The company's location is close to an MRT station—just a two-minute walk away. That's the only advantage.
1. As a PM here, you have to know how to do everything, including QA work, because the company tries to save money by not hiring QA staff. You can imagine how many bugs the products have. If you suggest hiring QA, you'll even be mocked: “If the PM doesn't test anything, how would they know the product's condition?” What the heck—that's completely beside the point, isn't it? Is this for real? PMs have their own responsibilities and simply can't split themselves up to do QA work. After I left and told people at other companies that we had no QA, everyone was shocked, because any normal software company has QA. Is QA work really so cheap in the CEO's eyes?
2. The R&D staff are each rather unusual. Sometimes, even getting certain R&D people to fix something depends on their mood. They're also all based in faraway Kaohsiung. If there's a problem in Taipei or a feature needs to be discussed, you have to discuss it remotely online. Not being able to talk face-to-face is really troublesome. There are also very few R&D staff—fewer than 10 people—yet there are a pile of projects. Every project is old and problematic, and even fixing a bug requires waiting in line for ages. There aren't enough people or resources; nothing is available. How can projects possibly get done?
3. The CEO here is also a very problematic person. He has an extremely high opinion of himself and keeps emphasizing that project management isn't difficult for PMs. When PMs run into difficulties and ask him for advice or want him to step in, all they get—besides being berated—is sarcastic criticism. He looks like a manager who does nothing but evade problems. Otherwise, when you try to discuss a project issue with him, he may drag the conversation onto another topic and start endlessly attacking how poorly you're performing at work, or talk about how excellent and enjoyable his own previous projects were. This kind of CEO really only knows how to talk.
4. Many of the projects here are cases that have never been successfully closed out. At the root of it, the biggest problem is the lack of resources and manpower. Nothing can be done. The company keeps trying to save money instead of facing the consequences of these problems. Whenever PMs go to a client's office for a meeting, all they do is get scolded because there is barely any progress. Closing out projects and submitting invoices are also handled by PMs instead of sales or finance. Even product training is handled by PMs—it's unbelievably ridiculous.
5. That great CEO has a strong preference for the Product Department and has even allowed it not to prepare product manuals? Isn't that going a bit too far? What company can provide a product without including a user manual? If the client wants one, the PM has to prepare it. The PM may even have to go to the client's company to provide training~
6. As for compensation, well, after reading the points above, I'm sure there's not much to brag about. There's a fixed monthly salary, no raises, no holiday bonuses, and no year-end bonus—basically, nothing at all, because the company doesn't make money~~~
7. I strongly recommend carefully reading the reviews here before submitting a résumé to this company or accepting an offer. You can probably safely avoid this frightening company, save yourself the wasted time, and prevent it from causing lasting trauma in your future career or even affecting your perception.
Offering some different perspectives on the two reviews from February 2022:
【The one from early February】
1. The male colleague pursuing a female colleague and the female PM have both left the company, so I will not comment on them.
2. I have never encountered hostile colleagues. This applies even across different departments and business areas. I have had opportunities to collaborate or communicate with colleagues in sales, operations and maintenance, marketing, product, testing, and project management. As long as the issue is described clearly and you have done your own research instead of simply expecting others to provide the answer, my personal experiences have all been positive.
3. The colleagues described as disheartened may simply have had nothing they needed to discuss with you. That does not mean they are not communicating with other colleagues.
【The one from mid-February】
1. There is indeed only one meeting room. I also hope that at least one meeting room can be used without an application or reservation.
2. As for the administrative staff member, I have actually spoken with them. Everything they do concerns the company, rather than the group.
3. I agree that the VMs are slow, but I lean more toward having everyone discuss how to conserve VM resources rather than using them without restraint.
4. As for remote meetings disconnecting, I may simply have fewer remote meetings and have not experienced it, but I have never heard of it either.
5. Regarding the general manager: yes, he sometimes talks about his past, and occasionally repeats himself. However, if you appropriately bring the topic back to the original subject, there is no problem. The general manager can return to the topic and continue the discussion, and he will not consider it an interruption. This depends on how everyone manages the meeting.
6. I agree that the project turnover rate is high. Personally, I think it is related to the SOPs, project manager training, and the hiring system. As far as I know, there are currently plans for SOPs and for a consultant to assist with training new employees, but I am not sure about the exact approach. If you have an opportunity to interview, you can ask the interviewer directly.
7. I completely disagree with the statement that anyone can be a PM. PMs need professional skills specific to the role, including professional skills such as communication and coordination that cannot be identified through certifications or years of experience alone.
8. Regarding PMRD meetings, I agree that the process should be revised. After all, if every ticket has priority 1, then there is no prioritization.
9. As for the colleagues in Kaohsiung, I have communicated and spoken with approximately seven colleagues there. We can also confirm that we understand one another by sharing screens directly, so I am not sure what communication costs are being referred to.
10. If an internal colleague communicates using inappropriate language, state your thoughts directly. I have personally been told that I did something poorly, but it was always focused on the matter itself, without any unnecessary remarks. If it is a client, it depends on each person's communication style with that client.
When you encounter a problem, if your starting point is “What can I do?” to solve it, you will not fall into a victim mentality and can instead focus your thoughts on how to resolve the problem. I believe everyone will be better off.
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To put it simply in one sentence: people are the problem.
People are scarier than ghosts.
Let’s start with the structure of this company. The company belongs to a certain group, which has led to several strange situations: 1. There is only one meeting room, but if the group president—the highest-ranking president—needs to use it, no one else can. In other words, the company has no meeting room. 2. In terms of staffing, the company appears to have an administrative position and something resembling a marketing position. The strange thing is that they both exist only “partially” within this company. The group needs these people’s assistance, and the general manager cannot say no. Relationships between groups and subsidiaries are common in business, so why not recruit people separately to fill these positions? Because this company can never escape the fate of losing money. It has no money to add staff and can only share personnel with the group, let alone give raises. As a software company, surely it can’t cut corners on equipment, right? Wrong. If the VM is slow, you wait; if a remote meeting suddenly disconnects, you wait for some kind person to mail a new router from Kaohsiung. That is how frugal and environmentally friendly this company is.
The company’s general manager is naturally inseparable from all of the chaos described above. He is a leader with a very high opinion of himself. He can constantly recount his past experiences; he can tell the same story to three people in one day; he can do it when you join the company, when you leave, and when you turn to him for help. Word for word, it will take at least two hours. His dislike of people is remarkably equal-opportunity. If someone is useful, he praises them; if not, he mocks them—behind their back.
Take the company’s Project Department, which has the highest turnover rate among all departments—the department where the general manager also serves as project supervisor. The PMs’ disastrous exodus can be seen from a few figures: 1. The company went through 17 PMs within three years. 2. A major project has gone through no fewer than five PMs (five is merely an average), and still cannot be closed. The general manager attributes this to problems with the SOP. PMs do not need to be R&D personnel; anyone can do it. Incidentally, a maintenance specialist only needs to answer the phone. There are no so-called principles for assigning projects: whatever the previous person handled when they left, the newcomer handles. Their experience levels can differ by more than an entire career generation; as long as the salary is cheap, that’s enough. With this kind of hiring policy, it is difficult for employees not to eventually have all their enthusiasm worn away. Speaking of resignations, for those who have just been offered a position and are wondering whether to accept the offer, here is something to keep in mind: there is no handover. All there are are videos intended for client training—videos that are neither suitable for training newcomers nor concise.
The remote meetings mentioned above include a fixed PM-RD meeting every Thursday, attended by PMs from the Project Department, maintenance specialists from the Operations and Maintenance Department, and two development department managers based in Kaohsiung. The purpose of this meeting is for PMs and maintenance specialists to report the tickets that need assistance from R&D that week. Later, however, it became merely a formality. The number of inserted tickets even exceeded those going through the normal scheduling process, once again contradicting the supposed importance of the SOP. Most R&D staff are located in Kaohsiung; there are only two project R&D staff members in Taipei. This arrangement likewise stems from money: find people wherever it is cheaper. Returning to the first sentence of this review, apart from the two managers who attend the meeting, most of the colleagues in Kaohsiung require an enormous amount of communication effort to get things done. “Communication effort” is the most tactful term I can think of. First, being separated across two locations makes communicating by text particularly inconvenient. If you happen to work with one of the few R&D staff members who can communicate directly, you can call them and share your screen to confirm that both sides understand each other. Some people would be better suited to being professors, but were held back by becoming R&D staff; they can only satisfy their urge to lecture, teach, and answer questions during communication. They have time to write lengthy essays, but no time to communicate directly with the person who opened the ticket. Their time is valuable, while the maintenance specialist or PM who opened the ticket must respond immediately; otherwise, they will close the ticket themselves: no further information, case closed.
For all job seekers consulting this company’s reputation because of the vacancies posted on job websites: whether in the Operations and Maintenance Department or the Project Department, these vacancies were definitely not created by business expansion, but by a wave of resignations. The head of the Operations and Maintenance Department has also resigned. If you are mentally resilient and have a very high tolerance for verbal phrasing, you can give it a try.
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Male colleagues focus on pursuing women, spending all day sitting beside female colleagues’ desks chatting. As soon as lunchtime or the end of the workday arrives, they immediately rush off to ask women out for meals or ride the MRT together.
The female PM does not understand anything and asks people about everything. The only thing she knows how to do is chat by text on her computer; every day, you can hear her giggling several times during those conversations.
There are many highly hostile colleagues here who are very good at putting on a superficial act and creating a good image for themselves in front of everyone. For example, when you see that they are carrying a lot of things and ask whether they need help carrying them, they immediately snap loudly that they do not, and some even snap back that you should not be so hypocritical.
Some colleagues deliberately do not explain that “working days” means an additional charge. Neither the client nor you know that this term has such a meaning at this company. When the supervisor discovers it and asks about it in a meeting, the colleague immediately claims that it was your problem.
You work hard to handle a client’s situation, but after you finish, a colleague emails everyone in the office to criticize you for not following company regulations. The key point is that no one ever told you about those company regulations. Even when they saw you busy handling the matter at the company, they did not come over to remind you; they deliberately waited until you had finished dealing with the client before criticizing you.
None of the situations above involve just one colleague; many colleagues behave this way. It is a very frightening office culture.
The few remaining colleagues who are relatively decent stay completely silent because they are afraid of causing trouble, pretending they did not see anything. Over time, you can see that some senior colleagues have become so disheartened that they do not speak to anyone for the entire workday.
Of course, this company does have some very good colleagues, but there are far too few of them, while there are far too many problematic people. If you want to be unhappy at work every day and have people pick fights with you, you might consider coming here.
P.S. Young women can come here, because a certain male colleague will proactively show interest and take special care of you.
No systems (a huge advantage)
It’s easy to get in, they’re very short-staffed, and they’ll generally take you no matter how bad you are
(But when you leave, the people who come after you will blame the problems on you. It won’t have anything to do with you anymore since you’ll have left, but you may still feel a little annoyed when you’re being criticized behind your back.)
Very suitable for a short-term stopgap or as a side job
It can also work long term, but I don’t recommend it, even though it’s very easy to coast
No systems (the warm-water effect—you’re the frog, and the comfort comes at a very high price)
Promises may disappear for no reason, such as benefits, bonuses, year-end bonuses, and so on
Very stingy. For example, they nickel-and-dime everything from buying toilet paper and turning on or repairing the air conditioning to purchasing even ridiculously cheap hard drives. They also calculate salaries in the way least favorable to employees. There is no formal employee welfare committee (the number of employees is insufficient under regulations), yet they still deduct an employee welfare fee from you—even though it is not actually a committee fee (the money is still yours, but you have to apply to use it).
Overall, I personally feel that this is a company with no future
When looking for a job, you should look for a company where you can spend as little time as possible improving your skills to a certain level. In other words, the company should have accumulated technical knowledge and information that lets you level up directly, rather than making you figure everything out yourself (there are no giants’ shoulders to stand on here; it only rises to the height of a dwarf)
Or look for a company where your salary can increase after you put in effort. (Here, they only paint grand promises that you can never eat; they keep promising bonuses and year-end bonuses, but the money never reaches your account.)
They used to provide salary statements, but later they switched directly to an invisible-ink version. I don’t know whether things have returned to normal now
Finally, there are lots of mosquitoes in the basement—not just the basement; there are lots of annoying problems too
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Working in the basement, various unspoken rules, completely stifling, with questionable safety