Rakuten reviews

3.6

71% would recommend to a friend

(3,537 total reviews)
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Hiroshi Mikitani

78% approve of CEO

56% positive business outlook

Rakuten has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 3,537 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Rakuten employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

4K reviews
1.0
Dec 15, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

At some point they used to offer free lunch everyday. That was discontinued.

Cons

Have been with the company almost 6 years, was promoted once. That one time I got promoted I did not receive a raise. A year later I was informed I should have received one, and they adjusted my pay but no retroactive payments were made. Employer does not care for employee growth/development. They will happily let you sit in the same entry-level role for 2+ years just because they can't find someone else to do that niche crappy job. No raises or compensation for time/experience. Their performance reviews are 100% a farce, a charade. They make you rank your work on different measures 1 through 5. NO ONE EVER GETS A 5, NO ONE. And no one ever gets a 1 because a 1 means "fire them". A 2, 3, or 4 gets the exact same raise %, EXACT SAME. You can score a 3.5 - 4 and still get a 2% raise because "that's what everyone else got" that is direct quote from my manager. Their raises do not even match inflation. Managers will gaslight you - intentionally give you nonsense negative feedback just to say later you don't deserve more of a raise. They will desperately look for anything, no matter how small, to justify paying you less than you are worth. You are never allowed to discuss your compensation with anyone other than your direct manager - it is at your direct manager's discretion if you should get anything more. HR will never meet with you - requesting a meeting with HR or your boss' boss is considered insubordination because you should have gone through your manager. If you are an engineer GUARANTEED your boss' hates his job, they don't even hide it... openly talk how all they want to do is code. You will see engineer managers leaving the company to become Independent Contributors elsewhere. Diversity at this company is simply lip service. If you are a woman or a person of color you will be paid less than male counterparts. This is well known. I personally confirmed salaries with engineers in my department that left the company. I brought this up and was told my figures were not accurate, that was a lie, I had proof. Stock options are a JOKE.

2.0
Oct 26, 2019

Bad culture shift

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good pay, decent benefits, flexible work schedule

Cons

Leadership does not care about their people. They are completely un-engaged. No one trusts HR because they protect the company not the people.

1.0
Jul 16, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Opportunity to learn new technologies, but they seem to be gambling too much by only using newer technologies. NoSQL + Node.js + Buzzword bull. They seem to be more concerned with buzzword compliance that using proven technologies.

Cons

They claim to have more than 20 million subscribers, but with their platforms being essentially legal adware/spyware tools, most of the subscribers are not acquired voluntarily. One assumes most of Freecause.com’s subscribers don’t even acknowledge what Freecause is, who their clients and sponsors are, or that they are individually subscribed to a marketing list created by Freecause, which is used to strictly create revenue streams for third parties (and of course themselves), via annoying, malicious tools. Seems to be run by a CTO that has unresolved childhood issues where he must feel authoritative. That may work in other countries, but this is the US.

Viewing 43 - 45 of 3,537 Reviews

Glassdoor has 4,189 Rakuten reviews submitted anonymously by Rakuten employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Rakuten is right for you.