Workplace reviews and discussion: 赤天空股份有限公司

1. The company is very generous with bonuses. As long as you perform well and the opportunity arises, you have a chance to earn bonuses directly from the boss! The year-end bonus in particular is really substantial—enough to take a month-long vacation in the United States (not a bare-bones backpacking trip).

2. Most colleagues get along very well. The boss and managers are approachable and communicate with us like friends. Even now, we still keep in touch and happily get together for meals.

3. You can bring any problems to the boss. If a project doesn’t suit you, you can discuss it with the boss; if your workload is too heavy, you can speak up about that too. It’s rare to have a manager you can communicate with like this (I haven’t encountered another manager like that since—sob).

4. The company provides employees with a budget for taking classes and developing their skills. I personally took two courses (one lasted six months and wasn’t cheap). As long as you tell the boss, they’ll let you take a class, so don’t passively wait for someone else to arrange one for you! You create your own opportunities! Don’t keep making excuses about being too busy or not having time! (To quote an old saying: Time is like cleavage—squeeze it and you’ll find some!)

5. After two full years with the company, employees can go on the company trip for free. Aside from paying half for my first company trip (because I had only just joined and hadn’t been there for three months), I didn’t pay a penny for the other trips. And these company trips are overseas—usually to Japan—with tour fees of NT$40,000–50,000. Even better, it wasn’t my own money.

6. As long as your work performance is good, you get a salary adjustment once a year. I got a raise every single year!!! People who didn’t get a raise should reflect on themselves instead of complaining about why the company didn’t give them one, haha.

7. Since everyone gets along well, we often go out for meals (participation isn’t mandatory). The boss or managers are always happy to pick up the bill to reward us for our hard work (working hard really calls for eating to relieve stress!).

8. The experience you gain here is incredibly useful at other companies. I practically passed every interview after leaving, and working here makes you highly competitive! (I’m sincerely grateful to the company for nurturing me.)

The downside is that we’re too close to the boss and are more like friends, so sometimes the boss says things that are really tactless (but I still forgive him).

Another thing is that some projects come back every year, so after doing them for several years, you can feel burned out (but actually, that also means the work is very stable and you don’t have to worry about making a living).

One more issue is a common problem in this industry: the working hours are very long. But if you’re not that resilient, you shouldn’t enter this industry in the first place—this is my sincere advice to everyone (if my child ever says they want to become a planner, I’ll definitely give them a slap and tell them to shut up, hahaha. Same goes for becoming a designer ^^).