1. There really are snacks, but not every day.

2. Oh~ there are Macs, but they aren’t necessarily brand-new—you still have to rely on luck.

3. It’s great working with many young, capable new colleagues, but they generally don’t stay long.

4. It’s easy to take time off, and being free to move around during working hours is a great perk!

1. The office isn’t plain and simple—it’s old. There are no desktop computers or extensions; more than a dozen people in one unit share a single company phone. It’s true that Macs are provided, but they don’t come with any software, and having to switch to Office for communication is really inconvenient. Not having Outlook would be fine, but at least provide a directory. Otherwise, when communicating across departments, just finding the right person takes up half the time.

2. The writers hired for recruitment are very skilled. They paint an IPO dream that will never come true for passionate, idealistic young people, just to cover up the fact that all they can offer is peanuts. It’s not that there’s no money, but it can only be spent on packaging the company’s image and boosting revenue, supposedly because it makes the company easier to sell. As for the chaotic internal workflows and manual processes, it’s not that your eyes are clouded by bad karma—the boss simply doesn’t think these things are important. They accept lots of speaking engagements to create an image of an open startup in front of young people, but inside, it’s a traditional handicraft business. They keep shouting about going public and getting listed—what market is a company that goes to such lengths to evade taxes supposed to list on? Seriously? Now they say they want to sell to an international brand, so they’ve started looking for reputation-management companies to clean up their reviews. If they manage to sell, I’ll sincerely wish them well.

3. Office politics and cliques are extremely serious. Some people become high-ranking officials as shareholders at a young age but do nothing except cause trouble everywhere. The more you do, the more mistakes you make; do nothing and you make no mistakes~ People who actually work are constantly picked on, so they might as well spend their time chatting and eating with the boss’s favored son. Don’t take sides, and don’t stand out too much either—you’ll be an eyesore and then get terminated.

4. Finally, some advice for friends who were dazzled by the recruitment copy written by the writers: These people’s real estate and savings are things you could never earn in your lifetime working for someone else. They play a buy-and-sell game. If you’re still interested, remember that salary and leave are negotiable—negotiate for more for yourself.