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【A firsthand account of how a verbal offer turned into complete silence】

I am a recent master's graduate. In April 2022, I applied for the User Experience Engineer position in VIVE R&D. There were two interviews and one online written test in total. Before the first interview, there was a written test (English at approximately the level of a high school midterm exam, as well as logical reasoning similar to an aptitude test), and I also had to fill out an application form on the official website. The first interview was with department colleagues and a supervisor; the second interview was mainly with the department supervisor and the PM supervisor. Throughout the process, an HR specialist served as the point of contact for email correspondence.

Within a week of submitting my résumé, I received an interview invitation, completed the online test that same day, and filled out the application form on the official website. The first interview took place a week later. I sent an interview thank-you email to HR that day, and the next day I received a phone call saying that, after discussing it with the supervisor, they thought a second interview could be arranged. The second interview was conducted jointly by the department supervisor and the PM supervisor, but most of the questions were asked by the PM supervisor.

During the week after the second interview, I emailed HR to ask for an update. Since I had another offer in hand, I asked about HTC's intention to hire me and the preliminary result. A few days later, HR called to tell me that the supervisor had decided to hire me. Since salary and benefits had not been discussed during the previous rounds, I discussed them with HR at that time. HR explained that the detailed salary would need to be confirmed with the department supervisor and would take the current salaries of department colleagues as a reference. The following week, HR called to confirm the salary and promised me a verbal offer, but said that because the internal salary approval process would take about a week, the formal offer letter would not be sent until the following week.

After waiting a few days and feeling uneasy, I emailed on Friday of that week to ask whether there was any chance I could receive the formal letter that day or the following Monday or Tuesday. Because of the timeline for my other offer, I had declined the previous company's offer on the day I confirmed with HTC that I had been selected. However, HTC's HR replied that because the internal process was still “confirming” whether to hire me, I had gone from being definitely selected to possibly not being selected.

A week later, I emailed again and asked HR to formally tell me whether I had been hired or whether they were actually still interviewing other candidates. HR replied in the email that the supervisor was “seeking fairness,” so they were still interviewing other people. After that, my follow-up emails about the progress received no response. Then, in early June, I searched the job listing on a recruitment website and discovered that it had been closed.

Based on this painful experience, I must earnestly remind everyone that, while I am not sure how HTC treats other candidates, the application process for this position was by far the worst and most disrespectful experience I have had.

They did not treat recruitment as a project. A project should basically have a start, an end, and defined completion goals. In principle, once a person has been found, the decision should be final, yet they continued interviewing. So if you also receive a verbal offer, remember to insist that they send you written confirmation immediately. Regardless of any internal salary approval process, make sure you obtain written proof. In my experience, many important details were confirmed only by phone, and in the end the verbal offer simply turned into being ghosted.

I hope that you, as an applicant for this position, do not have a painful experience like mine. Remember that when dealing with a large company like HTC, you should be mentally prepared for possible changes and long waiting times. However, if you have the opportunity to work there, I believe it would be a challenging and enriching work experience. Good luck.