台灣應用材料股份有限公司 _Applied Materials Taiwan

The benefits follow US-company standards, but that’s about it.

Taiwanese at its core despite the American exterior—don’t treat this company like a US company. If you don’t know how to curry favor with the right people when you first join, you’re guaranteed to be blacklisted by your colleagues. If you’re not part of the boss’s inner circle, no matter how much you do, it’s useless. Many colleagues are of poor caliber, and there are plenty who take credit for others’ work. While repairing equipment inside the fab, I was even cursed at by a senior colleague. The key issue is that newcomers are given no time or space to learn. You’re thrown straight into on-call duty, and when something happens, you’re the one left to shoulder the responsibility. They even publicly humiliate people during meetings—how can that person be a leader? They’re as obedient as dogs to TSMC customers, but throw their weight around internally.

Political infighting is severe, especially among upper management. Yet when layoffs come around, they suddenly become a US company again. Truly pathetic.

Pros

- Unlimited coffee; especially noteworthy are the lattes and the wide variety of tea bags

- Lunch is also very diverse

- There are snacks, but you won't feel like taking any

- No need to clock in or out

- The latest iPhone as a company phone

- Free breakfast

Cons

- Breakfast... doesn't make you want to eat it every day... after all, it's free, eh

- As a newcomer, you need to know how to flatter people and proactively build rapport with your supervisor. You need to establish a good relationship first; otherwise, if someone slanders you later, it will be too late to remedy the situation.

- Supervisors treat people they like and dislike differently, including in their attitudes, examination methods, and standards. Of course, this affects the most important thing...

- Different supervisors have different interpretations of the same standard-related question. Which standard are we actually supposed to use?? Asking doesn't get you an answer either—you have to figure it out yourself. Things appear harmonious internally, but behind the scenes...

- You are provided with an iPhone and a laptop, but you continue working and making up lessons after work

- Just like someone on another floor mentioned, there is overtime pay, but no one dares to claim it

- The supervisor does not have much professional knowledge, but has stayed long enough to understand how things work internally. However, their way of handling people and matters is like that of an immature student: they do not know how to communicate, have a strong sense of self, believe that every mistake is someone else's fault, and like to complain and gossip privately about people and matters without understanding them.

It's exhausting enough to work overtime, but you also have to deal with interpersonal problems. Some stereotypes have formed and are difficult to erase. Sometimes the wonderful atmosphere between departments is just an act, but every day you still have to perform your duties and act it out perfectly from start to finish.

Of course, I believe there are good departments in there too.

(For reference, based on personal experience and observations)

Tidy environment, free coffee

A large number of contract employees are hired, some with no relevant background at all. Managers are emotional. Internal infighting is severe. The hierarchy is pronounced. There is an overtime pay system, but no one dares to report overtime.

1. Highly competitive salary:

For new master's degree graduates, the annual salary is approximately NT$1.2 million, excluding overtime. Overtime is paid at twice the hourly rate.

2. Excellent company benefits. Someone is assigned to buy breakfast in the morning, and the travel allowance is NT$60,000 per year.

3. There are frequent opportunities for overseas training, potentially in the United States, China, or Israel, with all expenses fully covered by the company.

1. CSE (Customer Service Engineer): The work is low-level, consisting of tasks such as tightening screws and wiping down equipment with lint-free cloths (PM). To put it bluntly, it is essentially being a highly paid manual laborer, and doing the same thing day after day can make you question the purpose of what you learned.

2. If you are assigned to a TSMC BU, customers often make unreasonable demands. Irregular mealtimes, spending long periods in the cleanroom (more than 8 hours), and working overtime until the middle of the night are absolutely the norm.

3. Changing jobs is difficult. The saying “once equipment, always equipment” is not untrue. After middle age, declining physical stamina can make continuing to work overtime and remain on call difficult. Anyone considering becoming a CSE should think carefully about their future plans first.