Thousands of recent college graduates are entering the workforce this week in Japan, and they have done well just to survive the grueling interview process. While most of them are probably content just to have a job lined up at all, a lucky few have already landed their dream job just out of school.

Landing a job in the IT industry is a particularly difficult feat. But if you do manage to score one, you’re guaranteed a high starting salary, at least according to Japanese variety show Akko ni Omakase. This Sunday’s broadcast featured a segment listing the starting salaries for new workers at eight popular IT companies in Japan. How do you think those salaries stack up against one another?

Here is the list of monthly starting salaries at eight major IT companies in Japan in descending order. Oh, and just for reference, the average starting monthly salary for a Japanese college graduate is 198,000 yen (US$1,925).

DeNA: 387,000 yen ($3,762) GREE: 350,000 yen ($3,403) CyberAgent: 340,000 yen ($3,305) Rakuten & COOKPAD: 300,000 yen ($2,917) Dwango & Mixi: 280,000 yen ($2,168) Kakaku.com: 223,000 yen ($2,722)

Phew. Not bad for someone right out of college! We’d never even heard of DeNA until spotting them at the top of this list – apparently e-commerce is the place to be right now!

Upon seeing the list, netizens responded with comments such as:

“A couple of them are about three times as high as mine was.” “Is DeNA’s starting salary really that high?!” “DeNA’s figure may look high at first glance, but I’ve heard that workers who don’t quite make the cut are forced to leave quickly…” “GREE is still cutting labor costs…” “Employees at (recipe and food site) COOKPAD are probably the happiest though.” “I must not compare those starting salaries with my salary at 30. I must not compare…”

How do these numbers stack up with the starting salaries of IT jobs, or just jobs in general, in your home country?

Source/Top image: Kabumatome

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