Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

I had my performance review the other day and my salary won't change.  I accepted that fact since I recently joined the company in October, making my residence roughly over 4 months.  Because the company is small, I realized I could not negotiate that much for a higher salary.  Also, I accepted that in return for my current salary, which matched my previous job's pay, I would be focused more on the skill level aspects and receive the normal freedoms of a typical internet company in America.

That said, I also realized that I would not be able to receive a salary hike for another year.  I cannot even negotiate at this point because of the fact that I had just started the job and would cause irrevocable damage to my career if I attempted to look for another job.  In other words, I'm stuck.

The biggest problem for me is that I could not contribute enough to deserve a salary hike at this point.  Certainly, my (lack of) Japanese skills deducted some points, but I think that the harsher reality is that I did not do something to earn the company money.  I think the communication skills, while critical at work, would not truly boost my salary at this stage for what I do, considering that my focus is almost strictly technical and that the company faces a great deal of intergroup communication problems. 

This situation has led me to a theory about finding jobs.  I think that the best time to switch jobs, at least in Japan, is around April.  By that time, you can grab the bonus and still have 8 or so months to produce something in your next company that might qualify you for a pay raise.  My friend works at Lehman Brothers and he has about 2 additional months over me in experience, but did not get a salary hike.  Of course, he got a bigger bonus and got his "raise" by switching to that job.  Still not getting a raise is not getting a raise.

In general though, I think you need some time to deliver something so that you can give the company a good reason to give you a raise, promotion or decent bonus.  Normally, I got my raises through switching jobs but I had to make an exception this time, due to the fact that I needed to exit my previous company.  So make sure that you can get enough time to deliver something like a product or major adjustment to receive the bonus/raise, etc.