The abbreviated company name is very often mistaken for Academia Sinica XD
Recruitment at the academy: a narrow gate for outsiders, but wide open for the relatives and friends of the powerful. Those with military connections or relatives and friends who are first- or second-level supervisors are given priority in hiring. (Fixed-term employees carrying a pile of projects v.s. retired military fixed-term employees who do nothing but scroll on their phones and ask others about their project progress. In the end, the former are kicked out when their contracts expire, leaving projects desperately understaffed, while the latter are directly made permanent and continue scrolling on their phones while joining in the cries about staff shortages XD)
Academy life 1: If your connections aren't strong enough, that's okay~ As long as you make it through the probation period, then shamelessly—persistently shamelessly—carry on. Whatever you're asked, answer, "I don't know!" Occasionally go berserk in the office; explode on the spot whenever you're told to do something. After that, things will naturally end up on the shoulders of the obedient sacrificial pawns~
Academy life 2: There are many gigantic-baby supervisors who love to keep a poker face during meetings and then micromanage afterward. Whenever something goes wrong, they bite back at the people who followed their instructions: "How could you handle it this way? Why didn't you discuss it in the meeting back then!? Do you have a conflict of interest with the vendor?" For crying out loud! Who was the one playing games both above and below the table in the first place? This is hilarious XD (There are also lower-level staff inside the institute who curry favor with supervisors; I won't list examples here.)
Academy life 3: Colleagues are all competing to lie low and pick sides. Oddballs who clearly do no work and know nothing when asked can still receive top performance ratings year after year and inexplicably rise to become supervisors, while the sacrificial pawns who work themselves to death get poor performance reviews plus a perfunctory pat on the head XDD
Academy life 4: They absolutely love forcing people to take the blame and write statements of remorse. Even when a powerful person's relative makes a mistake, it's the sacrificial pawn who gets pointed at and berated: "Why didn't you consider that the powerful person's relative might violate information-security regulations? Why didn't you prevent it!?" XDD. But as long as you maintain a shameless mindset and deal with it, you're fine. If you don't write one, they really can't do much to you; if you do, that's your own bad luck—you'll be disciplined and suffer the emotional burden yourself XD
Conclusion: All in all, although there are so many drawbacks, this is still a very suitable place to come and coast toward retirement. People with no talent, social difficulties, poor emotional control, powerful connections, or complicated relationships may want to consider this company.
Pays salaries on time
People who enjoy challenging themselves can apply for a finance position at the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology. Terrifying supervisors, an overwhelming workload, senior colleagues who slack off, and colleagues with family connections or who flatter the boss all receive excellent performance evaluations. It is an administrative position with a slightly high turnover rate—come apply!
Pays salaries on time
People who enjoy challenging themselves can apply for a finance position at the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology. Terrifying supervisors, an overwhelming workload, senior colleagues who slack off, and colleagues with connections to the powers that be or who flatter their superiors all receive excellent performance reviews. It’s an administrative position with a somewhat high turnover rate—come apply!
Regular working hours, and you can apply for off-duty further education.
There is a very high chance of encountering idiots. Many supervisors are military personnel, so basically it is no different from the armed forces; every month, we still have to watch the Armed Forces Spiritual Tutorial. The most frustrating thing is the information security inspections. Our supervisors require us to produce things using equipment that violates regulations, while also telling us not to get caught. It causes a lot of psychological pressure, and you do not learn much. Basically, the daily routine is being berated, wasting paper, fabricating data, slacking off, and waiting to get off work. If you have no intention of working hard in the future, you can come here. But if you still want to keep striving, please do not come—or resign. Do not come here and waste your time. Experience here is also not recognized by the tech industry. After I had worked for several years, even Acer’s systems division offered me an entry-level salary in an interview. If you do not wake up quickly, this really will ruin your life. If I become a manager in the tech industry in the future, I will not recognize experience at the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology either, because I know there is no R&D capability there at all—99% of the work is outsourced. Would you really count experience from this kind of job?
1. The best retirement haven for people who want to lie flat or those with pure bloodlines
(provided you pick a unit where you can lie flat, have a military-retiree/military-service background, or are related through close-kin breeding)
2. Work in a staff unit at the new new campus—congratulations, because many employees from other campuses, overseas units, and those on business trips are contributing their productivity for you, allowing you to splendidly lie flat while sucking on the nation’s blood
0. Self-identification: A place that pretends to do R&D but is really procurement. Are there really employees who are proud to work at the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology? Do they really think they are contributing to the nation?
1. Job openings: There are fewer and fewer units where you can lie flat. If your bloodline isn’t pure, you’ll definitely be treated as a leek; on top of that, personnel hiring is currently frozen (in ROC Year 111), permanent positions are scarce, and most openings are fixed-term contracts. You’re not just a leek, but a disposable, timed-to-be-discarded leek. Great!
2. How damn frustrating it is: If you’re in a technical group collaborating with a project unit, then you’re fucking doomed. As for project bonuses, the staff unit takes more than half first, the project gets a share of what remains, and only then does anything reach the technical group. Yet the technical group is the one that has to do the most work on every project. Working overtime for nothing, getting nitpicked over procurement cases, engineers doing PM work, technicians doing engineers’ work, administrators doing technicians’ work, being set up to take the fall, and getting chewed out by supervisors for no reason are all everyday occurrences. (P.S. Be sure to investigate projects with particularly bad reputations beforehand; otherwise, once you take one over, you may not be able to get rid of it.)
3. Performance evaluations: You will definitely get a pay raise during the first five years. After more than five years, getting only a hundred-dollar increase each year or being stuck with a B-grade evaluation is commonplace. There are additional performance bonuses, but you can work yourself to death and still earn the same amount as the people who lie flat.
4. Technology: The technology is absolutely a long way behind the industry, especially in software development. You might even get crushed by a computer science undergraduate intern. The in-house development environment is atrocious, and there is also a mountain of meaningless paperwork.
5. Promotion: Hahahaha. Without connections, you might as well remain an entry-level employee forever. Even if you really do make it into management, you won’t be able to control the idle royal relatives underneath you; you can only become a “high-level entry-level employee” with a supervisor’s title but none of a supervisor’s real authority.
6. Summary: Of course, if your abilities aren’t great and you can’t find a good job elsewhere, you can still package yourself better during the interview or pull some strings to get in and try to lie flat. After all, this place is about being less bad, not being good. Everyone is living off the state anyway, and there’s no difference between eating while standing and eating while lying down.
A semi-government institution, with one hour of flexible time for starting and ending work, convenient leave-taking, and stable pay.
There is a 7-Eleven, post office, bank, and restaurants on the premises. Applications are also available for single-occupancy dormitories and apartment-style dormitories, though in recent years demand has exceeded supply. There are also low-interest loans. That’s about it.
I originally thought it was a government organization, but only after joining did I realize it was like *The Legend of Zhen Huan*—a palace power struggle. After a newcomer joined, they neglected their duties and caused all of their colleagues who joined at the same time to resign. When work went wrong, they shifted the blame onto former colleagues, to the point that the auditing authorities came to investigate.
The longer you stay in this job, the more secure it becomes, because you can adopt the attitude of a veteran and dump all the troublesome work on newcomers. The prerequisite is that you endure these irresponsible supervisors and colleagues who only hold you back. The longer you survive, the thicker-skinned you become.
Some department heads lack resolve and only know how to flatter others, while dreaming all day of becoming a director. They take all the credit when things go well and push the blame onto subordinates when something goes wrong. Tired of modern life and want to travel back to the Qing dynasty to participate in the mass beta test of *Palace Intrigue Online*? Academia Sinica will be your best choice!
There were no advantages whatsoever; it almost ruined my life.
Luckily, I resigned. That place was truly unbelievably awful. My former team leader slept at work every day—it was absolutely ridiculous.
Based on what I’ve seen over the past few years, getting into the right department is very important. Some specialized departments are patient and have structured training for young employees, but it seems that people in planning departments generally think interpersonal skills are more important than getting things done (based on the examples I’ve heard so far). However, based on my past interview experience, you still won’t know which second-level unit you’ll be assigned to until the day you report for work. It actually feels a bit like opening a lucky bag—it depends heavily on luck. The campus is spacious and has a lot of greenery, which is somewhat similar to ITRI; I suppose that counts as an advantage (?). The salary is about the same as mentioned earlier—very rigid, and raises are slow. Senior employees all say that you won’t become rich, but you won’t starve either.
There are almost no benefits, the employee cafeteria isn’t very good, the buildings are old, and the dormitories are completely full.
Currently unknown
First of all, there are major issues with the invitation process for the R&D substitute service interviews alone.
1. It is unclear what the selection criteria are. A bunch of unrelated candidates are also invited to interviews.
2. Before the interview, they ask whether you are a discussion-session student or a scholarship student. If you are a scholarship student, you have to inform the interviewer after joining.
It feels like you are classified as soon as you enter, which feels awful.
3. The interviews ask about some inconsequential things and fail to assess professional abilities. There is no professional exam.
4. In some departments, the interview ends right after the self-introduction, yet people still get accepted in the end, haha.
Overall, it gives people the feeling that the process is opaque and predetermined.
As long as you are on the waiting list, you will get in.
After all, this place is for people who did not get R&D substitute service and do not want to serve in the military.
People who are capable will not stay here to make money.
Whether outside employers will recognize your years of experience after three years is another matter.
If you want to live a retired life, you can come here.
The pay is just enough to keep you from starving, but not enough to fill you up.
Want to experience earning 23K after getting a master’s degree?
Want to understand the helplessness of orders changing overnight?
What are you waiting for? Choosing Central Taiwan Science Park is the right choice!!
There is no integrity, and research and development alternative service personnel have no human rights.
The starting salary for regular positions in the academy has been repeatedly cut, while the requirements keep getting higher.
New hires are required to have various technical certifications and English proficiency test results.
The new deliberated salary structure has also been made to look like a fat-cat clause: existing employees cannot receive less than their current salaries (the adjustment can be submitted for special approval and raised without limit),
so does that mean my XX group leader is great and earns a monthly salary of two million?!
All these policies target newcomers, yet they still think 48K can attract many people (with no bonus, profit-sharing, or similar mechanisms, making the annual salary 650K).
Everyone is scrambling to get in (it is indeed possible to recruit all kinds of strange people).
In the past, applicants came from prestigious overseas universities, and then from National Taiwan University, National Tsing Hua University, National Chiao Tung University, and National Cheng Kung University in the previous generation.
Now, even people with master's degrees from national universities regard this place as their second choice.
At present, some capable senior colleagues in the institute have already been leaving one after another.
The great ideal of patriotic dedication from back then has been crushed by reality.
I hope industry experts and younger colleagues will work together to resist this, and reconsider after compensation improves.
Two issues:
1. Compensation
To be honest,
as a national-level defense weapons research and development organization,
shouldn't it offer better compensation than the private sector if it wants to retain talent?
The current economic climate is indeed not very good,
but the base salary that was initially promised at 59K was abruptly changed to a base salary of 48K.
How are young people like us, who work so hard, supposed to feel about that?
Honestly, if it really is 48K, just about any decent technology company out there should offer better compensation.
2. Integrity
Besides the compensation itself, the most important issue is the principle of "integrity."
Instead, this is actually being applied retroactively.
Our cohort only found out after joining that the terms would be changed. Can the company really treat its employees this way?
Today, it can target the R&D substitute service program;
who knows whether it will target other job grades tomorrow??
If it wants to change something, what can't it change?
A company with no integrity at all is truly disheartening.
Summary:
Compensation is an issue, but integrity is an even bigger issue.
Substitute service personnel who joined after the third cohort are unfortunate. The salary they were promised is completely different from the original terms, and the commitments made at the time should be taken for reference only. Personally, I am very satisfied with the work content and am able to participate substantially in R&D design. There are many experts in the unit who are willing to provide guidance, but not everyone is this lucky. As usual, there is also administrative work to do (for example, procurement cases), which may take nearly as much time as your main duties.
After the agreed-upon salary adjustment, the general technology roles are roughly NT$48k–57k. The upper limit is lower than the single-price offer from a few years ago, while retained R&D substitute service employees now receive NT$48k–67k, with a ceiling higher than the NT$59k single-price offer. It’s unclear how this will change in the future.
What is certain, however, is that if you want to join Chunghwa Science Park and enjoy a comfortable retirement with steady salary increases for life, that may no longer be possible. It now feels like you have to prove your worth (ability? research publications? patents? management’s favor?) to be outstanding and capable. Those who know how to demonstrate that they deserve a raise can earn better salaries than before. But for those who want to share in the collective benefits and enjoy a stable, easy life, the salary will be worse than before. If you want to coast toward retirement and take it easy, Chunghwa Science Park is no longer a good option—don’t join for the time being.
Still, I hope Chunghwa Science Park can implement a salary-adjustment system for outstanding employees, so that capable people can truly ride the elevator straight to the top. We’ll wait and see whether salaries will be slashed across the board or whether talented people will benefit. Time will tell 😂
What the company said before joining and the treatment they provided after joining were very different! All kinds of old-timers don’t do any work and dump everything on the younger employees, while also not allowing overtime pay to be claimed. One word: “terrible.”
The starting salary is currently NT$48,000. If you have a master’s degree and want to come work here for this salary, be my guest. There are no bonuses for the three major holidays, and the year-end bonus is 1.5 months, bringing the annual salary to NT$648,000 to start. A national-level research institution offering this kind of salary—I’m speechless.
It completely depends on the unit. A good unit has everything it should (good supervisors, a good system), while a bad one has a bad system, bad supervisors, and all kinds of nonsense, haha. However, you absolutely should not join for a short-term alternative service position. Things mentioned at the briefing can be completely denied afterward (each cohort has had all kinds of denials). There are also a bunch of old-timers inside who think that being able to get in without taking a written exam means you’ve got it easy—what a joke.
Also, if you want to ask whether a unit is good or not, as I mentioned in my previous post, it may be more accurate to ask someone currently in the group or on the project. Some things can only be known by internal personnel.
Revised and reposted to avoid being recognized XD
Really... the headcount of a large company with the scale and systems of a small company.
If an ordinary company didn’t go under, it wouldn’t have even half a life left....... Using a nonprofit organization as an excuse.
In reality, there’s no performance, yet they still want to cut salaries to balance expenses............... Now: technology x, easy targets x, stability xxx.
Think twice, think twice, and think again....
The company initially promised a starting salary of 59K, but now it can actually claim that it has been changed to a variable salary of 48K–67K, which includes 59K, and therefore does not contradict what was originally said. Does that even make sense? It’s 48K today—how much will it change to tomorrow? And the day after??? Anyway, they can change the contract however they please.
The salaries of those who actually do the work keep getting lower. Human Resources does not address the hospital staff’s salary issues; those in that department who do nothing can be promoted to deputy team leader, while the fat cats get fatter.
Career changers, do not come here under any circumstances. In the first year, you get only NT$23K, far below the industry standard (and the workload is no lighter). After three years, there is no telling how much they will be willing to pay you. Salaries are cut every year. A few senior executives hold a small meeting among themselves, revise a few rules, and announce the cuts just like that. Even full-time employees who have already joined cannot feel at ease; the compensation rules might even be changed retroactively, with everyone's pay cut. It's extremely frightening. Whatever you do, don't gamble your life on this kind of “futures market.”
It really depends on your individual career-planning needs—nothing is perfect. You won’t go hungry here, but you won’t make a fortune either. The one advantage is that you can take good care of your wife and children and enjoy family life. If you’re thinking of joining, you really need to consider it carefully and be clear about what kind of life you want.
If you have connections, nothing is a problem; if you don't, everything is a problem. New hires should be prepared to work themselves to death. Every year is a disaster, especially for alternative service hires—think very carefully before joining. You won't learn technical skills (X); you'll end up doing paperwork and running procurement projects (O).
I joined as a regular full-time employee, not as a replacement or temporary worker.
The old-timers inside keep pushing work onto one another, talk instead of working, and rush to grab anything easy or enjoyable. Don’t scramble to get in only to be exploited by others.
Salaries are now generally around NT$56K. After agreeing on your salary, raises depend entirely on your supervisor’s mood. If they don’t like you, forget about getting promoted or receiving a raise—they can hold you back for ten years and see whether you can stand it.