Pros
Nice local employees
Ability to work remotely/hybrid
Cons
Pay was incredibly low, and annual bonuses were insulting. I was paid roughly 60% below market while working constant 50 to 60 hour weeks. Most days ran from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and that was treated as normal. The workload was relentless, and there was no recognition, adjustment, or compensation to reflect it. Burnout was not an exception, it was expected.
Working with the corporate team in Japan was exhausting and deeply frustrating. Their focus was consistently on minimizing their own workload, regardless of the impact on the U.S. teams. Work was routinely pushed downstream, decisions were delayed or avoided, and the result was more rework, more late nights, and more pressure on the U.S. side to absorb the fallout. Accountability rarely flowed upward or across teams (especially in Kyocera corporate).
Management had little to no technical or business understanding of the products they were overseeing. Decisions were made in a vacuum, disconnected from reality, and driven almost entirely by schedule and budget optics. Quality, sustainability, and team health were secondary concerns at best.