Glassdoor vs xkula.com
When it comes to job hunting, Glassdoor may be the most popular website out there. Other big-name websites in the field of job hunting include indeed, LinkedIn, PayScale, and ZipRecruiter. However, when it comes to reviews of work experience, Glassdoor stands out from all of these other websites.
What is Glassdoor anyways?
For those who never used or even heard of Glassdoor, we will explain briefly what Glassdoor is. If you already know what Glassdoor is, then you can skip down to the next section.
Glassdoor is a website where current and former employees anonymously review companies. They allow users to view and search company reviews and also allow them to post their own experiences as well.
They are a subsidiary of Recruit Holdings, which also owns and runs Indeed.com as well. The company was founded in 2007 and has been operating for about 14 years now.
Other than a text format company review, they also allow users to submit ratings for various aspects of the company such as Senior Management and Career Opportunities.
An interesting feature that makes Glassdoor unique is that they allow users to either thumb up or thumb down their CEO. This feature is used to rate how the CEO is perceived amongst its workers and Glassdoor analyzes and ranks these data.
Okay, now what’s xkula.com?
xkula.com most commonly known as just “Xkula” is a website that is similar to Glassdoor at first glance but quite different in their respective purpose.
Xkula and Glassdoor is both a website that aggregates company reviews at its core. They both allow users to post their work experience and then allow them to search and view company reviews which other people posted.
So how is Xkula different from Glassdoor then? What is the purpose of Xkula?
Here is the answer: Xkula is for English speakers who are currently working or trying to work in Japan.
There you go. Xkula’s purpose is very specific. Its main purpose is to help English speakers who currently work or planning to work in Japan so that they can get enough information about companies in Japan.
Xkula is for English speakers working in Japan
Xkula is a website that is created specifically for the target stated above because there just isn’t enough information about companies in Japan out there for English speakers.
There might be many reasons why you decided to work in Japan. Maybe you were interested in Anime. Maybe you really wanted to work at that company located in Japan. Maybe you came to Japan because your wife or husband works in Japan.
Whatever the reason may be, working in Japan has its highs and lows, just like working in any other country. However, it is always scary jumping into a new environment, especially if that is a foreign environment, and you should be able to gather as much information as possible before you jump over to Japan.
How do you get information without Xkula?
It is important for you to know what you should expect from a company you are going to work for for some period of your precious lifetime.
So if you are thinking of or planning on working in Japan, how would Oyu gather information about companies in Japan?
The most obvious first choice may be a website like Wikipedia. Yes, a lot of companies in Japan have Wikipedia and they even have more information on their Japanese version page. If the English version of the Wikipedia page doesn’t have enough information on it, it is always a good idea to try and go to the Japanese page and translate it into English using Google Translate.
If the company you are interested in does not have a Wikipedia page, then probably the best choice for you now is to go to their Homepage. However, a lot of corporate sites in Japan aren’t optimized in English and it may be hard to find the necessary information you are looking for, even on their official website.
So what now then? Will you be stuck with not having enough information about that specific company? How about when you want to search company reviews for a Japanese company? How would you know whether the company has a working environment for Non – Japanese speakers.
That is where Xkula comes in.
Why should you use Xkula instead of Glassdoor?
So, after you checked the Wikipedia page and the homepage of the company, where would an average job -seeker go to search for information?
Typically, if they cannot understand Japanese, they will be left with two options.
Option 1: Glassdoor and Option2: Google Reviews
These are probably the websites that might have detailed information about companies in Japan.
However, these websites have their flaws as well, and it is hard to say that they are the right tool to get the necessary information about companies located in Japan.
First of all, you should know that Glassdoor does offer the functionality to post and search company reviews based on locations. You can search for example Tokyo or Osaka for a specific company and the corresponding post will appear. You might find useful information here if you are planning to work at the same location as that person.
Glassdoor lacks an important feature Xkula has
However, what Glassdoor lacks is that it wasn’t made for English speakers working in Japan (Obviously). Glassdoor does not optimize its website for a specific location, because it was intended so that any job-seeker can use it. The ability that anyone can search and post reviews easily is Glassdoor’s strong point.
Glassdoor only requires you to write and post the pros and cons of a specific company. You can also write and post advice for the management of the company s well. However, that question tends to be too abstract and broad.
You won’t be able to gather information about how they support people with diverse backgrounds and how they support Non -Japanese speakers in Glassdoor.
If you are planning to work in Japan, you would want to know how people from different situations adapted to that company and how the work environment treated them.
What about Google Review?
Another option, besides Glassdoor, is maybe Google Review. Google Review has a lot of reviews about companies in Japan. However, they tend to be reviewed by customers, not employees. You can get a glimpse of how the company is viewed by the public, but you will not be able to tell whether an employee had a good experience at the company or not.
You might be able to suspect that a company that is viewed positively by customers treats its employees well. Nevertheless, you won’t be able to find company reviews from current and past workers on Google Reviews, and you might feel that this service doesn’t provide enough necessary information for you.
So, looks like I should be using Xkula right?
From what we’ve written so far, you might think that you’ve learned enough about how Glassdoor and other services differ from Xkula, but might not quite understand what Xkula actually is.
Well, that was intentional because we wanted to make the following point clear so that you won’t have to waste time by continuing on reading this article.
Are you an English speaker who works in Japan? (Or planning to?):
Then you should definitely use Xkula.
Are you someone who does not fit the category above?:
You should definitely not use Xkula.
It might sound repetitive by now, but in order to get the message out, we wanted to make this point clear one last time.
So, now that you know whether you should be using Xkula or not, we will explain the main features Xkula provides?
Glassdoor is one of the most popular websites in the world. Alexa ranks Glassdoor #317 in global internet engagement.
Features Xkula has, which Glassdoor does not have
Xkula has mainly 3 functions. Function 1 is company lists. Here you can search for companies in Japan and search for information about a specific company. Function 2 is company review. You can search and Post company reviews for companies in Japan. Function 3 is Exclusive content. This is basically where you can read all sorts of columns that Xkula publishes.
Nonetheless, at its core, Xkula is a company review aggregator, and what makes us unique is the company review section.
Xkula asks users to post information in more detail than Glassdoor. We have text fields and star ratings asking how the company supported people with diverse backgrounds in our company review submission form.
Did the company have an environment where a non-Japanese speaker could communicate with Japanese speakers? Does the company provide opportunities to change locations or positions? What would you recommend someone to someone who is planning on joining the company?
These are the questions we ask. Instead of a basic pros and cons text field, you would be able to gather more useful information using Xkula. Also, Glassdoor is meant for the general public, not a specific category of users. Therefore, it is easier to find the information you want at Xkula if you are an English speaker working in Japan.
But Xkula is not just a company review site
Although the company review section is Xkula’s main feature, it is not the only reason why it attracts users to the site. Along with the company review section, you can compare similar companies in Japan, and gather knowledge on how to excel in the work environment in Japan.
Xkula provides a large list of companies located in Japan, so if you are interested in comparing companies or searching by industries, you may find out a unique company that you never heard of before.
Xkula also has a lot of content about work-life in Japan, industry reports, and much more. For example, if you are thinking of switching jobs or if you are a new grad trying to crack into a company in Japan, you can read some of the articles we’ve published before.
So, as you can tell by now, Xkula is quite different from Glassdoor in that it is a website dedicated to English speakers trying to have the best work-life (and private life) in Japan. There are no websites like Xkula out there yet, so we try to do our best to be the No.1 supporter for English workers to be able to work seamlessly in Japan.
Xkula is just getting started – Please support us!!
Glassdoor is one of the most popular websites in the world. Alexa ranks Glassdoor #317 in global internet engagement. It currently is the world’s largest website that aggregates company reviews. However, it is not enough for some users with specific needs. Xkula is just getting started, and we aim to be the number 1 website that aggregates company reviews from English speakers working in Japan.
We just launched recently, and are currently trying our best to grow the website. We are continuously adding more content and features to our websites, and we hope that you will be the first to experience it. If you are not subscribed to our website, you can subscribe by clicking here, and you will be notified about news and new updates about our website.