Nomura Securities Employee Review

Current Employee – been working at Nomura Securities

Pros – *Get Paid: a top tier player domestically but 2nd tier everywhere else, Nomura is used to the idea of paying up for skilled staff
*Japanese not required: you may assume not speaking Japanese is a disadvantage but actually it saves you from large amounts of admin (outsource to the assistant) and generally useless meetings. If its really important there will be an English version too.
*Outperform your peers: its not hard to stand out vs a generally old school crowd who are constrained by social hierarchies you need not worry about (age, when they joined, which branch, which university, who their 'sponsor' is, etc)

Cons – *the 1980s office infrastructure means constant heat that will feel like Chinese water torture - eventually you will find your breaking point (or order an electric fan on the company)
*a never-shrinking pool of the world's most expensive labour means that once your sign-on guarantee runs out the bonus pool is spread thin
*Doing things efficiently is not as important as 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Your level of frustration will vary with how important this is to you

Advice to Senior Management – *Earn respect from your staff by restructuring local employees - the short term morale hit will be offset by increased productivity as employees recognise management aren't simply paying lip service to 'performance based pay'.
*Move office.