Workplace reviews and discussion: SO NICE_信宏國際開發股份有限公司

I applied for the position of graphic design assistant.

The company environment is fairly large, and they are currently expanding. It is a furnished office, so I assume I would not be responsible for cleaning the company.

Interview questions

Q: The supervisor asked me to introduce myself.

A: I started by describing my educational and work background, then explained why I submitted my résumé to this company. I mentioned that I had first looked at the company website and so on. Finally, I said that I wanted to work in a field related to design, which was why I applied.

The interviewer: Could you say more about what you expect from the company?

I casually made up a few empty answers.

Q: How late have you ever worked overtime?

A: 11 p.m.

Q: How long would you stay at the company?

A: At least one year. After that, I could reassess the situation.

The interviewer: What would make you continue to stay?

I mentioned having good opportunities for raises, and so on.

The interviewer: We adjust salaries normally, but it also depends on performance—for example, not making frequent mistakes or delaying your coworkers. We also hope people who join us will stay for a long time. Otherwise, after we finish training you, you leave—why not have you pay us instead?

I think the answer they really wanted to hear was that I was willing to stay for three years. Although the latter comment is quite reasonable from the employer’s perspective, they should also consider the salary they are offering. They are trying to hire people who are not good enough at a low salary, aren’t they? Would truly capable people come here? It goes both ways.

Q: You can start work next week, right?

A: That’s correct, but I still have several interviews lined up, so it might not happen that quickly.

The interviewer: If I told you that you were hired right now, would you still go to the other interviews?

Yes, because the salaries offered in the later interviews are higher.

The interviewer: What is generally considered a higher salary nowadays?

33,000.

Interview process

　　To state the conclusion first, when I received the interview invitation, I had already searched through articles on Interview Fun, Tianyan Tong, and similar sites. So I never intended to take the job from the outset; I was simply gaining interview experience. I did receive a job offer at the time, but I declined it.

1. First, I filled out some paper forms resembling a personality test and basic-information forms.

　It was obvious at a glance what the “correct” answers on the personality test were, so I found it rather pointless.

　I deliberately left my national ID number blank on the personal-information form. During the subsequent interview, I was asked to complete it. I asked whether that meant I had reached the hiring stage, saying that I would fill it in after they confirmed I had been hired, and so on. The interviewer said that it would be destroyed if I was not hired. Because of the atmosphere at the time, I felt pressured and only filled in my ID number.

2. Computer test

　They simply wanted me to make something exactly identical to one of their banners. I thought it was quite easy, and there was no need to retouch the details of the person—at most, you just had to remove the background. Since all of their photos were taken in-house, removing the background was not difficult. In fact, because of the background arrangement, you could remove it rather roughly. You could place the reference image they provided underneath, then find the identical image in the folder and arrange it accordingly.

　They also asked me to choose one image from seven images that looked almost identical unless examined carefully. The key was observing the details. By comparing the banner reference image above with the unretouched images, you could tell that they wanted you to choose a retouched image. The important thing about the retouched image was that the wrinkles in the clothing had been corrected. In my observation, the correct answer should have been number 7, whose wrinkles had been smoothed out in the most natural and even way overall.

3. Next came the interview discussion.

　I was interviewed by someone in a managerial position who had attended Fu Hsing Trade & Arts School. Applicants who graduated from Fu Hsing Trade & Arts School may receive additional consideration. He gave a very detailed introduction to the job. The company has two brands, with each team responsible for one brand. Each team has about six people. Every week, a team needs to retouch more than 400 images, so each person has to retouch around 70. In addition, employees need to learn photography, although they will teach you how to get up to speed quickly. Basically, you should be taking photos using fixed settings. You also have to produce various banner sizes for three types of sales channels, and he expected one banner to be completed in about an hour. There is also advertising production for various physical retail channels.

　He also mentioned that the company generally does not require overtime from February through August, but from August through February there is frequent overtime because of various holiday sales and auction events. This company does not do seasonal-change campaigns, and he could not provide an average number of overtime hours. At present, three employees have worked no more than 10 hours of overtime over the entire year. Overtime is first compensated with compensatory leave; it can only be converted into overtime pay if taking leave is not possible. However, if he thinks you should not have needed to work overtime, he will not allow you to report it for overtime pay. The supervisor also said that he is a rational person, but I felt this effectively meant that overtime pay was not guaranteed.

　He mentioned that what he values most is efficiency > attitude > creativity. This suggests that it is a relatively exploitative, high-pressure graphic design job.

　Finally, the salary offered was 28,000 plus a 1,000 full-attendance bonus. Since I had initially quoted 28,000 to test the waters, after hearing about the workload, I felt that a starting salary of 30,000 excluding the attendance bonus should have been a normal baseline.