The salary is higher than that of ordinary administrative staff, but there are no bonuses for the three major holidays—there’s nothing else.

You also have to be careful about verbal sexual harassment.

But they think they’re complimenting you.

There are many giant babies who haven’t been socialized.

And there is no overtime pay for working overtime.

Other than having a higher salary than ordinary people, there are no other advantages.

The job posting initially said the work location would be Yongchun, but during the interview I was additionally asked whether I could work at other branches. I was also asked whether I could accept working overtime and whether I could handle the potentially intense emotions involved in sales work.

At the time, I thought I could accept these conditions, but after actually starting the job, all I can say is:

What I heard during the interview and how it really felt after starting work were very different.

Starting with the positives, the salary and rest time did indeed seem better than those at other companies in some respects. That cannot be denied.

But the problem is that there is truly an enormous amount of work.

Every day there are unfinished tasks, and the workload is often disproportionate to the amount of time actually available to handle it. What becomes even more exhausting is not simply the amount of work, but that over time, some tasks start to feel like, “You’re the one who has to deal with it anyway.”

The communication style on the sales side was also something I found very difficult to adapt to.

Some matters should clearly involve mutual cooperation, but in the end they easily become things the administrative side is simply expected to handle. People do not always consider the feelings of newcomers when they speak, and after a while it really makes you wonder: Did I come here to work, or to absorb everyone else’s emotions?

There are also quite a few comparisons in the company along the lines of “Back then, we used to…”

Newcomers are easily compared with former secretaries, as if the people before could do everything, so the people now should be able to do the same. But everyone’s working style, circumstances, responsibilities, and even team situation are inherently different. Constantly comparing newcomers with their predecessors is genuinely not helpful to newcomers; it only makes them feel tremendous pressure.

Then there are the bonuses.

If the sales side does not meet its targets, the bonuses administrative staff can receive are also affected.

Personally, I find this very frustrating. Administrative staff still have just as many responsibilities to handle every day, but sales performance is not something one administrative employee can determine alone. In the end, however, the administrative side is still affected as a result.

As for leave, it is not as flexible as I originally imagined. It is not simply a matter of “having leave means you can take it”; in practice, there are still quite a few rules and things that require coordination. If you place a high value on flexibility in arranging your leave, I strongly recommend asking about this clearly during the interview.

As for company management, my personal impression is this:

Some people’s work performance differs considerably from that of others, but managers do not necessarily evaluate everyone by the same standards.

For people who work seriously, this is actually what most easily wears down their enthusiasm.

Having a lot of work and being busy are things you can still endure.

What truly wears you down is: “Why are conscientious people constantly asked to do more?” “Why do certain things ultimately become taken for granted?” “Why don’t people who do more necessarily receive corresponding recognition?”

Supervisors also frequently share their past experiences and achievements, but personally, rather than constantly hearing about how impressive things were in the past, I care more about whether the current team is actually being managed well. After all, newcomers join a company to see what the current work environment is like, not to listen to stories about the past.

To sum up.

If you only look at the salary and rest time listed in the job posting and think, “This seems pretty good,” I genuinely recommend taking a moment to calm down and think it over.

During the interview, be sure to ask clearly:

Whether you will be transferred to other branches

What the actual daily workload is

How much overtime there really is

How overtime is calculated

Exactly how the work is divided between sales staff and secretaries

How much a secretary’s bonus is affected when sales performance is poor

Whether leave can actually be arranged according to your own needs

Whether newcomers are frequently compared with their predecessors

What the actual management practices are

Because some things, if you do not ask about them during the interview, will only reveal themselves after you start—and the reality can be very different.

But if someone asked me, “Would you recommend going there?”

Based on my own experience, I would advise you to compare several more companies before deciding. Really, do not only look at how attractive the job posting sounds. Some jobs look excellent before you join; only after starting do you realize that the real cost is not the salary, but how you feel going to work every day.