50 students” examples. I do not know the exact value, but most Japanese job-post for programmers are pretty low and surveys like the one on japan-dev also show that large number of SEs work for peanuts.
When I just came to Japan in 2019 as a self taught programmer with just a few months of professional programming experiencing, I started with a job for 3.5M. I’ve seen many JP seniors (tech leads) there who’ve spent 5+ years in the company and still weren’t reaching 5mil.
The next job I found allowed me to get to also around 8.5m by 2022, but I was also definitely on the higher end of seniority. But then again, despite me then thinking that this company compared to the previous ones pays quite well, I’ve heard plenty of foreigners there complaining how stingy it is with salaries.
I think there’s just sooo much disconnect in how hard you have to work for how much in JP’s tech industry today, that if you have a chance, it’s definitely worth to keep looking.
There is more salt in this thread than Jiro ramen
Bon appetite OP
Bro where you guys getting these salaries? I’m a senior with 10 years of experience and barely make 8M, this year I went to over 50 interviews and that’s seems to be the average, above that they have unrealistic expectations and most still looking for a candidate.