1. The interview was quite detailed.
2. The office environment was fairly comfortable.
1. The company's systems are unbelievably outdated, and their lack of completeness seriously hurts work efficiency, yet they insist on using those damn things anyway.
2. There are so many unnecessary formalities... Every little thing has to follow lengthy SOPs, and we're constantly doing a bunch of pointless tasks... Having systems and procedures is a good thing, but going too far in every matter isn't good either...
3. We have to write a work log every day and a weekly plan every week. I used to write work logs too, but mine focused only on the key points. I found it a little annoying at the time, but it was still manageable. Basically, I would briefly outline the day's main tasks and report them verbally to the general manager so he would know what was going on. Looking back, it could still be considered helpful for keeping track of things.
I never expected that here, the logs would have to be extremely detailed! You even have to record the number of hours spent on every task—down to 0.1 or 0.2 hours—and the total has to add up to eight hours every day... Then comes the contradiction: you can't include time spent on miscellaneous tasks. For example, if you spend 40 minutes organizing the weekly plan, you aren't allowed to record it. LOL!
4. I often see colleagues in the administrative department being assigned tasks by department A one moment, department B the next, and then department C. It makes me wonder which department they actually belong to. The HR staff are also all very young. It's unbelievable that the HR department of a large company doesn't have even one experienced senior person supporting it...
5. This is also the most important point: The company nitpicks over everything, from a single pen or sheet of paper, not to mention employee benefits. If you don't participate in activities held by the company on holidays, they immediately threaten to deduct a large amount from your performance score. This then affects all subsequent bonuses and year-end bonuses, as well as possible raises and promotions.
On top of that, there is a rule stating that if you resign before completing a year, you have to compensate the company with one month's salary; if you work fewer than 15 days, you can only receive one-tenth of the proportional amount based on the number of days worked. Based on this alone, the company basically does not treat its employees very well.
I didn't properly read through everyone's shared experiences beforehand. After going through it myself, I felt I had to share my experience for future employees to consider.
All colleagues except those at the supervisor level are very young (recent graduates).
On your first day after joining, you have to sign a contract.
Warning! In fact, the contract already contains provisions that are illegal.
One clause states that if a new employee has worked for fewer than fifteen days (excluding regular days off) or resigns voluntarily, they must agree to receive one-tenth of the originally agreed salary.
The second illegal provision states that if an employee passes the onboarding assessment (probationary period) but does not wish to continue working for one year starting from the date they pass the assessment, they must pay the company one month’s salary as a welfare fee, payable in cash before leaving.
The company does not provide employees with a copy of the above contract.
The company is also seriously understaffed, and the turnover rate is very high.
One person has to take on multiple roles, and employees are almost constantly working overtime (overtime pay is only granted if approved by a supervisor). If the work is not completed, the company considers it a problem with your abilities.
None at all
Project timelines are assigned completely arbitrarily, causing the delivery deadlines for many projects to fall at the same time, resulting in an endless cycle of overtime. Even after reporting this situation to upper management, they just pretend nothing is happening and make no improvements.
Typhoon days off are unpaid. Overtime must be applied for in order to be approved; otherwise, it is treated as voluntary overtime, which is worse than what is required by the Labor Standards Act.
They lure fresh graduates into joining and then require them to sign a two-year contract. Almost everyone writing code there ends up breaching the contract and leaving, and you cannot learn any technical skills.
The salary is much lower compared with the outside market. Compensation is split into many categories, resulting in a very low base salary, and the year-end bonus is also minimal.
In recent years, almost everyone who has joined the company has had connections there. It is starting to become a family business, so outsiders should not expect to have much say.
They explain the job responsibilities in detail and are not vague. They are fairly friendly toward fresh graduates.
The interview waiting time is too long
They kept emphasizing that a two-year contract is required
The location is fairly easy to find...?
The interview placed extreme emphasis on signing a contract, saying that signing was the only way to give back to the company. The contract was to be signed for two years after becoming a full-time employee; the probationary period did not count. The probationary period ranged from three to six months. The company takes on projects, and aside from the benefits required by labor laws, no other benefits were mentioned... It feels like they are looking for disposable, merely adequate employees. Based on what the interviewer said, the company's training also did not seem very well developed, and employees mainly have to learn on their own.
Overall, the interview experience felt unpleasant. They considered signing a contract to be the way to give back to the company. During the interview, they repeatedly tried to pressure and challenge the candidate, but the points they pressed were basically all intended to set up the claim that the company requires employees to sign a contract... The job duties were also explained quite vaguely, probably because of the project-based nature of the work. If you are opposed to signing a contract or to working for a project-based company, you may want to consider avoiding this company.
All of the colleagues are quite young (because most of them were recruited shortly after entering the workforce).
1. During the interview, they mentioned that “overtime is not encouraged, but if necessary, you can apply to your supervisor.” In practice, however, when you need to apply for overtime, the supervisor will first turn around and question why you need to work overtime (most overtime is required to accommodate clients). They will also bargain with you, asking, “Can’t you just finish it earlier the next day?” (The client requires it to be completed before you can leave work.) They may also ask, “Didn’t you have time to handle it during working hours?” (The client assigns so much work that it cannot be completed, which is why you need to stay after work to continue working on it.)
2. When applying to use “annual leave,” you may be challenged about the reason for taking leave. Even after telling them that you have something to take care of, they will still ask, “What is it?” Taking a day off is very difficult.
3. Since many clients are government agencies, employees are informed in advance that working hours and holidays follow the government agencies’ schedules. However, there is not the same flexibility when applying for overtime. When clients had to work on May 1, International Workers’ Day, employees had to accommodate them but were not given a compensatory day off. Someone reported the issue, after which the day off was restored, giving the impression that the company applies two different standards.
4. As for benefits: the year-end bonus is basically one month’s salary, calculated based on the annual performance evaluation (along with a number of complicated criteria). Performance scores are usually just average, so you should not expect too much. The holiday gift money for the three major festivals is not much (approximately a few hundred [New Taiwan dollars]). Job seekers can weigh this aspect according to how much they personally value it.
High turnover rate. Training involves watching SOP lectures and videos, followed by an exam. There are quite a lot of unnecessary and inefficient meetings. Every year, there are fresh graduates' energy to exploit; the probationary period may last up to six months, and you have to sign a two-year contract.
The company believes that as long as it retains key personnel, everyone else can be disposable engineers. Engineers’ experience has no value to the company, resulting in very short engineering tenures and driving away all capable people. After all, there is always a new batch of fresh labor available to come in and burn themselves out every year.
The original interview was for a position that did not require programming.
A week later, there was a test, and the position became one that required programming—that would have been fine, but it is also the case that employees at the company's northern and southern branches receive different pay for the same work, and compensation was never renegotiated even when job responsibilities changed. The company's training takes a sink-or-swim approach; if you feel unsuited to programming work and want to return to the previous position, you are even given hints that you should resign. This is the first miraculous company I've seen where programmers are paid only 26K, receptionists are responsible for tracking project progress, and customer service staff have to help modify programs.