I have been working in this Japanese company (it's parent company is very well known), for the past four years, but there was just one 5 % hike until now.. It is so disappointing. Only few other global employees in my company were able to get 5% for 2-3 years consecutively..
My current salary is ~270K yen per month after tax and additional ~1.4M yen bonus per year.
I think I stayed in this company for too long, unable to get out of the comfort zone,
since remote work is okay, and no power harassement in the company, kind managers.. But the pay is stagnant, and work is not challenging since it's like a consulting work(developing products for big japanese corporations), and my japanese is not getting any better..
I have been applying for various roles full-stack, data-related roles, but I am not confident in either of them, because I have not worked with production/large user base products, it was always prototypes/in-house tools..
And my current visa, I have only one more year left.
I am really clueless about what to do? and I am very scared that I wasted 4 yours of my life in Japan by being in comfort zone and not challenging myself.
Is it too late to switch companies? Should I focus more on improving my Japanese?
Can I extend my visa for one more year? Is my current salary too low for four years of experience?
How tough is the software job market in Japan right now?
I just wanted to hear the views of other foreigners living in Japan…
by craziestLad