The company’s employees tend to be younger (for people born in the 1980s, this means fewer generation gaps). They are willing to chat with you more, get to know your thoughts as a person, and learn some things about you (possibly to build rapport or to understand what kind of person you are).
The internal atmosphere also seems quite good. Everyone is young and energetic.
This was truly the most brutal interview experience of my life.
In the first interview, it felt like as long as you showed ambition and expressed yourself reasonably well, they would basically ask you to come back for a second interview.
The second interview was divided into morning and afternoon sessions. Other posts describe the interview content in detail, so I won’t go into it here. They had you accompany a senior employee and fill out forms (and yes, regardless of what position you were applying for, they had you do the same thing—starting from the bottom).
Before we set out, the manager said the interview would last until 3 p.m. and even asked in advance whether I had anything to do before 3. I said no problem.
So I was taken to the Rende Service Area.
At noon, the senior employee would show you their evaluation of you right in front of you (they had an evaluation sheet divided into morning and afternoon sections, with the senior employee responsible for accompanying you assigning the scores; it counted for a small portion of the interview score). They said this was meant to directly point out areas related to the job that needed improvement.
Then the afternoon work began. Yes, that’s right—I continued following them around.
At around 2 p.m., the senior employee asked whether I was still okay with the job (apparently probing me).
I said it wasn’t really okay, because of the weather. In summer, I simply don’t like sweating. (If you can’t tolerate heat, you really shouldn’t try this job.)
But I thought there was only one hour left before the interview ended, so I decided to keep following the senior employee and see how things went. After all, I thought the senior employee’s sales pitch was pretty impressive. XD
Then the senior employee said I could call a friend to come pick me up, or wait until they finished work (around 5:30 p.m.) for them to take me back.
Excuse me...? Call a friend to pick me up—at this time of day? Where was I supposed to find a friend to come get me? Weren’t we supposed to finish the interview at 3?
It was basically: Since you don’t want to do this job, there’s no need for me to waste time on you. I still have work to do, so you just wait here obediently, okay?
What!!!!!!!!!? Is this how you treat interviewees? Why did you suddenly become so casual about it????? I can understand the situation, but senior, I really don’t think this is right. This was not what we agreed on before!!! Just because I had nothing to do before 3 doesn’t mean I had nothing to do after 3!!!
They even replied: “But there’s nothing I can do—I still have work to do. I still have targets to meet, and when you stand next to me, customers won’t know whether they’re supposed to look at you or me.”
Weren’t we told there would be no sales targets? Uh, excuse me—why did you suddenly become so difficult afterward...? Why didn’t you say this in the morning when I was accompanying you?
What exactly is wrong with your company? This really isn’t a good way to solve the problem.
The passion you show toward your products is completely different from the way you handle people.
So I sat at the service area for more than three hours. After that, the senior employee, whose attitude changed as quickly as turning a page, completely ignored me. (Where did the senior employee who enthusiastically greeted me go?)
If you really want to try the second interview, remember to ride a scooter yourself. Either everything is okay and you stay, or if it isn’t okay, ride back yourself instead of wasting time waiting. With Google in hand, there’s always hope.
None
Interview date:
2018/5
How long it took to receive the interview notification:
1 day
Interview language:
Chinese
Was there a written test:
No
Was there a second interview:
Yes
Overall interview duration:
More than 3 hours
How long it took to receive a response after the interview:
1 day
Was I hired:
Left immediately
Interview question:
Q. What is your dream for the future?
Anything was fine; I answered, buying a house.
Interview process
The first-day interview lasted less than five minutes. They only briefly tried to get to know me, and the main impression was that they were screening people based on their appearance or whether they found them appealing. Then they notified me that there would be a second interview the next morning and told me to bring a notebook and pen. They did not explain anything else.
On the second day, I waited outside and heard the people inside the office—which was more like a small event space—giving themselves motivational speeches about things like pursuing their dreams.
After the manager came out, he told me they needed to go out to evaluate cotton products, so he assigned a salesperson to me (they did not consider themselves salespeople, calling what they did “promotion,” but in reality they directly sold products). Then they quickly said, “The interview will last until six o’clock!”
I did not think much of it. I assumed it was a competitive position requiring extensive discussions and written tests. As soon as we left, the salesperson took me on his motorcycle, riding farther and farther away from the city. I asked, “Where are we going?”
“Rende Rest Area.”
I was stunned.
When we arrived, he first went to 7-Eleven and began introducing the company and some rules, but he never directly explained anything about the position I had applied for. That was when I learned that everyone who joined first had to become what they called a “frontline worker,” and that everyone would eventually become a “manager.” This is multi-level marketing, isn’t it?
After finishing, he gave me a small slip of paper and told me to record his “promotions.” Under the blazing sun, I followed him as he knocked on car doors one by one, watched him introduce the products, and tried FW1 (a car-care product). Every time he introduced the product to someone, I had to record it on the slip of paper.
I thought this would only last a short while, but I did not expect to spend the entire day doing this.
The more I thought about it, the more I felt that something was wrong. There was no pay—was I just working as a temporary laborer for free?
There was also another woman there. They said, “You have to choose between the two; this interview is very important.” They called it an “interview,” but in substance it was already a “trial period.”
Moreover, they had not informed me of the content of the second interview. (I did not think much of it at the time and went straight onto the pirate ship.)
At noon, I immediately contacted my friend to come pick me up. Before that, I also asked the salesperson how much the base salary was for new employees.
They said they could not determine that and that it depended on the supervisor’s decision.
This made me even more certain that it was a sweatshop-like exploitative company.
Maybe I had not been brainwashed yet?
In any case, they interview many people and conduct interviews every day. If the image and atmosphere this company creates make you want to take on a passionate challenge, go ahead and work as a temporary part-time laborer for a day first (without pay and under the sun). They grandly call it an interview, making it seem as though you have received a wonderful opportunity and honor.
A reminder to every interviewee: when you have doubts, be sure to ask questions. Do not waste each other’s time for nothing, and stay alert.
Recommendation
Prepare your résumé, sunscreen, and a hat. I spent the entire day in the sun and got much darker.
Two days off per week, national holidays, and fixed working hours. A group-oriented, proactive sales role. Opportunities for domestic and international business trips.
There were many interviewees, making candidates wait too long, while the interview itself was too brief.