Workplace reviews and discussion: 華碩電腦股份有限公司

After four years at ASUS, I’d like to share some insights from the R&D side.

[Starting Salary]

For new hires, academic background is by far the most important factor in determining starting salary: the top four universities first, followed by the other top national universities, national universities, and private universities. The salaries are almost fixed across each tier and are not adjusted much based on individual ability. If there is any adjustment, it is usually downward (this is one source of HR’s performance results).

Starting-salary pricing varies each year. The group of junior colleagues who joined two or three years ago came in at the peak: graduates from the top four universities started at NT$50,000. Senior colleagues who have worked for two or three years may not necessarily catch up to that level.

[Bonuses and Benefits]

In addition to the fixed two-month year-end bonus (paid around the Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Lunar New Year), there are two bonus payouts each year (in January and July).

The business group and department you belong to are very important. Whether the senior executive is in power and whether the business group is profitable affect the average bonus for that unit.

Your individual performance then determines whether your bonus is above or below the average.

Within a business group, hardware departments usually receive the most, followed by firmware, and then other departments.

In recent years, departmental bonuses have been approximately NT$100,000–300,000 per payout (NT$200,000–600,000 per year), with an average of about NT$200,000 per payout.

I have also seen bonuses of zero because things were simply too dark: a manager directly withheld every penny to force someone to resign.

P.S. This department is relatively stable and profitable, and its bonus figures are in the upper-middle range within the company. Some units average less than NT$100,000 per payout.

[Overtime]

It depends on the department; conditions vary greatly between departments.

The average workday in my department is 12 hours, while the neighboring department (in a different business group) is completely empty by 7 p.m.

I have never claimed overtime pay. Although it can be applied for through the system, the senior manager explicitly said that whatever overtime pay you claim will be deducted from your bonus. Naturally, this may also leave a poor impression and affect your performance review, so I have hardly ever heard of anyone applying for it.

[Department Culture]

There are major differences between departments, depending on the style of the department- and division-level managers. Some are harmonious, while others engage in internal political maneuvering.

Most R&D staff are young, generally between 25 and 35 years old.

[Performance Reviews]

Performance reviews affect bonuses, but they are not the sole determining factor. The senior manager is the decision-maker who ultimately determines how much money you receive.

Each department uses a different evaluation method. I have heard of evaluations based on seniority, the manager’s personal preferences, genuine assessments of each person’s performance, rotating evaluations, and more.

[Promotion]

For some, it takes two or three years; for others, five to ten years to have a chance at a management position. It depends on whether a management opening becomes available and whether the senior manager happens to promote you.

According to the company culture, the preferred ranking of employees is as follows:

1. Strong ability and willing to work overtime > 2. Average ability and willing to work overtime > 3. Strong ability and leaves on time > 4. Average ability and leaves on time

In short: willingness to work overtime matters more than ability.

[Company Culture]

Like many Taiwanese companies, the company places considerable emphasis on reducing costs. R&D staff spend a lot of time dealing with bugs caused by replacing components with cheaper alternatives; if the bugs are not fully resolved, product quality inevitably suffers.

From the R&D perspective, it is difficult to understand why some high-end products will replace a component costing a few dozen New Taiwan dollars (or even less than ten dollars) to save money, only to create a large amount of debugging work. (Perhaps overtime R&D staff are free.)

Being assigned to Computex or an innovative product is more demanding, but also more rewarding. At least, when working overtime, it feels more worthwhile—referring to the sense of achievement, not the money.

A large company has all kinds of people: serious, highly capable experts and people who make excuses and lack ability each account for roughly half.

When you encounter the latter, you can spend the entire day doing nothing but arguing.

No matter what agreements you make with co-workers, remember to have them documented by email; otherwise, being stabbed in the back once will teach you how painful it is.

[Advantages]

The company cafeteria is okay, with plenty of choices. The lunch subsidy is NT$60 and the dinner subsidy is NT$70, so you almost never need to pay for meals.

If you want to start a family and settle down, housing in nearby Tamsui at around NT$10 million is affordable.

The company has not cut the seven statutory days off.

There are two days off per week, and generally there is not much overtime on those two days.

The company’s brand is large enough that it is easy to move to other system manufacturers; with somewhat stronger abilities, there are also opportunities to move to a multinational company.