Workplace reviews and discussion: 富連網股份有限公司

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Applied for a software engineer position (C#), with 3–4 years of experience and front-end, back-end, and database skills.

Environment:

1. No one answered when I arrived and tried to contact the designated contact person. The security guard had to get in touch with someone before I could reach anyone (even though everyone in the company was clearly there).

2. The layout of the people and space in the internal work environment was somewhat uncomfortable.

Initial aptitude test:

It mainly tested attitudes toward teamwork and the handling of priorities.

Then came the department interview (one manager and one employee).

After my self-introduction, they immediately asked about my current compensation. I had already stated that I preferred not to disclose it confidentially, but they kept returning to the subject and asking repeatedly to get to the bottom of it; otherwise, they could not continue the interview. So I asked what the company’s salary-setting criteria were. They said it would ultimately be used by HR as a reference for determining my salary. (It was strange—my previous companies were all in different industries, so using that method to set compensation is rather ridiculous.) They also brought up the fact that my university degree was not in a related field, so they needed to know my previous salary. They even wanted to know the salaries from all my previous jobs (including non-IT positions—seriously?), and said that without that information, they could not determine my salary. They also said that if there was too large a gap between my current salary and my expected salary, HR would do this or that.

Their intentions were so obvious—do they really think interviewees are idiots?! Besides, what does the percentage increase I get when changing jobs have to do with you? Naturally, the higher the salary I can negotiate, the better. Otherwise, is the “expected” salary listed just for show? In the past, I stated a reasonable or slightly lower figure and still got it cut, so of course I quoted a little higher this time. Besides, no matter what I quote, doesn’t the company already have a budget? How could they possibly simply pay whatever compensation I request? Then what would be the point of negotiating?

In any case, I once again said that I was not comfortable disclosing it. (They had not even talked with me to any meaningful extent before wanting to know my previous compensation. The whole thing felt terrible and was genuinely very rude. Why not explain how your company structures its compensation?) Then the other employee jumped in and said rather arrogantly, “I’ll be honest with you. I also changed careers, and I’m not afraid to tell you that my previous salary was XX. The company can’t really understand your level just from your résumé” (then what is the point of interviewing?), “so of course salary is used as a reference. What is there to be afraid of? Besides, people in the company with more experience than you don’t even receive compensation that high.” (So what exactly does my previous salary have to do with this?) Or they would say things like, “What abilities do you have that would let you negotiate a salary like that?”—as if trying to provoke me.

I then said that I was capable of handling front-end, back-end, and database work, but they still insisted on knowing my salary. I no longer wanted to continue the conversation, so I ended the interview there.