[tabtab]

Re: "an exploitative outsourcing platform for unpaid, entry-level labor from developing countries..."

It hasn't quite happened yet, but the chance of IT going the way of factory workers in the future seems quite high. It's labor intensive but much of it can be done anywhere in the world. If you are lucky, you can be a liaison between management and constantly shifting overseas techies.

[flukus]

> It hasn't quite happened yet

This is certainly not for lack of trying. Outsourcing was much more common 10-20 years ago than it is today but a combination of wage growth in outsourced countries and terrible quality has just about seen the end of the practice.

[gumby]

In Japan, programming / software development has always been a blue collar job.

[tabtab]

Societal status aside, how does it pay?

[gumby]

Programer wages are very low.

I'm not sure they are even higher at SCE (Playstation), Nintendo, Bandai or Sega; but at least the people at those companies look happy and like they are having some fun. Actually, happier than the people working at the AAA houses in the USA.

[emodendroket]

Probably not. https://gamerant.com/playstation-japan-studio-downsizing/

From what I've read the more traditional Japanese way to think about it is that you want to get onto the management track ASAP if you've got any sense.

[redis_mlc]

Very low - possibly the lowest of any engineering job, since software is not considered engineering in Japan.

Also, most employees have to buy their own notebook computers, so you see Windows thickies from the 90s.

Source: worked in Tokyo doing field work for 2 months at a major corporation.

[webmaven]

> Very low - possibly the lowest of any engineering job, since software is not considered engineering in Japan.

So what does the (private industry) career path for a CS graduate look like? Or do all the folks who want to study something computer-related end up as EEs?

[fomine3]

It tend to especially on traditional companies, but YMMV. I believe very few traditional company allow BYOD.

[PurpleFoxy]

Sounds like it could be a contributing factor to the fact that outside of game dev, there doesn’t seem to be any Japanese made software.

[gumby]

What do you mean? There's an enormous amount, in cameras, robots, phones, automobiles and all sorts of electronics.

[PurpleFoxy]

Firmware and embedded software always feels like it was built in a software sweatshop and not really a priority.

[fomine3]

True but software/firmware on such device is tend to considered to second citizen.

[raarts]

> the way of factory workers

Note the complete change in software development process towards something resembling an assembly line.

[tabtab]

If it's reverse engineering an existing application in an obsolete platform and translating almost verbatim into a new platform, it can resemble that. A lot of software work is porting from older platforms.