國立清華大學_服務創新與分析研究中心

I’ve been recruiting for this position since before the Lunar New Year, and the reason I would decline it is that, after notifying me that I had been accepted, they told me there would be a 2–3 week probationary period paid at the minimum hourly wage for part-time workers, followed by signing a three-month probationary employment contract. Only after passing that would there be a one-year position. They also said the hiring would follow the standards for NTHU staff, but later changed it to employment under an NSTC project. Even the job duties differed from what was described during the interview. Positions in this kind of project office are really… well, disappointing.

1. Located on the National Tsing Hua University campus, so you can enjoy the benefits available to university staff, such as the library, parking lot, and gym (though you also need to have time to use them).

2. The office hardware and equipment are very new. Dual monitors, over-ear headphones, and desktop computers with 8 GB of RAM or more are provided (this is a well-funded team).

3. New employees get exposure to all kinds of tasks and have opportunities to carry out a project from start to finish.

4. The colleagues in the engineering department are easy to get along with and willing to engage in technical exchanges.

My original position was Statistical Assistant (in the Analysis Group). The current team consists of a senior manager; the Analysis Group, which has a junior manager (PM); and the Engineering Group, which is managed by the senior manager and has no engineering manager.

1. Management style

Both groups primarily follow the senior manager’s decisions, including work assignments and whether overtime is allowed. The senior manager assigns the Engineering Group’s work. Matters in the Analysis Group are discussed directly with the senior manager and consulting committee (that is, by asking directly in the Line group); the junior manager does not review things in advance or communicate externally on your behalf.

2. Overtime culture

The interview made the flexible working hours sound very appealing, but the manager tolerates an overtime culture. When the workday ends, you may be asked to clock out first and then return to your desk to continue working. If you want to apply for overtime, you will encounter all kinds of obstacles. You must notify the manager before the end of the workday; if you say you want to apply for overtime after working hours have ended, the request will be rejected as described above (so I never successfully applied for overtime). Also, when I worked overtime without applying for it, the manager never said thank you or acknowledged the effort. (However, if you have a strong desire to devote yourself to Taiwan’s education system, you may not find it tiring.)

3. There is an end-of-day reporting system.

At the end of the workday, you must report the day’s completed tasks and pending items in the team’s Line group. As a result, even when your work is finished, you do not dare leave on time. It also creates a sense of comparison among colleagues: even if you work diligently, you may feel considerable pressure when reporting if you have too few tasks to list.

4. Daily morning meetings

They are described positively as a way to synchronize work information and train speaking skills. You must report what you did yesterday and what you plan to do today. During the probationary period, new employees cannot report that they plan to learn and become familiar with the system; the senior manager will say that this should be done on personal time rather than as team business. Almost every day, you will hear the senior manager reprimanding people (the manager speaks very bluntly), so be mentally prepared and have the psychological resilience to be questioned in front of everyone.

5. System optimization

The Analysis Group’s work includes customer service, system testing, development, planning and analysis, and verification. However, whenever customer service is overwhelmed with frequently asked problems, the team takes a passive attitude toward making changes. They say they encourage new employees to raise issues, but then tell you that you have not participated enough in planning and should look into things more before raising them.

6. Experienced members of the group expect you to understand something after it has been explained once, and they speak very bluntly.

7. Customer service interns

There are intern positions for answering customer service calls, but the manager requires the entire Analysis Group to answer calls, or to pick up any call that comes in while handling your current work (during peak periods, the calls may be nonstop). You have to wait until customer service hours end at 17:30 to work on your own tasks (if you repeatedly fail to finish your work and leave on time, you may be demoted to an intern, haha).

8. Unclear work assignments (no professional PM)

As a Statistical Assistant, although the interview mentioned planning reports, in practice you are expected not only to write SQL and produce reports, but also to analyze data requests from external organizations and independently plan the UI presentation for data entered into the system. You have to request relevant reference materials from other colleagues yourself; the group PM does not proactively help.

9. Points 7 and 8 combined: while extracting data and planning a report, if the phone rings, you must answer it first and help the user resolve the issue before returning to your work. It may also be that I am unable to divide my attention between two tasks, so think about this before applying.

10. Extensive paperwork and standardized formatting requirements

Because the upstream organization is a public-sector department, it inherits the culture of government agencies. Almost every document has standardized formatting requirements, including explanatory documents, UIs, reports, and programs. You need to be patient with document processing. If the system is updated, you have to replace all the images and text in the explanatory documents.

11. Unclear handover

When I took over this position, the junior manager said that the previous employee’s materials were stuck on an old host and that there was no reference material available, so I had to build everything from scratch. However, two weeks later, while discussing something with the junior manager, they suddenly told me that materials planned by the previous employee were available for reference (???). I do not know whether they intentionally withheld them or what, but it inevitably made me feel that they were not proactive about providing help.

12. Lack of respect for professional expertise

When the Statistical Assistant or Engineering Group proposes an optimization or reports an error, unless it can immediately make the system more user-friendly, you may be questioned during the morning meeting: “Who told you to do this?”

1. Government-agency style; salary is paid on the 1st of the month

2. The office is located on the NTHU campus, with convenient parking

3. Lots of university benefits

4. Low technical requirements

Many programs are assembled from beginner-level code, making them friendly to newcomers and those with less exposure to cutting-edge technologies ​

5. Backend engineers’ working hours are mostly fixed

​Outside peak periods, if I happen to write quickly enough, I have quite a lot of time to rest

​However, the Analysis Team has a pattern of regular overtime

6. The Engineering Team colleagues are all very nice

7. You can improve your communication and stress-management skills

8. There is a lot of bad code, so you can feel a sense of accomplishment from improving it every day

9. There are many areas where you can contribute, making it easy to build up achievements for your résumé

1. A little hot

Although there is air conditioning, the temperature is fairly high

If, like me, you need strong air conditioning, I would not really recommend it; you will be soaked in sweat every day

2. No overtime

It does not actually mean that people do not work overtime. If you need to work overtime, you must submit an application in advance, and only work overtime after your supervisor approves it

So even if you really did work overtime, you might only be told that you should have applied in advance

In practice, there are only two choices:

Put down the work at hand, or quietly absorb the overtime yourself

The most annoying part is that you still have to clock out on time

It is precisely because you are so absorbed in writing code that you do not want to leave your current state,

but if you have enough free time to clock out, wouldn’t it be better to just go home?

PS: At the monthly meeting,

for meetings held out of town, the meeting’s scheduled end time is the cutoff time for overtime,

and travel time for the return trip is not counted

3. No professional PM

Because there is no PM here, work may suddenly flood in, resulting in being extremely busy at some times and extremely idle at others

4. Issues with accountability

My backend supervisor and I planned and implemented an error-collection system and discovered a long-standing vulnerability

We urgently reported it to upper management and patched it

This vulnerability resulted from an oversight in the Analysis Team’s management

Because my colleague did not follow the standard operating procedure, the vulnerability was recorded under their responsibility

In the end, my colleague was blamed for not following the standard procedure

They could only look for another job

My backend supervisor was removed from their management position, and the Engineering Team was placed directly under the Analysis Team

The assignment of accountability was rather strange

5. Authoritarian management style

The current main managers are very insistent on their own opinions and do not really allow differing views

Basically, engineering staff can still get along fine as long as they do not have too many opinions

The managers are not very willing to admit their own mistakes

Their reasoning is that previous engineers caused a mess, so if they are not strict now,

the work environment will become even worse in the future

I personally also encountered a situation where a requirement said PDF generation was too slow

I switched to a new generation method, reducing the generation time to 30–40% of the original

After I had replaced half of it, the manager suddenly told me to stop switching

because the package required by the old generation method had more recent updates and more stars on GitHub......

They also told me that a part-time engineer said it was not faster. I asked them to come over personally so I could demonstrate it,

but they were unwilling to come over and look at the results directly

They insisted on returning to the original generation method

(There are also some issues with the part-time engineers, but I will not elaborate here)

6. The Analysis Team is the client, not the PM

Engineers face the Analysis Team as if they were dealing directly with a client

The Analysis Team only has some ideas about the business

but lacks concrete planning, and does not really consider existing rules and data

Nor do they consider the cost of maintaining the code

For example:

There was originally a module for controlling permissions. The current requirement is for specific pages to display different messages depending on permissions

At first, the simple implementation was to use the original module to configure the correct display permissions, with only the middleware needing to be changed to display different messages

But later, the Analysis Team insisted that they did not want to adjust the display permissions and wanted engineers to add the changes page by page

Yes, they really wanted engineers to add the messages one page at a time!!!

If you are fortunate enough to join this company, be sure to appreciate the document I left behind explaining the whole background and reasoning

7. Extremely high technical debt; it may lead newcomers astray

Many programs are assembled from beginner-level code

You will encounter a lot of logically confusing code, with if statements nested several layers deep

Methods do not follow atomicity, and naming is inconsistent

You can find basically every example of poor coding practice here

Then they put Composer packages in Git

and directly modify the packages’ source code

The frontend and backend are mixed together; every bizarre coding style imaginable is allowed—if you can think of it, it can be done

You can write a student list into a URL and send it via GET, only to cause a 414 error when there are too many students

Vue components are not separated; everything is written as one huge block

Poor UI/UX design causes problematic interaction logic and many exceptional cases

Database design is completely neglected; the database is used directly as if it were Excel

The UI here is designed using Excel, so friends who use newer tools may want to take note

8. Fixed practices and low acceptance of change

Originally, after explaining the technical aspects to the backend supervisor, change was still possible

But after the backend supervisor was demoted, making technical changes became somewhat difficult

After the UI/UX colleague joined, they expressed a desire to use newer tools

But this place insisted that they also use Excel for drawing

Moreover, because they were categorized as

and followed the Analysis Team’s training process,

they had to take on customer-service duties and memorize the relevant regulations to understand the business

Project-management tools are not considered

They insist that everyone manually organize and report their work progress for the day

9. LINE is the primary communication tool

This varies from person to person

For me, it is a drawback because it feels like my private life is being intruded upon

I feel that work should use Slack or other software instead, so work and personal life can be separated

10. This is a fixed-term contract position

Summary:

For me, this was not a suitable job

The following applies specifically to backend engineers

People with the following characteristics may be a better fit:

You have no opinions of your own, obey, and do exactly as you are told

You have your own opinions, and even if communication fails, you persist without letting it affect your mood

After work, you do not get frustrated when you are halfway through handling a problem, because you can easily let go and leave it unfinished

After work, you do not get frustrated when you are halfway through handling a problem, because you can choose to quietly work overtime

You do not get frustrated when you see lousy code, because you can contribute a little while you are at it—if something breaks, you can fix it later anyway

You do not get frustrated when you see lousy code, because you have an extraordinarily strong ability to read minds and can travel through time to understand what the author was thinking at the time

You can ignore it and do not want to change the quality of the existing code

You can ignore the managers’ belief that your progress is slow while still wanting to improve the quality of the existing code

When facing requirements that are repeatedly changed, you can adopt the attitude that the company’s time is being wasted, and you are simply being paid to do the job

When facing requirements that are repeatedly changed, you can adopt the attitude that this is your contribution and that you are incredibly strong-minded

You are already capable enough and do not need to pursue further self-improvement at work

You do not want to do any other job for the rest of your life and do not need to pursue further self-improvement at work

Your Laravel, PHP, and OOP concepts are strong enough for you to refactor the code

Your Laravel, PHP, and OOP concepts are weak enough that you do not notice anything strange

1. Good school environment, with discounts and benefits for faculty and staff

2. The unit is well-funded, and basic equipment and supplies are provided

3. The system architecture is large in scale, so there is a lot to learn, with guidance from experienced senior colleagues

I. Job Responsibilities

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1. The division of responsibilities is unclear. Developers are expected to make or participate in decisions—in other words, developers are asked to endorse decisions made by the leadership, so that if responsibility is pursued later, there is someone to shift the blame onto.

2. There is no specification document to provide backing, but meetings are recorded. When supervisors or senior management require architectural changes, they must be made, without considering the future impact or whether the current situation is suitable for implementation. This increases project difficulty and delays progress, while developers are left to bear responsibility for failing to meet the schedule.

3. Laws and rules are chaotic. The system and programs are constrained by educational staff procedures and regulations. Overall, the SOP is more like adding whatever comes to mind and filling in whatever is missing, making it difficult for users to understand how to operate the system and making development challenging. Agile development has not been adopted.

II. Culture and Atmosphere

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1. Because this is a project office under the K-12 Education Administration, there are many considerations and pressures from senior management. Since information is conveyed through a single point of contact, neither side understands the other's position or the current situation, and cooperation does not seem to be built on a foundation of trust. The same is true within the team.

2. The team's decision-making and leadership style are characterized by high-pressure coercion. In short, the organization leans toward authoritarian rule: rule by individuals takes precedence over rule of law, the team's established rules are applied inconsistently, and treating people differently based on who they are rather than what they do is commonplace.

3. The team is not large, but office politics are serious, with clear divisions and everyone acting independently. It is highly questionable whether this is really the same unit.

4. Violations of the Labor Standards Act. In my opinion, the Labor Standards Act protects employees' minimum basic rights; it should not be treated as a hiring threshold. Many companies offer benefits and conditions better than those required by the Labor Standards Act, but overtime has become routine in this unit due to understaffing and a heavy workload. Employees frequently have to handle and respond to work-related matters after hours, and most people have been in this unhealthy state for a long time. Supervisors and senior management also tolerate this situation, believing that dedication requires this level of effort, while overtime pay or compensatory leave varies from person to person or is decided on a case-by-case basis.

Conclusion

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The above is purely a statement of my personal position and impressions. This unit does not allocate sufficient human resources and lacks adequate information about the current education system and processes. Communication between the Administration and the unit is also not transparent. Under these circumstances, digitizing a large-scale national project is extremely difficult. From a practical engineering perspective, this is by no means an easy task. Behavioral economics tells us that people tend to be overly optimistic and overestimate their own ideas. I hope the unit will execute this project with the utmost caution and not let down the expectations of taxpayers and the country.

1. As project staff at National Tsing Hua University, you can enjoy the university’s related benefits and use its facilities.

2. Like most civil servants, you receive your salary at the beginning of the month. If you take leave or have other deductions, these are handled afterward. The payday is fixed, except in cases involving project-year transitions, administrative procedures, and similar issues.

3. Senior colleagues will help you become familiar with the existing systems and code, after which work will be assigned for development. You will not be left on your own. There are standardized development guidelines and internal/external testing machines. Testing is handled by dedicated personnel, and there is a bug-reporting system.

4. There are many opportunities to communicate and discuss matters with system analysts, testers, and even customer service staff, which helps develop communication skills.

1. This is a project position with a one-year contract. If the review and approval of funding for the new project year is delayed, the first month’s salary will be paid late. When you are hired for the first time, you may also receive your salary later because of administrative procedures. The probation period is approximately two months, and during probation your salary is based on your academic qualifications, which is noticeably lower than the official salary listed on recruitment websites.

2. Since this is a position in a university project office, this work experience is usually discounted when looking for jobs in the private sector, and your ability to handle pressure and manage schedules is often questioned.

3. In terms of team operations, engineers are expected not only to develop software but also to participate in some planning and specification discussions. A certain level of communication ability is therefore required, so this job may not be suitable for people who want to focus exclusively on development. In addition, because this is a government project, many issues involving considerations from senior management will arise.

4. Because of the nature of the project, confirmed development schedules are difficult to adjust. However, it is common to discover during the discussion stage that the planning was inadequate, or for users’ responses after launch to differ from the actual situation. Correcting these issues requires additional working hours and is usually urgent. There is no clear process for reporting overtime, nor any definite method for paying overtime compensation or granting compensatory leave.

5. This point reflects my personal experience and concerns the work atmosphere. Please consider it in light of your own circumstances, as everyone may have a different impression.

First, the team atmosphere is acceptable outside peak periods. However, once a peak period arrives, customer-service requests and bug reports pour in like a tidal wave. The testing and customer service teams work overtime intensely to handle these matters. At such times, engineers are very likely to be blamed for being unwilling to cooperate with overtime, not fixing bugs, or failing to think things through when writing code, making it incompatible with users’ operations and real-world needs. Engineers, however, often feel that the specifications were not detailed or accurate enough. These complaints tend to continue, which can make people feel as though they are being held accountable after the peak period has passed.

What dissatisfied me personally more was that, based on what I observed, departing employees were often criticized behind their backs. For example, they might be accused of slacking off and doing nothing after announcing their resignation, or of failing to make sufficiently detailed plans or handovers before leaving, causing considerable difficulties for those currently carrying out the work and making it hard to continue, or even affecting the launch schedule. However, after verifying these claims with the departing employees themselves or with third parties, the answers were often completely opposite. This inevitably gives the impression of a Rashomon-like situation or of deliberately spreading rumors.

Furthermore, if someone bears important responsibilities, even when they announce their resignation early, every possible effort may be made to delay their departure. This ultimately leads to an unpleasant separation, with both sides complaining repeatedly, and the behaviors described above recurring.

Of course, this is purely my personal impression. Some people do part on good terms; it is just that unpleasant separations do not seem uncommon. The unit also has a relatively high turnover rate, with most employees staying no more than a year.

Overall, I believe this job does have an important mission, but the work atmosphere is not particularly healthy. Specifications are also prone to repeated revisions, so this is not a job well suited for long-term employment. It is emotionally exhausting.