Re: [tlug] Looking for Summer Internship in Japan

[Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>]

On 17 March 2015 at 05:22, Benjamin Kowarsch <trijezdci@example.com> wrote:

> You don't understand a thing or two about today's job market. It has nothing
> to do with being qualified or deserving

Are you referring specifically to Japanese companies in Japan?

I understand quite a bit about today's job market, defined as:

1. Software development
2. In one of these types of companies:
 * US-owned multinationals
 * Small, privately held (non-VC funded) US companies
 * VC-funded US startups
 * VC-funded Swedish startups
 * Small, privately held (non-VC funded) Swedish companies

I have worked at and interviewed for all of the above, save the last
one, where I have just interviewed but not accepted a job.

Your characterisation of the job market does not match my personal
experience at all. I am both qualified and deserving of a job as a
professional programmer, and every time I have looked for a job, I
have always had more than one company extend me an offer. Out of the
five companies I have worked for since leaving university 12 years
ago, I had the advantage of knowing someone on the inside exactly
once. And that once was when a fellow TLUGger interviewed me for a
UNIX sysadmin job after knowing me for five years on TLUG, which could
reasonably be described as a five year-long practical interview.

I know for a fact that companies in the Silicon Valley, Seattle,
Dublin, and Stockholm have a really hard time hiring programmers,
because the good ones are snapped up immediately, the decent ones are
snapped up quickly, and even the mediocre ones find jobs. Companies
I've worked at in Sweden and Dublin have actively recruited elsewhere
in Europe because there simply aren't enough programmers locally.

Given how expensive it is for a company to make a bad hire (at least
for programmers), you'd better believe that a lot of effort goes into
ensuring that anyone who gets an employment offer is both qualified
and deserving.

Again, I am not making any claims whatsoever to understand any job
market that lies outside the definition I've given above, but if you
were talking about the global job market for programmers, I can assure
you with utmost certainty that things are not as glum as you believe.
:)

Cheers,
Josh