Workplace reviews and discussion: 華訊事業股份有限公司

1. Punctual working hours

2. From time to time, there is food available to eat (but it may not be what you want to eat; it might be paid for by the chairman, or it might come out of the employee welfare committee budget—with the cost deducted from your pay)

3. A paradise for coasting toward retirement

4. Quite a few places to eat nearby

1. They focus exclusively on print magazines and completely ignore the internet and social media. They like an old-fashioned travel style for their photography and have no idea what is trendy.

2. The people in senior positions are all quite old. They do not understand what modern people want, do not know how to keep the business going or where its funding comes from, and performance is very poor. However, everyone is very good at putting on an act and maintaining superficial peace. Do not tell the truth, or you will be blacklisted and considered a troublemaker.

3. The people in the business department are all very lazy. They mostly contact people by phone and also use working hours to take care of personal matters. When performance is poor, they blame the editorial department, saying the content is terrible, but the people in the department do not know how to develop business and are extremely lax. I have never seen such a terrible sales team. The entire team meets its monthly sales target of 1 million, so that is rather amusing.

4. The editorial department consists of only a deputy editor-in-chief, an editor-in-chief, and editors; all other content is commissioned externally. The content is a hodgepodge, there are no editorial meetings, and everything is decided by the deputy editor-in-chief alone. They have no concept of commercial magazines and do not understand what young people want. The apparent target audience for the content is people over 50, yet they also want to show a youthful side, which is very comical. Although it is a travel magazine, most of the articles are written by searching for information online, and the images are purchased. It is all information that can be found online, so why would readers need to buy this magazine? The deputy editor-in-chief has been unable to advance, and there is no editor-in-chief. Looking at the deputy editor-in-chief’s experience, it is clear that they can only handle ghost editing, special issues, and government tenders. Most importantly, their aesthetic sense is terrible and they are extremely emotional, throwing things when unhappy.

5. At most, the art editors are merely production artists. They need references before they can produce anything, have no understanding of design, and simply modify previous work. It is astonishingly easy money. The situation can only be described as disastrous. However, because they have been in the industry for a long time, one has the deputy editor-in-chief as a protector, while the other older female smoker has the chairman as her protector. Both are waiting for retirement and have no competitiveness whatsoever. Any recent graduate could “design” better than the two of them. Both women also have very bad tempers; if you did not know better, you would think they were members of the imperial family.

6. They constantly try to win government tenders but do not have dedicated staff on the payroll. Even when they win a tender, the work is outsourced or supported by the editorial department. It is absurd, and some projects are obtained through personal connections. Miserable!

7. The company atmosphere is terrible and lifeless, completely unlike a media company. There is no year-end bonus! No year-end bonus! There is no year-end bonus here! The pay is also relatively low. I recommend not wasting your time here; you can even save yourself the trouble of attending the interview. Can you imagine discussing the company’s future direction and prospects with a group of old people who cannot accept new media? The CEO discriminates against LGBTQ+ people, making it an unfriendly environment.

8. This company also has a president, and I have no idea what purpose they serve. They have the final say on the cover, earn an extremely high salary, and yet no one knows what they actually do. They have lived in Taiwan for many years but are still living in memories of the past, when print magazines were flourishing. Naturally, the cover style is the same way.

9. Everyone in the company loves to use emotional blackmail, which is ridiculous. The entire company is made up of old people, with only a handful of young employees, and the turnover rate is very high.

Conclusion: If you have ambitions in media or publishing, coming here will completely crush them. But if you are looking for a company where you can coast toward retirement, this would be an excellent choice. Just remember to curry favor with the people in senior positions—that is the most important part of this job!