Please read carefully if you are considering joining the Tokyo office - Consultant Robert Walters Employee Review

I don't usually leave comments on this kind of website but after spending almost 3 years in this company I thought that my experience could really help people who are considering joining the Tokyo office. Again, this is just my experience but any lucid person who has worked in this company will tell you probably the same thing. 1) The job itself. Don't get me wrong, this is a sales job. The motto of this company is profit. No more and no less. The objectives are high (even for the recruitment industry in Japan) .Life in the company is punctuated by quarters where each employee has to bill and cover "his costs". I never really understood how these costs were calculated by the company because they were light years away from my real salary. Don't expect to stay with this company very long after 1 or 2 difficult quarters without covering your “costs” 2) The company's KPIs. The performance of each employee is constantly monitored and driven by internal software visible by your manager and your team (number of calls, number of specs sent, number of resumes sent, number of people added to the database, number of placements etc.. ) This makes the work in everyday life quite embarrassing and even pressurizing. The company defends itself since one or two years to not be the KPI company anymore, but in fact the company has to constantly put pressure on its employees to be able to expect the best performance. 3) Promotions and evolution opportunities. Yes, the company advocates a system where everyone has equal opportunities to succeed and to be promoted quickly. This is true, but in reality, achieving the required KPI's and a high volume of billing with great consistency according to their standards is extremely difficult almost never sustainable. Being promoted requires intense effort, a good dose of luck and great timing with customers also it depends on your coverage and above all billing, BlLLING ! 4) Salary and bonus structure. The quarterly bonus is very opaque. Don't expect to get a nice bonus if you bill less than 10 MJPY per quarter. A little less than that will just pay for a small part of the huge overtime not paid by the company. Itself, the base salary is far from been bad, but if you never make any bonuses in one year that doesn’t worth it. Be prepare for long hours. 4) Company turnover. The company has a turnover rate that is just scary. In the old days, every month, more than 10 people (often non-Japanese) were hired. 80% of them were fired or simply left the company within two years. It broke my heart to see many of my colleagues, sponsored with their visas, having to leave Japan after this bad experience. 5) Internal politics. I was always surprised to see some people become "manager" without really having excellent results, at least in the eyes of the company's standards. The turnover is so high that the average of average or let’s say good elements are promoted at the speed of light.