Re: [tlug] Looking for Summer Internship in Japan

[Lyle H Saxon <llletters@example.com>]

On Tue, Mar 10, 2015 at 8:12 AM, Ryutaro Morgan <rj@example.com> wrote:
> Hello Tokyo Linux Group!
>
> My name is Ryutaro Morgan and I am a college student from Portland, Oregon,
> USA. I am currently looking for an internship in Japan this summer and I was
> wondering if any members in the group are looking for summer interns at the
> moment?

Not to discourage you (I hope you find what you're looking for), but I
recently met up with a Japanese acquaintance who has been working as a
programmer in Tokyo for about 20 years now.  He has worked on many
projects at many major companies and is so discouraged by the state of
the programming profession in Japan that he's taken up studying
accounting in the hope of escaping programming altogether.  According
to him, programming is considered (seriously) one of the ten *worst*
jobs in Japan now (by young people entering the job market)!  Low pay,
unpaid overtime, no ability to take time off, working seven days a
week on some projects, etc.  He says companies have been increasingly
using Chinese and Indian programmers (cost factor), with a shift away
from Chinese programmers to Indian ones.  I'm not a programmer myself,
but over a few beers with my programmer friend, the picture he painted
was exceptionally bleak...

I hope he was just exaggerating, but I've known him for about 20 years
and things really do seem to be getting worse and worse for anyone
trying to make a living as a programmer here.

I really hope it isn't quite that bad, but seeing that you posted this
three days ago and no one has responded - combined with just reading a
post by a long-term TLUG person who recently left the country, I
thought I'd relay what I heard.

LHS