Falcom is hiring ;)

[kyouki]

Kind of interesting thing...

I bought The Legend of Heroes III White Witch today and when I opened the box there were the usual things... registration card, DVD, manual.

But there was also a full color poster basically advertising that Falcom is hiring. I've never seen something like this before. It suggests to me that Falcom as a company is so passionate about their games that they want to hire fans to work with them.

I just thought that was really cool.

They are basically looking for designers, programmers, artists (graphics and sound), as well as office people (sales, marketing, IT people).

Unfortunately you have to live in Tokyo (or be able to commute there) and the pay is pretty low for Tokyo (roughly $25,000 a year to start but with bonuses equalling up to 5.4 months salary twice a year on top of that).

But think of how cool it could be to work at Falcom!!

[Ascended Mermaid]

You gotta dream! Everyone's gotta dream.

[FM-77AV]

Or better yet: live in reality. And do the sane thing: not work for Falcom.

[Yakra]

After calculating... I think that might be more than I earn in a year... maybe... (maybe not). Certainly a lot more than my silly job pays me though! A part of me is declaring 'oh ho! a good way to get nice cheap INCREDIBLY dedicated labour!' (Who better than rabid talented fans? X'D )

But.... all my negative talk aside, it would be heavenly to be one of the Falcom artists!


(Its also in a way... (can't find the exact word for it..) sweet? :'D I mean, its almost like Falcom wants to involve the fans in the very series they love?)

[Ascended Mermaid]

Heh, who knows? With fan-based jobs rolling around, they could hire professional translators and expand their horizons -- with an Engrish website, Engrish transrations... or any language! Their production would have to be mad though; I'm talking plants that run 24/7 or something!

[kyouki]

The salary is quite low, but that's typically what you get for an entry level position. Japanese companies tend to pay you more the longer you have been with them.

If it wasn't in Tokyo it would be a pretty decent wage. Unless you are in one of the big cities with extremely high costs of living (Tokyo and Osaka for example) salaries tend to be in the roughly $25,000 to $35,000 range. I went looking for IT jobs here (because back in the US I was a network engineer) and no matter where I looked the pay was the same- $25,000 to $30,000. These were positions that required certification and some experience. And they were in Nagoya City!

[Ascended Mermaid]

It'd probably be cheaper to commute, wouldn't it?

[kyouki]

Yeah, I think you'd pretty much be forced to at that wage. It's like anywhere, the wages are higher in the cities but so is the cost of living. So to maintain a better standard of living you commute. But then that cuts into your personal time, which has a price too. Honestly if I could commute to Tokyo I would apply for this job. Beats teaching English.

[Ascended Mermaid]

No, no kancho.

Uwaaaa~!

Personally, I'd have to commute by bike, heh. Even then, urk. Unless they have need of testers, secretaries, or even phone/e-mail support gurus, I'd have to pass.

X) What does McDonald's pay out there? Haha... ha... hmmm...

[Ascended Mermaid]

Well, let's look at the beasts from my perspective, shall we? Minimum wage... 25k/y w/dual semi-annual raises... OR minimum wage...

I used to make somewhat 300-400 ish every biweekly check... for good measure, I'll round it at 350. In a year, that would be...

Not even 8.4k, vs. 25k.

I'm very conservative, I don't waste things and I spend very little. When I need money for anything, I just buy the cheap $3 Smoke Ones for a while. That's something I did for one Christmas, where I must've spent... eh... let's see...

- Pink DS Lite...
- Namco Museum DS...
- Angelic Kitty Statue...
- Necklace w/"Love"...

...screw it. I don't know how much I spent, I blocked out a lot of previous purchases from my memory. All I know is, it wasn't cheap during the holiday season, and whoever got all of that JUNK obviously didn't appreciate it.

[FM-77AV]

Jul 13, 2008 16:54:40 GMT -5 Ascended Mermaid said:

- Pink DS Lite...
- Angelic Kitty Statue...
- Necklace w/"Love"...

Wait, what?

[Ascended Mermaid]

I didn't stutter. They were gifts; not for me.

1. Her sister sold all of her christmas presents the year before that, so the pink DS was a replacement for what she didn't get to have.

2. She likes some of the older school, arcade classics.

3. The kitty was just... something sweet I guess. I figured I'd get her something that didn't have moving mechanical parts and wasn't iconic of my feelings toward her.

4. Something iconic of my feelings toward her.

She dumped me around 10 PM, Christmas night.

At the time, it really stunk... but think of it this way. She set me free, otherwise I would've been all goo-goo eyed for a total bitch. Which she was. Which I did. I just mean I would've had to endure her... bitchiness for longer than I needed to. Bitch.

Notice how I keep my ex's anonymous too. Talk about respect where it's not needed! X)

[Ascended Mermaid]

Exactly. It's never that it's too expensive, you just have to... balance.

[kyouki]

Keep in mind the bonus Falcom offers! Their bonus last year was nearly 11 months salary. So that would bring the salary from $25,000 to $47,000.

Also, like all reputable Japanese companies they reimburse your transportation costs, so while commuting might eat up a lot of your time at least you wouldn't have to spend $200 a month on the crazy Tokyo public transportation system.

Like I said if I was anywhere near Tokyo I'd send them a resume. With the bonus it's significantly more than I am making now, and at least there I could continue my real career rather than sitting in a classroom talking in English to kids who would rather be at home.

The cost of living in Japan is very high, but like wyrdwad wrote if you stay out of the huge cities and commute it is manageable. The apartment I am living in is actually bigger than the one we had in the US, and the rent is a little cheaper on top of that. And it's only a 40 min subway ride to the city. You can save a lot of money on food if you avoid eating out and shop at the equivalent of dollar stores. I haven't figured out what to do about all the Falcom games I want to buy yet...

[FM-77AV]

Bonuses? That's such a strange (and bad) system. Never encountered anything like that before.

[kyouki]

Every reputable company in Japan offers bonuses to their professionals. It is a terrible system. They basically withhold a huge portion of your salary and give you to you in anywhere from 1-3 installments a year.

Yes, this means they can claim they didn't make enough money, or your performance was not up to standard... which means for all your 60 hour work weeks you only make your base salary (which in Japan is around the $20,000 or $30,000 band).

Things like: leaving work before your boss, not coming in on the weekends to help out, not going out with the rest of the office after work for dinner and drinks... can all be held against you when bonus time comes around.

So when all is said and done, Japanese professionals work 60 hour weeks all in the hope that they will get paid less than a typical American in the same position in the US!

I considered continuing my IT career in Japan but wasn't too pleased with the notion of working 60+ hours a week for less than 1/3rd what I made in the US.

[kyouki]

I had it so nice back in the US, sometimes I dunno why we came over here.

I will never make what I made in the US working my 40 hour workweeks in Japan, that's for sure. My brother in law is 39 and he's an actual engineer (not a fake one like I was) and I still made more than twice his salary (with him working from 9a until 11p M-F) when I was 27 in the US. Not because I'm some super genius success story but because in the US companies compete for hard workers whereas in Japan you basically work at the same company from when you get out of college until you retire. They have no reason to pay you more to keep you there. It's a sucky system, that's for sure.

From what I have seen if you want to get out of the $20,000-$30,000 band you basically have to move to Tokyo and have "native" level Japanese ability (note, not "fluent"... they want you to speak/read/write Japanese at the level of a Japanese adult of the same age and education). I guess I take that as code for, "no foreigners allowed."

On the other hand, Falcom lists on their job posting "7.5 hour workday" as a perk, so maybe they are awesome to work for.

[kyouki]

Well, that's hopeful. I don't particularly want to work for a video game company really, but on the other hand I wouldn't mind working for one if the pay and benefits were good.

[Red Hairdo]

Jul 12, 2008 11:47:34 GMT -5 FM-77AV said:

Or better yet: live in reality. And do the sane thing: not work for Falcom.

xD


Hm, to think I'm on IT and System Analysis in college...
But working in Japan, and for Falcom... ha! xD

Not going to happen with me. =/

I WILL learn japanese sometime later in this year or next year though...
But even so...

Too many changes at once.
It's not something I'd do, I guess. Unless I want to put many things at risk and if Falcom would still be hiring 10 to 15 years later. xD

[FM-77AV]

Just knowing japanese isn't enough. I'm sure they want someone who knows their stuff.