Re: [tlug] UNIX jobs on TLUG (was: Database frontend in Linux)

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Josh Glover writes:
 > 2009/6/2 Nikolay Elenkov <nick@example.com>:
 > 
 > > 2009年 6月 2日（火）12:35 pm に Michael Bitker さんは書きました：
 > >
 > >> Staying in a Japanese company
 > >> will kill any chance of updating your skills.
 > >
 > > Being stuck in a position that requires you to support someone's
 > > crappy code, written 20 years ago, may kill your chances. But that
 > > has nothing to do with the company being Japanese.
 > 
 > I agree with Nikolay here

I respectfully disagree, from the position of one who's heard from the
shingikai discussing the matter of upgrading employee skills, why
Japanese companies can't do it themselves, and thus why Monkasho has
to help do it.

It's not limited in any way to Japanese companies, but Japanese
companies in general remain more biased than most against giving their
employees training that could be useful to other companies.[1]  It is
an annoying policy problem for Keidanren and METI.  That's why
Monkasho is going into the life-experience Ph.D. business.[2]

Also, a lot of my former MBA students tell me they regret not studying
harder when they were in grad school, because they sure aren't allowed
any time at their employers to do so.  I've also heard from undergrads
who want to work outside of Japan or for gaishikei for the same
reason.  So, if it's a misconception, it's a popular one among
Japanese students, at least here in Tsukuba. ;-)

Footnotes: 
[1]  At least in the heyday of Silicon Valley, some companies paid lip
service to providing employees with various kinds of education.

[2]  The concept is that you write a report on what you did on your
summer vacation[3], and get a PhD.  The best part of it from the
company's point of view is that everybody who matters knows that you
learned everything that matters from the company, so (a) you're no
more valuable to other companies than you were before, and (b) that
wasn't much, because you only knew part of what was needed to
reproduce the product anyway.  No, the guy from HR at Toyota didn't
say that.  What he did say was that he felt that the proposed program
would not increase employee mobility in a "detrimental" way.  You tell
me what that means....

[3]  Actually, the research you did in the company's lab, but Sister
Mary Elephant can't tell the difference.