劉培森建築師事務所

The only advantage is that the premises look nice.

The interviewer wasn't very competent; when looking at the BIM model, they mistook a beam for a cable tray. I almost burst out laughing on the spot. They also arbitrarily cut the salary during the interview, making the entire process extremely disrespectful to others.

You can really pass on this company.

Over the more than 30 years since the firm was established, it has won countless design competition awards. The team led by the principal architect is highly competitive internationally, making the firm a good choice for young people seeking long-term career development.

The principal architect was educated in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, France, and the United States, an uncommon background in Taiwan. Since founding the firm, the principal architect has personally led employees in design work, demonstrating admirable dedication.

Many senior employees have worked with the principal architect for more than 20 years. The team has strong cohesion and competitiveness, and the project managers and principal architect have developed considerable rapport.

The firm participates in landmark design competitions every year, providing an excellent learning opportunity for young designers who enjoy taking part in innovative architectural design.

The firm has a large volume of work and a high demand for staff, so capable young employees who are new to the firm can easily be given important responsibilities and opportunities for promotion.

The firm's working environment is elegant and comfortable, with comprehensive facilities. Colleagues are friendly, the atmosphere is quiet, management is open-minded, and employees all take the initiative to complete their work.

During design competitions, employees can choose either compensatory time off or overtime pay for overtime work, reflecting a people-oriented management style.

The firm's library houses more than 5,000 architecture-related books and has long subscribed to 12 international design magazines, which employees can read and learn from during working hours.

The firm regularly holds training sessions and lectures by prominent figures, allowing employees to expand their interdisciplinary knowledge.

The firm holds a birthday luncheon once a month, giving employees opportunities to interact and exchange ideas. Every year, it also holds a year-end Christmas party with a gift exchange and a year-end banquet with a raffle, allowing employees to relax, enjoy themselves, and unwind from their normally rigorous work.

The firm is one of the three largest architectural firms in Taiwan. It has many employees and finely divided team responsibilities. After 30 years, its management system has become mature and well established, but also relatively inflexible. Employees who dislike following established procedures and rules may find it difficult to adapt.

The principal architect is personally involved in every aspect of both design and management and demands perfection in the work and the projects. Especially during design competitions, the principal architect's working hours become very long each day, placing a considerable physical burden on participating employees.

During regular daytime working hours, the principal architect is busy meeting and discussing matters with clients for various projects and must also visit construction sites for inspections. As a result, design meetings for competitions generally continue from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Design staff participating in competitions often need to work overtime with the principal architect to complete the work, and employees who lack sufficient stamina can easily burn out.

The principal architect values reason, pursues perfection in design, and maintains a rigorous work attitude. Employees who are careless or lack sufficient ability can easily feel pressured and develop the intention to resign.

The firm has numerous design projects and a tremendous workload. Senior employees are generally busy with official duties, so newcomers who encounter difficulties at work must take the initiative to ask their supervisors for guidance. Overly passive employees may easily resign due to frustration or difficulty adapting.

The office is very large, beautiful, and clean.

The office is very large, beautiful, and clean, but it is very quiet and no one talks. The overall atmosphere is oppressive and dull. People who cannot accept speaking in a breathy voice may not be able to accept it. The company has a culture of not leaving work on time. There is no written test, but there are an enormous number of questions to answer in the pre-interview form, which takes a lot of time to complete (your skills, work experience, reasons for leaving previous jobs, why you want to come for an interview, your understanding of the position, your personality’s strengths and weaknesses, comments given to you by past supervisors, your short- and long-term career plans, your expectations for the work environment and supervisor, what qualities you have that qualify you for the job, how you relieve stress, what motivates you to put forth your greatest effort, who your role model at work is, your proudest achievement, what you think life is, etc.). No welfare fee is required.

‧The company premises are spacious and very clean, and the restrooms are also very clean.

‧There is a library that is periodically updated with architecture books.

‧Lectures are held periodically, with speakers invited from various fields.

‧There are dedicated IT staff to handle computer issues, and all software used is properly licensed.

‧Several colleagues specialize in particular fields and are exceptionally skilled. If you have the opportunity to work with them, there is a lot you can learn.

‧The leave and overtime systems are comprehensive. If you are late, you can take leave without being scolded. Even if you take too long to eat dinner while working overtime at night, that time is counted and paid, and overtime pay is provided in accordance with the Labor Standards Act.

‧The supervisors are not the type to put intense pressure on you, so the psychological pressure at work is much lower than at other firms.

‧The boss is a passionate architect. Even at his age, he still works very hard, and compared with other architects in the industry, his temper is actually quite good.

‧The boss only reviews drawings at night, and there is a fixed group of people who stay with him until the early morning every day, so working excessive hours is the norm. If you want to work here, try to avoid becoming part of the regular meeting group. If you keep attending evening meetings with him for a whole week, you should pay extra attention; most people leave because of this. When the boss works on designs, there must be someone who knows 3D modeling beside him so that he can slowly sculpt the model. Meetings about model revisions are usually scheduled last, by which time the meeting start time has already exceeded the statutory daily working-hour limit, and each meeting lasts several hours. The design style is rather old-fashioned, so designers who enjoy creating aesthetically pleasing designs may want to consider this carefully.

‧The company is highly bureaucratic, much like working in the civil service. When you need assistance from another department, you may end up waiting half a year for the requested changes even after repeatedly following up. Designers may find themselves unable to respond to clients, contractors, or consultants, while also being blocked by supervisors when dealing with the boss. You may have no idea where a project stands, when drawings are due, or what drawings are needed. Even when working on the same project, you may not know what your colleagues are currently doing; a certain amount of psychic ability is required.

‧Perhaps because the company has been unable to recruit enough people, some employees who do not even understand basic drawings or terminology have stayed on. A few senior employees receive high salaries but have little productivity, while those with some ability who are not good at avoiding trouble are soon worked to the point of burnout and leave.

‧Design revisions are made without regard for the project schedule. Various permits may be due the next day, yet the external references are somehow different from yesterday again, and the drawings never match up. There are no drafting standards: the layers and line weights differ from project to project, and no one performs a final comprehensive check before submission.

‧Employees earning over NT$40,000 can only take compensatory leave and cannot receive overtime pay. Some people have had hundreds of hours of annual leave and compensatory leave disappear directly at the end of the year, without receiving a larger year-end bonus that year—quite something. Being late or failing to clock in results in a deduction from the year-end bonus; some people have had their bonus deducted into negative territory, which is outrageous. Some people were told they would receive a raise after completing their probationary period, but the raise was delayed for several months.

‧The boss clearly favors some people over others. Those he dislikes may be pressured to leave through various means, while at a lesser level he will show impatience toward them throughout meetings. Those he likes receive better promotions and year-end bonuses, are treated more politely, and have their opinions listened to more readily.

‧The boss is pro-China and supports unification under China. Most speakers invited are people connected through the KMT's patronage networks or Chinese nationals. Taiwan has been placed inside a map of China and used as the key visual for a lecture poster, and he keeps insisting on incorporating the KMT's big blue wheel symbol into architectural designs.

‧The bidet toilet nozzles are never cleaned. If you do not believe this, you can activate one and inspect it yourself; use is not recommended. The office desk lights break, and even after being reported, they are not repaired for a year.

‧You can only enter the library to look for books if you have a good relationship with the librarian. People they are unfamiliar with are kicked out, so basically no one goes in to look for books.

‧When a computer encounters an uncommon problem, IT tells you to figure it out yourself, but the computer software is all tied to specific configurations, making it difficult to handle on your own.

‧Run for your life.

Free alcohol, suitable for retirement

The system is distorted: employees earning under 40,000 receive overtime pay, while those earning over 40,000 only get compensatory leave (which is guaranteed to go unused); typhoon days are unpaid (the day's wages are deducted because there is no attendance)

Except for the one-hour lunch break, any time spent outside must be taken as leave. There is no grace period for lateness (being one minute late still counts as late), but if the boss wants you to wait for him to finish a meeting, you have to wait—possibly until 11 p.m.—only for the boss to be too tired and ask you to come back another day

Even if you agree with HR and your supervisor during the interview that your salary will be increased after completing the probationary period, getting a raise is basically extremely difficult. Senior management generally does not want to get involved

Every department is full of old-timers. Young employees have a high turnover rate, with someone leaving every month and a wave of departures approximately every six months

The work environment is dressed up beautifully

The toilets have bidet seats

There is free coffee in the pantry

The boss and partners sit in high-end office chairs costing NT$40,000–50,000 each

The office chairs provided to employees are extremely shabby

All employees in the landscape design department once went 6–7 years without a salary increase

The promised company-wide raises were repeatedly postponed and changed

Employees were forced to clock out at 22:30 to circumvent the Labor Standards Act limit that overtime must not exceed 4 hours

In reality, staying with the boss in meetings past midnight was routine

Being notified of a meeting only before the end of the workday and waiting 3–4 hours was commonplace

Implementing illegal overtime measures to circumvent the one fixed day off and one flexible rest day policy