Pros
The ability to work overtime.
Cons
This is a direct sales organization. As such, everything is geared towards the sales people out in the field and anyone working on the administrative side is going to find their jobs extremely unfulfilling. Any changes made will be for the betterment of the sales team, only causing more work and stress to the administrative side. This was my experience throughout my one year at Keyence, made all the more worse by a toxic atmosphere fostered within the corporate headquarters. Stepping into the office for the first time you'll be blinded by obnoxiously bright fluorescent lights. This serves to foreshadow the sterile and lifeless environment to come. Once your eyes finally adjust and you make your way through the doors welcome to high school detention all over again. Micromanagement reigns supreme here like no other workplace I have ever experienced. Everything is managed. Coats cannot be placed on your chair, no snacks allowed at your desk. Even the height and angles of the window shades are closely monitored and controlled. Taking it even further there are managers whose only job is to find more ways to tighten up the office policies. Not to mention the attire is business professional to sit at a desk all day, completely uncomfortable and unnecessary. That's not all, approximately once every 15 minutes supervisors roam the aisles with apparently nothing else to do, but observe each employee's every move. The seating arrangements are kept open to provide a better view. Take a few too many bathroom breaks? Expect to hear about it on your performance review! Employees are encouraged to rat each other out for any reason at all often leading to false charges, jealousy, and divisiveness. This is the daily environment of the corporate office. If you can handle that then onward to the performance metrics... Corporate employees at Keyence are graded on a yearly / bi-yearly basis. Reviews are conducted by managers armed with nothing more than an excel file filled to the brim with dozens of metrics. Management can always find at least one that is not up to par. Supervisors have no desire to build relationships or cohesion with their teams nor any desire to get to know their subordinates on a more personal level. It's all about the numbers at Keyence and it's a very everyone for themselves atmosphere. This shows in the lack of socialization among employees and total absence of any outside employee events besides the tight-lipped and thoroughly unenjoyable holiday party once a year. Back to performance, unfortunately for the corporate employees the metrics change constantly. What's good for the company and "adding value" one month may be out of style and minimized the next. This makes knowing what you need to do to achieve a high level of performance nearly impossible. The whimsical constantly changing approach to evaluating performance leads to only one thing in the end, everyone is marginalized and lumped together. For management this approach is brilliant. With no over-achievers there is no incentive to promote. Everyone is in the middle and although corporate departments at Keyence rarely make goal they can still sell to their bosses, up the never ending chain of command, that they are managing a consistent team. This satisfies upper management, but peer beyond the numbers and you find a front line workforce doing just enough every day to survive to the next paycheck. A truly miserable situation. To conclude, I'd advise anyone looking into a corporate position at Keyence to take a pass. Look beyond the numbers. Nearly all other reviews online are from the salesforce. From all indications Keyence treats their sales people well and it may be a perfectly fine job to work. But for the corporate employee the money isn't worth it. The decent starting pay leads to meager capped raises and limited advancement opportunities. It takes a decade or more to make a significant vertical move up the ladder in the corporate office. Also keep in mind that the office is located in one of the most expensive suburban areas of the United States so cost of living more than offsets your paycheck. I could not carry on at Keyence in the suffocating atmosphere of the corporate office. Thus my recommendation is to save yourself from the unrelenting stress and avoid any positions here.
