Hello guys!
Sorry for the long post ahead.
To give you a back story, I am working at a company as permanent hire for some years now. I have a decent salary working as an engineer at a company in an inaka. Recently there was a recruiter from an agency that handed me an opportunity to work at some other huge company in daitokai. It was a really nice offer and the job was really something I was looking forward for. Did the interviews and the tests then a few weeks after I was accepted for the role. However, there was a catch to it. They want to hire me as haken (temporary) for the first year. Then the next year was to be decided. Tried discussing it with them but it seems that they would not budge on this. So this became a hiccup for me.
My questions now are:
1. Would it be wise to leave my current company?
I like the stability in my current company however the issue is the pay is a bit low with little increase. The contract that the company offers though is a huge leap from what I am making currently but I am really not comfortable with the idea of being easily tossed out.
2. Has anyone ever really became a seishain from being a haken?
Is it really possible for someone to become a seishain after one year or is this just a pipe dream? Do they just say it as like that to get the person to sign? Also has anyone heard of someone’s contract only being renewed but not shifted into a permanent position or of someone being dropped after their contract?
3. Are Haken also entitled to benefits and bonuses?
4. Are Haken’s nenkin and hoken also being paid by the company or will I have to pay it on my own?
5. If ever I was to accept the offer, what would you suggest the right amount that I should demand from them as compensation?
These things have been bothering me ever since. Tried looking for answers online but have not seen a definite answer. Haken contracts seem to have a negative connotation floating around it and some even says that it does not look good in resume. I like my current job just fine but I love the job that was being offered to me except being a contractual part. I truly did not care much about the salary if only it were not a haken.
Hope you guys understand and sorry for the long post. Would read all your comments and please drop some advices if ever you have any. All answers will be taken into consideration to help me with my decision. Thanks guys!
10 comments
You aren’t an employee of the huge company as a haken. You’re employed by the recruiting company and dispatched to the huge company.
As a haken the chances of becoming a seishain at the huge company are significantly lower (but not zero) than contracted employees of the huge company (keiyaku shain), because the two contract types are used for different purposes.
You’re almost certainly not going to get bonuses – that’s usually only for seishain. You’ll get nothing more than whatever is stated on your contract. Because you’re not an employee of the huge company unlike seishain or keiyaku shain, you’ll also be excluded from activities for employees, have less “security clearance”, won’t get any benefits the huge company has, and probably won’t have the career development opportunities offered by the huge company.
If you’re only interested in seishain positions and currently have a seishain job, don’t bother with haken.
Going from permanent to haken is taking a giant step backwards even if salary were better. I would never ever take that.
I wouldn’t recommend; I’m seeing haken working at my company and there is always this negative energy and feeling they are treated as 2nd rank employees
Thanks guys for the comments, you’ve given me insight to what it actually entails. Really wanted the job because it really excites me and is where my passion lies. Would try to renegotiate it but if they won’t budge will just drop it altogether.
I was haken years ago so I got curious and peeked invoice in my company. We paid haken engineer for 200k per 50 hours. So at least 1/3 goes to your pocket while 2/3 goes to your haken company? Imo haken are just modern day slavery lol.
At least a decent haken would offer you full time position, not contract.
Is it haken or keiyaku shain? If it’s haken then your recruiter sucks and is scamming you.
If it’s keiyaku shain then some companies do ask to be keiyaku shain for a year before converting to seishain.
When I worked haken as a teacher, I found out that the dispatch company employing me was getting paid around double my salary, and they did nothing other than try to steal my benefits by claiming I was a contractor when I was an employee.
If you are forced to work dispatch, you have to be very careful, because there are so many shady employers out there. That’s true in general, but it’s extra true with dispatch.
As a haken im curious about 4th question
2) Yes. It happens. Is the haken company legit (IE one of the big ones) or a dodgy little one? If it’s a big one ask your agent for more background. They should be able to tell you whether or not the company has a history of this (remember if the agent is scummy they may lie to you though).
3) You won’t get bonuses. Haken are usually paid hourly and all benefits etc should be laid out clearly in your contract. If it’s one of the big agencies you should be able to find all this information on the online portal.
4) By law if your contract is full time and long term (more than 30hrs/ week for longer than 2 months) the haken company has to pay their share of health and pension exactly the same as any other company. Again check the haken company homepage, if it’s a reputable company all the information should be on there. One note is that many haken contracts start with a 1 month contract as a trial period. In that case you wouldn’t join the shakai hoken system until the contract is renewed making the total employment period more than 2 months. Ask your agent what the plan for the contract is.
5) It does depend on the company but usually pay should be laid out by the haken company up front rather than you asking for what you want. Ask your agent what the hourly salary is and then decide if you think that is fair. You can try to negotiate the offer up, but reputable haken companies won’t have a lot of wiggle room so don’t expect a huge increase on what they’re offering.
As for whether you should take it… First of all I would research the haken company. I would be wary of small haken companies but there are some niche ones out there which aren’t scummy too.
My advice is to consider where you want to be in one year. If you turn down this job are you going to be happy staying with your current company for 1+ more years or do you want to change anyway? If you are want to change anyway, research the job market in your field and see what options you have. Based on that research do you think you’ll be able to find similar opportunities that excite you as seishain or is this job relatively rare? If you do take the job and it doesn’t work out/ become seishain in 1 year will that put you in a significantly better position (financially? Experience?) and does that make it worth or not worth the risk?
Two points that confuse me.
You mentioned there were multiple interviews and coding tests. For Haken they are only allowed to have one meet and greet. It’s not even supposed to be an interview and coding tests are also a grey zone.
Secondly, did they not tell you up front that this was a Haken role?
The two points above would be red flags for me.
However, not for Haken in general. Haken roles can be an opportunity to get into a big company, earn more money or work on exciting projects.
About the chance of conversion from Haken to seishain, that depends too much on the individual situation.
On a separate note, social insurance is covered just like for any other employee. 50/50 paid by you and the employer.