Workplace reviews and discussion: 敦樸企業股份有限公司

The company office is beautiful… it has wooden flooring… and windows… I personally really like wooden floors… without windows, it would feel very stuffy… That’s probably about it……… (helpless + wry smile) Haha 😂

Interview process:

1. After arriving at the company, the HR representative didn’t show up. Someone who clearly had no idea what was going on came over and handed me a test paper to complete.

2. After I finished, I waited for who knows how long before finally entering the office of one of the directors for the interview.

Interview for the IoT PM position

3. After I went in, he asked me to introduce myself, but it felt like he wasn’t listening.

4. He said he wanted to find someone to maintain the content on the website. When he saw that I knew Photoshop and Illustrator, he said the company’s graphic designer worked very slowly and hoped I could help the designer as well. (Seriously? Am I interviewing for a graphic designer position or a PM position? No matter how much you try to stretch the connection, this is still a planner’s job, isn’t it? Besides, I applied for “IoT.”)

5. I asked whether there were any other PM-related duties besides those things. He said that was the job: assisting the PM supervisor in carrying out the work. (A completely forced connection.)

6. He said my English was very good and asked whether I could help translate the website content. I reluctantly said yes, but since I’m not a native speaker and the website content is technical and specialized, I suggested hiring a translation company and having me help verify that the translation matched the company’s intended meaning. He then started saying:

“Your English isn’t that good? You can’t translate it?”

“I didn’t say I couldn’t. I’m just saying that I can’t reach the native-level standard you mentioned. I’m not a foreigner.” (You might as well ask someone to start over from scratch—it would be faster, haha.)

(He got pushy again.)

“So you can’t translate it?”

“…Then hire a translation company. I already said I can translate it, but the translation company is what you need if you want native-level quality. If you don’t require that level, I can translate it.” (Holding back my anger.)

7. After repeatedly being pushy and pestering me, he asked me to introduce myself in English. I started speaking, and it felt like he still wasn’t listening. This time, he interrupted me after just three sentences.

8. After interrupting me, he started talking again about the website content and graphic design work. I asked whether there were any additional PM-related duties. He said that was it, and said he wanted me to do marketing (in very broken English; I heard it as “mockup” 😂).

9. I asked, “What about the IoT responsibilities listed in the job description?” He asked me what IoT was. I explained the concept of IoT to him, and then he asked me again what IoT was (?). By this point I was furious and said, “Internet of Things. End of story.” He said their official website was online, so that was IoT. (Uh…bro, you’re amazing \^0^/)

10. He said their PMs and graphic designers weren’t good at English, so they needed someone to translate the official website. Does hiring someone and paying a monthly salary, labor and health insurance, and year-end bonuses for a year really cost less than hiring a translation company…? What is wrong with his brain…? Or was he planning to force someone to finish the translation within two weeks and then fire them quickly…? That’s possible. At this point, I could no longer hold back my anger and said that this was very different from what I had seen on 104, so there was no need to continue the interview. He immediately said, “OK.”

He didn’t even walk me out. Extremely disrespectful.

11. When I left the office, I made a point of telling the person who had received me that I had finished the interview. She only said “okay” and then went back to doing her own thing. I walked out the front door by myself, feeling completely furious.