華奧博岩品牌創研有限公司

The interview room was beautifully arranged; I only found out later that it was the bosses’ office.

Applied for a brand planning position

“Because we’re curious about the national university you attended, we wanted to invite you in for a chat.”

Looking back, the female boss was very good at using bureaucratic-sounding language and praising my copywriting abilities.

Then she told me about a case related to the position. It was only toward the end that I realized she was hinting at me.

I had no choice but to ask her directly whether I had any chance of getting the job.

She actually said it would depend on what the boss thought.

The subsequent written test involved coming up with a name for a brand based on an article created from scratch and writing a simple proposal.

But the written test was not actually the key factor in hiring; what mattered was whether the female boss was satisfied.

The office was a split-level space in a residence used by the company. There were two planners on the first floor and five or six young graphic designers on the second floor.

The projects they handled were all CIS projects for small and medium-sized enterprises. She said they relied on regular clients and did not need to spend time looking for business.

So the reason they were busy recruiting people was probably just that the female boss was bored and wanted someone to chat with.

None

1. Policies change constantly; the company may seem to have rules, but ultimately the boss has the final say on all of them.

2. Lacks accountability and likes to shift the blame to employees when something goes wrong.

The company may really have made money in the past and was once at its peak. The boss said the company’s performance has been deteriorating year by year. A death cross began to appear after the pandemic, but the company was still able to break even. In the past two years, with the rise of AI, the company’s performance has fallen to just 5% of what it was before. Every month, they burn through their savings, and after even those savings are gone, they borrow money to keep burning through it.

1. No projects are coming in, and the company is facing severe financial problems. The boss borrows money from all sorts of sources, and the company is at constant risk of shutting down.

2. Extremely high employee turnover; all the longtime employees have left.

3. The boss likes to belittle people and will speak negatively about you behind your back.

4. The boss is generous and polished toward outsiders but extremely stingy internally. They will scrutinize how you use the air conditioning and even count how many sheets of A4 paper you print.

5. They love holding meetings and like to paint grand visions and talk about dreams during them. Then they compare you with the company’s other workhorses.

6. Working overtime is considered a sign of being a good employee, and ideally you should not ask the company for overtime pay.

7. They bring problems from their private life and relationships into work matters.

8. The boss is always calculating the company’s costs in front of employees and telling you that everyone needs to endure difficult times together.

9. It is standard for one person to hold multiple roles. If you are unwilling to do it, they will lay you off.

10. The boss explicitly says that what they want are employees who “listen and do as they’re told.”

11. They have a strong need for control, monitoring surveillance footage and listening to what employees say. If you discuss any labor-management or salary issues with them, they will record the conversation (I saw this with my own eyes).

12. They arbitrarily change employment contracts unilaterally. The company already has multiple recorded labor disputes.

13. Because the company is facing financial problems, they will find excuses to deduct money from your salary!!!

14. They treat basic provisions as benefits. If the company gives you a job to do, you are expected to be grateful.

15. Extremely concerned with saving face: they drive luxury cars and wear designer brands to maintain appearances, but are actually deeply in debt.

I worked at the company during two separate periods: for 7–8 months in 2021 and from August 2024 onward (currently employed).

Position: Brand Marketing Planner

【Pros】

1. You can interact with business owners from many different industries and take part in the process from pitching proposals to clients or taking on a brand case through to the subsequent stages.

2. My current supervisor and the office atmosphere are great. The company is currently undergoing restructuring, and with everyone actively putting things in order, we can all complete our respective responsibilities harmoniously and efficiently. (I can’t speak for before 2021, but work is genuinely! enjoyable! Every day is happy and pleasant. My colleagues are like angels, and I can also learn a lot from their experience.)

3. The boss is very generous and willing to share personal experience with employees and give them room to demonstrate their abilities. The boss also often brings coffee, drinks, and snacks to treat colleagues at the office.

4. I’m someone who actually enjoys business trips, and the company also manages IP licensing, so there are often opportunities to exhibit domestically and overseas, which can broaden your horizons.

5. Around holidays, the company and colleagues celebrate together. The Mid-Autumn Festival barbecue is coming up soon, and we will also have four consecutive days off. Although design companies inevitably have occasional rush periods, the company also values a balance between work and rest and does not require overtime. (At least, I’ve never been forced to work overtime.)

6. The company currently provides subsidies for employees to develop their skills. For example, amid the recent AI boom, you can propose courses you want to study to the company as on-the-job training and use your evenings or weekends to improve yourself. The company will also pay for it and support you in becoming better~ (I think this is really great.)

(All of the above is based on my real experience. I’m currently enjoying my working life~)

I won’t say much more about my thoughts when I left in 2021. I think it would be rather one-sided to judge the full picture of a company solely from reviews. I had also read the reviews on Tianyancha before joining the first time, but still came for an interview. After returning to the company this time, I feel that it has indeed changed a lot, and I’m willing to stay here and work on improving myself. Personally, I think that if you’re willing to accept challenges in various areas and can continually adjust your mindset to face the work you’re responsible for, there are indeed many opportunities to learn here, and you can grow as well. Complaining won’t change the workplace environment. Objectively speaking, if you make good use of your abilities, this company can also offer you good compensation and benefits—it’s a two-way relationship~ That’s all, for everyone’s reference.

(This isn’t an attempt to whitewash anything; I have no particular need to do that. I simply hope that future colleagues can see an objective post and become our good partners~)

The first stage is mainly an interview, focusing primarily on your personal background and experience. The main interviewer mainly asks questions and conducts a Q&A based on the information you provide.

The second stage is a hands-on task, mainly involving writing a proposal and marketing execution plan. It takes about 40 minutes. There are approximately 3 to 5 questions, decided by drawing lots. I drew a proposal for a department store anniversary promotion. Overall, it was somewhat challenging, so I recommend practicing in advance.

Regarding benefits and compensation, in principle, the interviewer will ask about your salary expectations. Generally speaking, the offer will not differ too much from your expectations—unless you ask for an astronomical amount, haha...

The two stages together take about an hour and a half. The work environment is in a company with a strong sense of design.

My advice for the interview is not to be too nervous. I recommend browsing the company's brands on its website, as this may earn you extra points. There are many negative reviews about this company here, but I don't think you need to pay too much attention to them. Wherever there are people, there will be interpersonal complexities; the world naturally has both good and bad sides. Experiencing it yourself is what matters most. I wish everyone success in their interviews.

As for the drawbacks, I think the main one is that the interview questions are very detailed... I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, though. I feel that having an in-depth interview is also a good thing for us interviewees.

1. The colleagues are very nice and capable. If there’s anything you want to learn, they’re always happy to share when you ask.

2. The Design Department on the second floor uses Macs (while the first floor is full of half-broken Windows computers).

3. You get an hour and a half for lunch, so you can take a good nap (although that means the end of the workday is 6:30).

4. You can improve your stress tolerance and broaden your horizons in a short time.

1. Company meetings are inefficient and frequently stray off topic, making them a huge waste of time.

2. The supervisor downstairs is very difficult to deal with and lacks basic communication skills. On my first day, I thought I owed her two million dollars.

3. If you leave on time, supervisors will make sarcastic remarks about how you lack team spirit and solidarity, asking things like, “Everyone else is working overtime, so how do you have the nerve to leave on time?”

4. Whether it’s a business trip or a client appointment, management has never been on time. If a meeting at the client’s company is scheduled for 10:00, they basically won’t leave until 11:00. All I can say is, fortunately, I wasn’t one of the people accompanying them.

5. Although the position is in marketing, there are many miscellaneous duties, such as sorting garbage, cleaning the toilets, mopping the floors, watering the plants, and preparing tea and water when guests arrive, among other things…

6. They say everyone shares the workload, but one supervisor only knows how to criticize you for not sweeping or mopping properly, even though her name is also on the duty roster. Heh. Oh, and she’s also very good at reporting people to management. Great.

7. Be mentally prepared to take the blame.

8. Overtime pay… heh. (The boss will even tell you to learn from a supervisor who never asks for overtime pay and to adopt her attitude of “contribution.”)

9. Although the salary range listed on 104 looks very attractive, in reality… heh.

That’s all I can think of for now. If I think of anything else, I’ll add it in the comments.

Oh, right—let me also share something about the interview.

There was a written test in the interview: you had to create a marketing plan from scratch.

At first, having this written test made me feel that the company was professional and took things seriously.

But in fact, the assignment took more than an hour, and they ultimately did not review it seriously.

The interviewers were the boss’s wife/accountant/administrator (the same person).

As for the interview process… heh, experience it for yourself.

Um.....

Basically, they want to hire highly experienced talent for a very low salary, but once they hire someone experienced, they also want to micromanage and dictate everything?? Also, the boss is an older man, and the HR/accounting manager is the boss’s wife. Simply put, it’s a “family business”—a company that is very good at putting on a superficial appearance but has little depth. The “one country, two systems” situation is especially serious: the boss says A, the boss’s wife says B, and then you often get lectured because of it? The boss’s wife also has obsessive-compulsive tendencies. If you’re a designer, it may be fine, but if you’re applying for a brand-planning position, think twice. Unless you’re the kind of person who passively accepts everything, has no opinions of your own, and simply does whatever you’re told, you might want to reconsider. Otherwise, you’ll feel like strangling that awful woman, because she always demands that everyone do things her way.

Oh, right—their restroom smells terrible, like feces.

The colleagues are great

Exposure to diverse clients

1. A company with a hen-chà concept of time

- Meetings easily last over an hour (with no conclusions)

- Other people's time isn't considered time (people are always at least 30 minutes late to meetings, and there's much more....)

2. A company that is stagnating

- Its thinking is stuck in the old days of building brands; building a brand relies on experience

- The leaders have stopped taking in new knowledge and rely on boasting when dealing with outsiders

If you work here, you absolutely must keep improving yourself!!!

3. The boss is hen-chè

- Loves sophistry, cannot distinguish right from wrong, boasts, and stubbornly refuses to admit mistakes

- Extremely concerned about saving face, and often pushes employees in front of the bullets to save face

…..There is much more, but I won't say it all

All I can say is… the employees here are truly hardworking and resilient!

It is very suitable for fresh graduates to gain experience

If you are pursuing a high salary, don't consider this place～

Because even with experience, the salary during the first three months is still terrible ^_^

(They claim it's a fresh start and that they will retrain you, but in reality, 70% still depends on you～)

The colleagues are young and energetic.

The boss has a very poor sense of time and only assigns work after hours; they frequently change their decisions and do not really respect employees.

The boss’s wife is very emotional and often makes sarcastic remarks, making her difficult to communicate with.

The two heads of the company often disagree, making it difficult for employees to work. Work is frequently delayed because of their domestic disputes, which feels terrible!

There are quite a lot of places to eat near the old company location; that’s about the only thing I thought was okay.

1. The company lacks internal management. Meetings are often inefficient, and employees are criticized even for leaving work on time.

2. The boss likes to make grand promises. When I told him I was resigning, he said he would develop and nurture employees, but I never saw him put much effort into it.

3. A colleague who had worked for three months was told they were unsuitable and asked to leave, without being given severance pay.

4. The vacation policy violated the Labor Standards Act. In the past, we even had to attend monthly meetings on holidays, with only lunch money provided.

5. The cultural and creative brand was losing money, but employees were still forced to continue working on it.

6. I once worked overtime until 10 p.m. just to change the color scheme of the cultural and creative brand’s fabric label. It was outrageous.

7. They did not seriously plan designs suitable for clients. Sometimes employees were simply told to take old proposals and make a few changes to get the job done.

I worked there for a while several years ago, and I’m even amazed at how strong my ability to withstand pressure was…

There are too many outrageous things to list. In short, don’t waste your time here.