Rakuten Reviews

Cons

HR is a disaster and company is too big and uncoordinated at the moment

Cons

CEO’s attitude and influence is the engine of the whole company, and unfortunately he is a narcissist, a bully, and a buffoon. He marches around with a “support staff” of yes-men who he openly treats like servants. Every week he gives a “speech” in front of the whole company (mandatory attendance unless you have express permission from your manager to miss it) in which he just parrots the latest Silicon Valley jargon (“We need to focus on innovation,” "Artificial intelligence is going to change our industry," etc). Presents himself as a visionary leader but is obviously only imitating industry trends. He constantly name-drops his “friends” (tech celebrities from more prestigious companies, pop stars, etc). It’s embarrassing, like watching a very rich and clueless child. He has publicly disapproved of Donald Trump’s politics, but he is comparable to Trump in character and behavior. Imagine working for a Japanese Trump; that’s about what it feels like to work at Rakuten.

Increasing Japanese influence on the US work environment, both in terms of policies and in terms of the ratio of Japanese expat employees to American employees. Makes it clear that the Japanese run this ship, and the Americans just work here. There is a massive culture gap between the Japanese and everyone else, and it seems to be widening rather than narrowing. Even in the US office, the most influential executives are Japanese, and speak Japanese among themselves in the office. It creates a feeling of alienation and the sense that the real decisions are made behind a culture barrier without much respect for what’s on the non-Japanese side of it.

Salary is below market. I joined after being laid-off from another firm, so I felt vulnerable and desperate at the time. In retrospect, I should have held out for something better. The income I might have lost by waiting for another offer is minimal compared to what I lost by working at a below-market salary for two years.

No career-pathing to speak of. None. Zero. No formal system or structure to help employees progress, and individual managers have no incentives to develop junior employees, or even the tools to do so should they wish to at their own initiatives. You could have the same job at Rakuten for 10 years; it’s not a ladder, it’s a hamster wheel.

Just bewilderingly disorganized for a company of its size. A hundred layers of process and approval for the simplest projects. Takes forever to get anything done, ten people to do one person’s job, etc.

There are countless meetings where ten people will fill up a conference room and dial-in from three offices across a dozen time zones just to listen to one person read bullet points off a power point screen for 30 minutes. No discussion, no problem solving, no decision making--just brain damage all around. If you have the temerity to ask “What is the purpose of this meeting?” they look at you like you’re breaking some kind of rule and tell you that “information sharing is very important.” Ever heard of email, you muppets??? I’m in my 30s so too young to have experienced office culture in the 1990s, but I imagine Rakuten is probably a good approximation. You could just go watch the movie Office Space, or you could work at Rakuten. One is a comedy, the other is your life.

I came into Rakuten from another large e-commerce company, one that I would describe as a well-run, professionally managed, first-rate corporate organization. (Not the most prestigious brand in Silicon Valley these days, mind you, but on the inside it was still a first-rate place.) The contrast between that experience and Rakuten shocked me. In comparison, Rakuten is a clumsy, amateurish, third-rate organization. Don’t let the size and global reach of the company fool you. On the inside, it is amateur hour.

I came in with lots of energy and enthusiasm, expecting to grow my skills and contribute to an industry-leading program. It looked great on paper. In reality it felt like I had gone back to high school. I was seriously worried that my business skills would actually atrophy at Rakuten due to the general ineptitude and outdated business culture that forms the infrastructure of the company. Luckily I was in an external-facing role, so I was able to keep up my chops by interfacing with outside firms, otherwise I probably would have come out less skilled than when I went in. It’s like an anti-MBA, just cramming your head full of redundant processes and dysfunctional practices.

The frustration level in trying to get anything done is off the charts. Rakuten is the most sluggish, backwards, illogical, outdated, frustrating business environment I have ever been exposed to. And that’s speaking from a biz dev perspective where I regularly engaged with other firms and their managers as part of my work. Every firm has its quirks, and some are more/less effective than others, of course, but God, Rakuten is just a mess. It was embarrassing to have to share some of our practices with potential business partners when scoping joint projects. They would just look at me across the table in disbelief/frustration. I was actually told sarcastically by a channel partner, "Congratulations on having the most complicated pricing structure of any marketplace worldwide." You could replace "pricing structure" with just about any element of our company and the sentence holds true. So many questions to which there is no answer other than "That's the way we do it at Rakuten." So many instances of "Why couldn't we just..." to which the executive answer is always "No," without any explanation or rationale. Utter lack of flexibility in problem solving or decision making, it's like they froze everybody's brain in 1995, hired ten thousand lawyers and accountants to make sure it stayed that way, and asked Franz Kafka to consult on the whole deal just to make 100% sure everything stayed as rigid and opaque as possible.

Toward the end all of the above really started to affect my overall mood and psychological condition. I felt like I had taken a step down in life. I saw so much grinding stupidity at Rakuten that I just got depressed. I thought I would never get away from it. It became difficult for me to get another job, partly because it was hard to advertise myself as successful when I was immersed in an unsuccessful environment. (How can you explain that everything you’ve tried to initiate for the past two years has been stymied by bureaucracy and Japanese executives who make decisions from 6000 miles away about markets they don’t understand and clients they can barely communicate with?) I really thought for a while that Rakuten had ruined my career. When I finally got a solid offer to leave, I almost cried with joy and relief, and my self-esteem shot up about 1000%. How’s that for a KPI?

Cons

A lot of turn over.
No clear strategic direction aligning the full marketing team.

Cons

No idea how to run a company outside of Japan.

Cons

Still many employees can't speak English
Bureaucracy is a problem in the company (in all Japanese companies I guess)
Too many policies/rules/burden hence impede the productivity

Cons

lack of direction from all departments. doesn't seem like a growing company especially with amazon dominating the e-commerce industry.

Cons

This is by two former employees.
-Management by fear, always letting us know that we are replaceable.
-No structure as far as "Management" goes
- Wait, who do we report to?
-Favoritism, Favoritism,Favoritism!!!!!!! Because hiring family is TOTALLY in line with company policy *eye roll*
-S.O.P is not followed by any means.
-Corporate complains about certain things not getting done, comes in to do said tasks, and makes things 500% worse....then blames other people for said things being 500% worse...and the circle of life continues.
-Management other than the manager belittles you, is never clear with their intent or goals, walks all over you and makes it public.
-they take in any temp off the street. ANY. TEMP. From thieves to thugs to cracked out fiends and all the seedy ilk they can find.
-Corporate watches you from the cameras above like some freakish God-like entity. HALF OF WHICH DON'T WORK. which helps those I talked about previously to loot the place blind.
-USELESS MONTHLY MEETINGS WHERE HALF THE STAFF FALLS ASLEEP!
-Promises of bonuses but only if you meet some unruly standard.
-working 14 to 28 days straight without so much as a thank you.
-A goddamn OSHA nightmare that would get any other warehouse shut down in a seconds notice.

Cons

You will be forced to exist in a company with a Japanese culture that is rammed down your throat. Policies make no sense at all. You will be forced to endure a weekly mandatory one hour meeting where you have to listen to what is going on in parts of the company that have no relation to you or your job. Truly the worst managed company I have ever worked for.

Cons

- Horrible maternity leave- only 10 days
-Japanese Nationalist Dictator founder
-Below market salaries
-Complete disrespect of American culture
-Management by shame and punishment
-Founder thinks Americans are lazy and shouldn't be allowed to work from home
-Snacks and drinks were taken away because founder thinks Americans are fat and lazy
-Salaried professionals must check in upon arriving in the morning - akin to a roll call
-Feedback is not only not welcome but all run in fear as Founder is prone to fits of rage, unreasonability and firing. Surrounded by yes men who carry out his orders
-Attendance is monitored by security cameras and badge check-in, instead of trusting your employees to actually show up
-Only 1 Female executive in a global company of more than 12,000
-Big brother mentality
-Founder thinks he understands Silicon Valley, but actually has no interest in following local laws and norms, but instead wants US locations to become conservatively Japanese

Cons

- No direction or training
- It's difficult to communicate with coworkers in other locations or departments since tools aren't standardized
- Terrible location in San Mateo that isn't close to any public transportation. Shuttles were offered but were inefficient and facilities didn't seem interested in fixing them.
- Constant meaningless meetings where attendance is required and monitored
- Working from home is treated suspiciously
- Meetings are scheduled outside working hours regularly
- The feedback that is asked for is never acted on