I worked as a development engineer for a certain ERP product at the Taichung Dali office for two years.

My main responsibilities were developing ERP frontend programs, fixing bugs, and troubleshooting customer issues (debugging).

I am very passionate about learning technology. I did not come from an information technology background, but after teaching myself programming languages and SQL, I joined this company.

Overview and corporate culture:

This is not a typical technology company, but a software services and sales company oriented toward manufacturing management consulting.

Most people understand the software industry to have building high-quality, high-performance products as its primary goal. This company, however, attempts to establish strict and inflexible SOPs like those used in manufacturing, and then hires the cheapest labor to develop its products. Simply put, it aims to create a work environment where even idiots can code, in order to reduce labor costs.

Therefore, most new employees are recent graduates. Although the company does provide training courses, the main focus is on getting employees into their jobs as quickly as possible. Technically, you are not encouraged to learn anything outside your own responsibilities, because once you spend time learning or searching for information—even if it is only one hour—your performance score will decrease (see the KPI management system). The company still arranges many courses for you, but rather than learning technology, it would be more accurate to describe them as “learning how to operate the company’s products” and “learning the company’s development processes.” This is why many people say you cannot learn anything at this company: unless a customer poaches you, what you learn there has no value outside the company.

As the people who were relatively technically proficient in the early days left the company, subsequent management hired only inexperienced people. The technology used by the company is seriously behind the industry; the most recent technology/frameworks currently in use are probably from around 2000. When developing new products or features, because management is generally unfamiliar with technology and unwilling to learn, the resulting architecture is, by industry standards, bloated and inefficient.

Since this is an environment where even idiots can code, naturally many idiots apply for jobs. After idiots have been there long enough, they become senior or advanced engineers or managers. New employees are naturally assumed to know nothing. Even if you actually understand some technology, you will not be valued. Managers and senior employees will not ask for your views or opinions, and even if you express them, they will not understand.

In an environment dominated by idiots, bureaucracy flourishes, and seniority and job titles are treated as standards for evaluating expertise (which is truly a huge joke in the software industry).

Work and performance evaluations:

For work management, the company developed an internal project system that is linked to the KPI system. For each task assigned by a manager, the manager approves a suggested number of work hours—for example, estimating two hours to fix a bug. When you complete the task, you receive two points (you can think of it as collecting points). In this example, if you finish within two hours, it means you are efficient and capable. If you take more than two hours because the logic is relatively complex, you can ask your manager for additional points, but whether the manager will add them is another matter.

Anyone who has written programs knows that sometimes something seems simple to think through, but once you implement it, you discover many more aspects that need to be taken into consideration. If you rush to finish without caring about quality, it will only create more bugs later. This is another great joke resulting from blindly pursuing numbers.

Under this KPI system, the company effectively discourages you from spending more time writing better code. Not to mention that if your manager is difficult to communicate with, you can basically just produce whatever quality corresponds to the number of points assigned.

It is therefore easy to imagine how many bugs that could have been avoided during initial development are created this way. The codebase is also a complete mess, while senior staff still think they have written it well. (Editor’s note: That’s because nobody is better than them.)

At the end of each month, the company calculates how many points you accumulated. Different positions have different standards, and the result is an important basis for annual performance evaluations. Ridiculously, before the final performance score is released, managers can still manipulate it up or down. Officially, this is said to account for contributions not recorded by the KPI; in practice, the score is based on the manager’s personal preferences. Doesn’t this conflict with the fundamental purpose of the KPI system?

Office environment:

The new Taichung office was completed only in recent years, and I happened to join during this transitional period. At the time, the building was largely complete, but the interior was still under construction. Construction vehicles were constantly coming and going, yet to save money, the company told everyone to move in and work there directly, completely disregarding employee safety. It took six months for all construction to finally be completed. The company provides a swimming pool and gym, but they can only be used after working hours, which is unreasonable for a company that operates under a responsibility-based work system. The building’s exterior is impressive, but apart from the lobby on the first floor, there is practically nothing inside. Although the building has several floors, the company would rather leave them empty and unused and squeeze as many people as possible into the same office. Because it uses an open-office design and packs people together so densely, working there really feels oppressive. It also does not provide free food or drinks like a startup, nor does it offer spaces for discussing matters (only meeting rooms). As many as 200 people work on one floor, while one restroom is shared by two floors. If the male-to-female ratio is 1:1, using the men’s restroom stalls as an example, 200 people share three stalls. Whenever you need to defecate, you have to run up or down several floors looking for a restroom. As for the women’s restroom, there are often people waiting in line. It is truly both absurd and exasperating. This shows that the company completely disregards its employees.

Summary:

If you want to learn technology, do not come here and waste your time. If you have no experience and cannot find a job, you could come here to get some practice and learn technology from 20 years ago, haha.

But you should not stay long. Come in to pad your résumé and seniority, learn something useful after work, and prepare to look for your next job.

Benefits:

The salary for a mid-level engineer is NT$36,000.

Other than salary, the company’s benefits are fairly good. There is an annual travel subsidy, the company provides snacks every month, and gifts are given during the holiday seasons. The year-end bonus is based on individual performance; the lowest I received was one month’s salary.