Hiya, I’ve been living in Tokyo with my husband since July this year, it’s going great so far and we’re enjoying it!
I’ve recently been applying to jobs and suddenly have 2 offers in my lap at once. One from Keywords Studios as an English Localisation tester and the other from One Coin English as a teacher. I am having so much trouble deciding which one to go for.
Does anyone have experience working for Keywords? Is it soul destroying or is it chill? I’d love to develop a career in video games if I could, and it seems like a great stepping stone, if this job doesn’t destroy my mental health and I can do it for a year plus.
Any advice is appreciated!
16 comments
Keywords Studios was founded in Ireland. How soul-destroying could it be?
I’ve heard pay is on the low side but I haven’t specifically heard anything *bad.*
Sorry, don’t know anything about One Coin. Hopefully that doesn’t describe the pay.
I know people who worked there.
They always said it’s chill, but don’t expect it to turn into anything serious, basically a fun part time job.
Also, I remember one of them said, projects dry up rather fast, and you don’t pick what you work on, expect to work on a lot of mobile games.
My ex used to work there and only stayed 3 months before saying the management was terrible. She might have just been unlucky though
I did a couple of months there on the customer support side, and for me it was fine. Team was pretty chill, boss was good, didn’t have any overtime. Low pay but was pretty easy work. I would go back if I needed a job. (Was only short term because I had something else lined up already that didn’t start for a few months).
Take the job that is not teaching English. It will look far better on your resume for future job applications, no matter what sort of job you are applying for.
The soul destruction from English teacher usually takes a few years to set in. The best move is to never even start.
I’ve worked with Keyword as a client here, and taught in the past (but not at One Coin). Depending on the project and division, given Keyword works with clients all over the globe it can be a bit stressful and badly managed, but with the ability to rise up it comes with a career path, and possibility to go in-house for clients depending on what you can do.
I don’t think English teaching can provide that, but it would probably be more chill if you’re looking for a paycheck and as little work time as possible to do side gigs and work your way somewhere that way.
I worked at keywords studios and I would personally not recommend it (I am not the only person that feels like this). It wasn’t fun, the people act like your friends but they are pretty snakey and I was made redundant in a very questionable targeted manner. There are other avenues into gaming that are Better than this.
I worked for Keywords for a short stint before starting at my next job. They were okay with that.
No personal phones inside – you need to leave anything that could be used to take photos or videos of the games you work on in lockers.
Management is okay but it depends on what team you’re on. HR is pretty amicable.
It’s project based, but they don’t have a lack of work. Usually you’ll work a project for a few weeks, then get moved to something else.
Starting time was 10am when I was there, so it’s good for people that hate waking up early.
“one coin English”? holy shit, English teaching is already a shitty job here and not well-respected at all, and then they go with a name like that that further degrades the whole experience? stay away from that shit. you really wanna be part of the dollar store for English teaching?
Have a friend that works there doing LQA as well, pay is low and work isn’t guaranteed, but seems like a laid back environment and easy job. Definitely better than teaching English.
I used to do JP, EN and RU localization testing for keywords.
Awesome experience, fun, get to try new games or improve current ones.
For EN, you have to really know your stuff – grammar, spelling, dialects, punctuation usage differences between versions of English (eg American vs Australian vs British, etc) or you won’t be offering them much. SO many people go for the position so you’re easily replaceable unless you’re top of the top. Also expect projects to be offered on an availability basis, and having other commitments will greatly limit your opportunities to work on projects as they require full dedication to the schedule and availability for the project’s phase or whole duration. Pay is also extremely low, so even full-time it’ll be a struggle.
That said, the company itself is wonderful and so are the people, and the job is easy.
I worked in game localisation initially and eventually worked as a project manager at a major Tokyo game company.
Went from Localisation (LQA) to Translator, Team Lead the Manager in the span of 5 years.
It’s not the best job and can be super boring but it’s easier and less soul crushing than English teaching and great to have on your CV if you wanna get into the games industry (not that I’d recommend the industry to just anyone xD).
Don’t be an English teacher. Shit job, bad pay and won’t lead anywhere in Japan.
I worked at One Coin English before.
As far as eikaiwas go, they are a nice place to work.
Its easy to ‘level up’ and earn more money, but its never going to make you a ton of money.
Eikawas in general are not ideal. I’d say go with Keywords
I’d definitely go with keywords! Good stepping stone into the industry, and definitely miles better than English teaching!
I work for keywords as an English LQA. I really enjoy it.
Perks:
Late start time so you can sleep in
Can take days off whenever you want (given a weeks or so notice)
Friendly people
Get your name in game credits!
Cons:
Unstable work – you may not get any work in a week
Late finishing time due to late start time so you’ll get hungry
Low wage
I applied to both those companies too haha
One coin didn’t accept me saying “I didn’t match their company culture” w/e that means.