Hanlin Publishing has already been discussed extensively, so I’ll go into more detail about the Digital and Planning Departments, which some people are more interested in—in other words, Hanlin EdTech. It also relies on the foundation built by Hanlin Publishing over many years. The company is fairly well-known, and its policies at least comply with the Labor Standards Act. All minimum benefits legally required are provided.

The year I joined, the starting salary for a curriculum planner was NT$36,000 (about NT$32,000–33,000 after labor and health insurance deductions). Basically, this was the standard for people with experience. The supervisor would tell you that this was a special situation and ask you to keep it confidential, but later, because 104 requires salary information to be visible when posting jobs, the figure was simply put in the company’s cloud documents. That could be considered salary transparency and was a very honest approach. People with no experience or less experience received only NT$32,000, which came to under NT$30,000 after labor and health insurance deductions. (Someone mentioned earlier that the actual salary differed from what was discussed in the interview and that their pay had been cut; this was probably the misunderstanding.) It is a good place for recent graduates or people with limited experience to build up their résumés.

The curriculum-planning department was already preparing to shut down before I left the year before last. Those who did not accept the arrangements made by the company probably could only resign, like the deputy director who was preparing for promotion to director. The manager above us was still serving concurrently as a senior manager in the neighboring editorial department. She was very sweet but calculating: she would say nice things about people who were useful to her, but whenever something happened, useful or not, everyone was disposable—like chopsticks that could be discarded after one use.

I heard that after I left, the mid-year bonus (usually paid around summer vacation) and year-end bonus (paid together with the Lunar New Year holiday) were replaced with five KPIs, similar to a growth mindset—for example, editors were ideally expected to handle planning and development work, while liberal-arts staff were also expected to do science-related filming or create questions. “Believe in the team” meant that people from other departments were expected to help out as if they belonged to your own department (if you cannot even remember their names, how are you supposed to help?). Later, clubs were strongly promoted so that everyone would become familiar with one another. Is that supposed to count as a benefit? Some people prefer to keep quiet and not interact.

The remaining principles were broad slogans such as “education first,” “innovate bravely,” and “share weal and woe.” In practice, one person often had to do the work of several people. Moreover, you had to identify with these principles and demonstrate them for three years before you could receive the culture bonus. I imagine many people were given a hard time after completing three years, being told they were not innovative enough or did not pursue growth, and then received only a token amount of money. The poor editors were busy finishing the Grade 10 curriculum guidelines, only to be carved up again for the Grade 11 and 12 materials. If these had been the rules of the game clearly stated when people first joined for the Grade 10 curriculum guidelines, that might have been more reasonable. After working three or four years on new curricula like a jack, lifting everything up, they were simply set aside once the job was done…

Still, it is a family business, so everything ultimately depends on what the boss says. The market still favors employers, and workers still have to obediently sell their health before they can afford medical treatment. In summary, people with little experience can consider it a fine place to gain experience and build a résumé. However, the editing industry itself is a poorly paid, overworked field: if you stay too long, you may genuinely struggle to make ends meet, though you may not starve completely. If you are experienced but cannot find a job and are still thinking about joining, think carefully… Once your experience has been fully used, you may be discarded like a cooked rabbit after the hunting dogs are gone. So keep something in reserve in case you are treated as expendable. Good luck with your job search. (For editorial work, I would still recommend Kang Hsuan or Lungteng; you can skip Nani.)