Workplace reviews and discussion: 品翔電通股份有限公司

1. Accepts fresh graduates, especially those with overseas degrees; their monthly salary can be negotiated to nearly twice the minimum wage.

2. Good for those who like traveling to China or want to stay away from Taiwan. The company has no factories in Taiwan, and the bosses all ask business staff to spend as little time in Taiwan as possible.

3. I can't think of any other advantages.

1. Same as point 1 under the advantages: Salary increases are difficult, especially if you are not favored by the chairman or the business manager. It is very difficult to get a substantial raise, and you must negotiate your expected salary clearly during the interview. Few new hires have their salary adjusted to their expected level after passing the probation period.

Also, if you have business-related experience, state a higher salary expectation directly. Otherwise, you may be furious after joining and discovering that your salary is the same as that of a fresh graduate.

2. Same as point 2: In my personal impression, the company's several factories in China are mutually antagonistic, and the internal environment is stagnant. Many people have the attitude of “you only pay me so little,” so most employees slack off, compete over who can talk the loudest, or dump all the work on newcomers. The company focuses on a few major clients from Europe, the United States, China, and Taiwan, while smaller clients are considered unimportant. The machinery, production lines, and development resources are inadequate; customer delivery deadlines are consistently missed; and the submitted reports and data are repeatedly found to contain errors. Reporting these issues to the Chinese managers is useless—they only say that they have no extra manpower available. The factories keep delaying hiring, causing the younger Chinese employees who still have the option to leave to gradually do so.

Taiwanese managers also do not dare to manage the situation or get too involved. Unless it concerns those major clients from Europe, the United States, China, and Taiwan, they simply tell you to figure it out yourself, dumping the problems reported by their subordinates back on them and telling them to solve them on their own.

3. The Taiwan headquarters is headed by the chairman, while the business director controls the business operations of the entire group and even involves himself in the affairs of other departments. The company is highly bureaucratic rather than flatly managed, and lower-level managers also do not dare to express too many opinions of their own. Therefore, even if your direct supervisor says okay, if the business director says no, then it is no, with no room for discussion. They also only tell you half of what is going on and leave you to slowly guess the rest. They interfere in everything but take no responsibility and provide no direction. The company is constantly consumed by internal friction, and turnover among new and young employees is very high.

4. New hires must go to a factory in China to “learn” for several months, with no additional allowance. The probation period is three to six months, and it may be extended if the people above do not like you. In practice, however, the training in China is also very unclear. The HR staff in Taiwan do not seem to understand the situation at the mainland factories either; every week they ask whether you have courses or on-site training arranged. Yet another new hire who joined later was eventually proactively assigned to internships in various departments after several months.

Before that, I had to find things to do every day and go to the production units to learn about the work. The on-site staff and supervisors all acted as if to say, “What are you doing here?” They were also unwilling to tell me much. It seems that there was no proper SOP or process for onboarding new hires here either.

5. Senior employees hide behind the scenes and just give orders from the sidelines—several of them do this. In the end, all that matters is whether the boss and supervisors like you. If you are a newcomer looking to build up your experience, this place is okay. But if the internal problems are not addressed, the newcomers below will keep leaving. Ultimately, the company is the one that suffers, and it also loses the trust of many clients that previous employees worked hard to cultivate.