Workplace reviews and discussion: 翔定興業有限公司

The company environment is very stylish, with special lighting and displays of company products everywhere. The pantry area has a fairly high-end countertop, and even red wine glasses (?

The office plays broadcasts, so the atmosphere feels quite lively and not dull or lifeless.

Everyone in the office has an L-shaped desk. The partitions are very low and the monitors are very large, so basically, at a glance, you can see what every employee is looking at on their computer.

There seem to be quite a few small eateries in the nearby alleys.

The company is not close to any MRT station; there are only bus stops.

Interview cheat sheet:

1. The listing for the order-follow-up sales position said it paid 48,000, but after luring people to the interview, they said they were actually hiring for a marketing planning position at only 42,000. The order-follow-up sales position was not actually available at all.

2. They had a marketing planning employee who was about to leave explain the position. After listening, you were expected to give the manager a specific, concrete marketing plan. If you only discussed broad directions or concepts, they would constantly shoot them down or overturn them, without seriously listening to what the applicant said.

3. I previously worked on functional clothing for a well-known waterproof certification brand. During the interview, the manager repeatedly asked about the brand’s raw materials, technology, and other details. It did not feel like they wanted to confirm how well I understood fabrics; it felt much more like they were trying to extract the brand’s trade secrets from me. It was a very unpleasant experience.

Here is how the interview went:

At the time, I saw an “order-follow-up sales” position on 104 Job Bank, with compensation listed as starting at 48,000, so I proactively submitted my résumé. They replied very quickly and arranged an interview.

On the day of the interview, I was interviewed simultaneously by the sales manager and the marketing manager. We began with self-introductions, and I talked about my work experience and the job duties.

I said that my previous company made functional clothing for a well-known waterproof certification brand.

They relentlessly asked how much I knew about waterproof fabrics, including what membrane, raw materials, and technology that brand used for its waterproof materials.

At first, I thought they wanted to know how deeply I understood fabrics.

Only after the questioning continued did I realize that she was simply trying to extract the brand’s secrets from me.

(Products certified by this brand cost twice as much. How could I casually disclose these secrets to a contract manufacturer? ==)

I continued by talking about my experience with garments and textiles.

After listening, they said they saw that my résumé mentioned experience in marketing planning (from my university internship), and asked whether I was interested in applying for the company’s marketing planning position (Were they listening to me at all...?

Then the sales manager accidentally let slip that the company’s order-follow-up sales team was fully staffed and they were not actually hiring for it.

I thought, then why advertise the position at all?? Just to trick people into coming to an interview??

Changing me to a different position would be one thing,

but they also slashed the salary the company itself had posted on 104 from 48,000 to 42,000, on the grounds that this was an area I was less familiar with.

I was dumbfounded. Who would still want to go? ==

In the middle of the interview, they called in the marketing planning employee who was preparing to leave and had her explain the position to me.

She was a foreigner (from a country involved in a certain war) and a minor influencer on Instagram.

The entire explanation was in English. The job involved managing the company’s major social media accounts and website, promoting the company’s products, and sending weekly promotional emails to the customer list in the system. It was 100% in English, and the copy had to be tailored to how foreigners read; it could not be Chinglish or overly formulaic. Basically, aside from asking colleagues in Chinese what they wanted for lunch, everything in this position was done in English. I recommend applying only if your English is very strong or at a second-native-language level.

After she finished, they called the marketing manager from the earlier interview back in.

She asked whether I had any thoughts about marketing.

I thought she wanted to ask for my opinion on the position or whether I had any marketing directions in mind.

I gave a general direction, but she kept arguing against it.

Either she wanted me to go into more detail, or she shot it down.

.....

Suppose I really had a fantastic idea today—why would I tell you?

I was only there for an interview. If they did not hire me,

couldn’t they just steal my idea directly??

Besides, I did not understand the company’s SWOT or its products, so I really did not understand how specific a proposal they expected a job applicant to provide.

I started asking questions in return: What are the company’s strengths?

Her answer: Good quality. The only drawback is the high price, because manufacturing in Taiwan means high QC costs to maintain quality.

.....This manager also did not seem to understand the company’s products or the applicant’s questions very well 😅

She could not produce evidence proving the advantages of their own products, and when I said that the money was being spent on labor costs rather than materials, she still refused to admit it.

She effortlessly laid out all of the company’s disadvantages, without considering how to improve them and increase competitiveness. She only demanded that marketing find a way to promote the products.... You can imagine how difficult communication would be if you joined the marketing team under this kind of manager....

Whenever I asked a question, she argued.

In the end, I really could not continue. We hastily ended the interview, and I practically fled.

Here is what I dreamed:

The company is about to be handed over to the second generation. This year, they brought the son back to handle marketing because he had studied abroad, spoke excellent English, and was good at dealing with foreigners. So they found a Ukrainian girl who happened to be in Taiwan to help him write copy.

I do not know whether the son understands how to run the business, but it is clear that he does not sufficiently understand the company’s organizational structure. He knows how to increase exposure on social media and online, as well as produce media content quickly. He is suited to being a social media editor, but definitely not the best person to run a business.