The company has a strong brand.

If you are applying to work at this brand’s amusement mall in Kaohsiung, or at one of its rest areas in Tainan or Taipei, please pay close attention yourselves. This brand uses franchising as the basis for opening its stores. Several of the stores currently recruiting are franchises operated by a certain food and beverage company. At this point, if you have extensive work experience, you may be able to read between the lines.

1. Interview experience

During the interview, a woman who claimed to be from Human Resources arranged to meet me at the entrance to the mall’s amusement park. (I later found out that she was the manager.) Her interview SOP was: listen to your work experience → ask why you left your previous job (or why you are about to leave your current job) → briefly tell you about the current store-opening plan → discuss salary and benefits → discuss the expected start date.

2. Work experience

First of all, please pay attention: don’t try applying to stores that have not yet opened. I interviewed one month in advance. During the interview, I was told that the store would open one month later and that, if everything went smoothly, I could support other counters during that period and transfer over once the store opened. However, on my second day at work, I first heard the manager of the counter I was supporting say that I was an employee of their counter. I then heard that the café might be delayed for another two months, and that they had not even found a location for the café counter. Only after I repeatedly asked about it myself did I learn that the final contract had not even been signed, and that staff training would not begin until September this year. This was completely different from what I had been told during the interview.

Second, the counter I supported was part of a department store operation, but it was outdoors. You had to stand for the full eight hours, and there was no break in between. At first, I didn’t know this, and the in-store supervisor told me that I could sit down. I was immediately scolded by the manager. However, these working conditions had never been clearly communicated beforehand, which made them very difficult to accept.

Third, regarding salary, let’s return to what I mentioned about the interview. Do you remember how the manager discussed it with you? She would first listen to your experience, and afterward tell you that the company used an hourly-based monthly salary system: full-time employees had to work a full 176 hours each month, with a salary of NT$23,100. The key point is that you would also have to support other counters afterward. Whether the salary is high or low is for each person to judge.

Conclusion: This was the most insincere interview experience I have ever had, and the one in which the most empty promises were made. Everyone knows the principle that employers should not doubt employees once they have been hired. Likewise, employees hope that a company can earn their complete trust. However, this company’s system and the statements made by its senior managers simply cannot be trusted at all. I advise anyone interested in working for this brand to look for stores that have already opened. If you discover that the franchise operator is a certain Tainan food and beverage company, it would be better not to join.