Workplace reviews and discussion: 八亨企業股份有限公司

I don't think there were any.

The office was extremely quiet; I didn't even hear a phone ring, and the meeting room was also somewhat dim. I had applied for a position as an overseas sales representative. The résumé information they required was extremely detailed, including family members and each person's occupation, my physical condition, and a contact person from my previous job. In addition, I had to translate a letter from English into Chinese, write a reply in English to a customer complaint, and answer multiple-choice questions about workplace situations that seemed to have been copied from somewhere. It took me quite a long time to fill everything out.

The middle-aged man who interviewed me said his surname was Lin, so he was probably the owner. From beginning to end, he had an arrogant attitude toward people and often looked displeased. He repeatedly said that he did not look at experience, but instead looked for whether the applicant possessed a certain trait—although he never clearly said what that trait was. Whenever he asked about my relevant experience, his tone was always skeptical, as if he did not believe what I was telling him. He also seemed to have a predetermined “correct answer” for every question; if someone’s answer was not what he wanted to hear, it was worth zero points.

Halfway through the conversation, I felt that the atmosphere was very strange and really did not want to continue. The funniest part was when he asked me what animals I liked. I could not answer immediately, so he said that he liked horses. He also asked whether I traveled independently and which countries I had visited. He even thought that traveling should mean independent travel, and that going to an off-the-beaten-path country like Nepal was the best. (I thought to myself: Traveling abroad is supposed to be for relaxation and enjoyment; where I want to go is none of your business.)

Finally, I asked about the company’s sales staffing and the countries it sold to. He said there were two sales representatives and two sales assistants, that they marketed products in dozens of countries around the world, and that their performance was excellent, among other things. I thought to myself: You’d better actually be that impressive.