Workplace reviews and discussion: 金盛元興業有限公司

They proactively contacted me to arrange an interview with the “department manager.” I looked at the company introduction on the 104 Job Bank website; it was well-written and seemed fairly proactive and positive, and the content seemed normal. The HR lady sent me a text message through 104, saying to bring Chinese and English résumés, certificates, and work samples. I then went to the company website to take a look, and it was entirely in English. I thought, “It’s rare for Daya Township to have a Taiwanese company modeled after a foreign enterprise that looks so much like an international company. I might as well give it a try.” I spent two days preparing the materials they requested. I arrived at the company on time. Although the exterior was an old, run-down bungalow, we shouldn’t look down on people. The lobby was all right too; inside, there were partitions in a faux-industrial style, and the office area was still underneath corrugated metal roofing. It must be unbearably hot in summer. Then the receptionist handed me a résumé form to fill out. Writing “according to company policy” for expected salary wasn’t acceptable—they insisted that I write an actual figure. Fine, I wrote NT$36,000, which was lower than what I earned at my previous two companies: NT$80,000 at the last one and NT$50,000 at the one before that. At that point, another person who was also there for an interview arrived and started filling out the résumé form too. After we finished, the HR lady came over and said it was time for the interview, asking me to go into the conference room together with the other person. I thought, “No way. What is this? How lucky can I be—to encounter two people applying for the same position and have us interviewed orally together?” Well, I was already there, so I decided to see what they were up to. Then a very self-confident, somewhat arrogant young man came in. For context, I’m 46, and the other gentleman was about 56. This young man in his early thirties started by saying, “You have three minutes to introduce yourselves. Starting now.” Wow, this was the first time I had ever encountered such a polite young man. I was truly lucky. The other gentleman and I had both spent twenty or thirty years in the industry, both had graduate degrees, and both were changing jobs at the managerial level. To receive such a polite welcome was really something we ought to reflect on. Six minutes later, we finished our introductions. The young man said nothing, simply opened the door and walked out, leaving the two of us who had come for the interview behind. Then HR came in and said, “You can leave now. We’ll notify you this Friday whether you’ve been selected.” I reminded her that today was Friday and there was only one hour left before the end of the workday. Only then did she change it to next Friday. How lucky we were! We got to be interviewed by such wonderful company managers!

If you have plenty of time to kill, and want to practice filling out résumé information and preparing materials and work samples (they were too lazy even to ask about them or look at them), you might as well come here for an interview!