A start-of-work red envelope of NT$1,000.
Violates the Labor Standards Act by requiring eight fixed days off per month.
You have to write a work log every week. The boss will cut your salary, which may not be restored until after the probationary period—but the boss decides how long the probationary period is extended!
The secretaries seem to have very little to do and feel like they are just there to collect a salary. They go off to smoke and chat, and some of them write reports tattling on others.
As long as you know how to suck up, you can survive and even get a raise every year. The worst part is that these people have no brains and only know how to take credit for others’ work.
Supervisors do not handle matters themselves; they simply pass down whatever instructions come from above.
What the boss says today may change tomorrow—it is never surprising.
They offer a not-very-high salary while expecting you to do high-level work.
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Interview date: 2021/12/8
Interview position: Game development turned into social media editor (Chinese and English)
The interview process was very bizarre.
First, I had to add the interviewer on LINE.
After that, the supervisor sent questions in English via LINE for the interviewee to answer?!
After I replied, they waited five minutes before conducting the interview by LINE call.
The interviewer said they had an incoming call and hung up after speaking for less than 10 seconds.
When we reconnected, they immediately asked me to introduce myself in English!?
I said at the time that I hadn't prepared for an English interview. After some back-and-forth, I finally found out that they were actually looking to hire a social media editor.
In the end, I told the interviewer that because my original position was XXX, a social media editor role was different from my career direction.
The interviewer then said: “It doesn't matter, we're just chatting,” and went on to say in English, essentially, that they were grateful to have spoken with me today and wished me a wonderful afternoon.
This was ridiculous. I had first spoken with the company's HR representative, who specifically said the position would lean toward a development role, but on the day of the interview it turned out to be a social media editor (Chinese and English) position instead!?
If you are going to interview with this company, please be very careful.
1. The air conditioning is really cool?
2. It was kind of funny watching the interviewer pretend to know what they were talking about.
1. The interviewing manager was very arrogant and really liked pretending to know things. Even though they clearly weren’t familiar with the situation in other industries, they still insisted on “correcting” the interviewee.
2. The interviewing manager’s every word was filled with a sense of superiority, as though every other company was inferior to theirs. Having confidence and putting other people down are two different things.
The position I applied for was copywriter. The person responsible for contacting me by phone was apparently the manager rather than HR. They originally said they would send me a text message, but after I asked them to email me, they sent a rather informal email. After I replied, I received an even more bizarre email containing only the single word “Okay.” The manager’s email etiquette gets a huge question mark.
When I arrived at the office on the day of the interview, I was asked to fill out a standard personnel information form. After the interviewing manager arrived, the following conversation began.
Manager: Hey, what does XX Company (my current employer) do?
Me: An advertising agency. (Internal monologue: Didn’t I mention that in both my résumé and autobiography? Forget the name—couldn’t you at least figure out the industry before coming to interview me?)
Manager: What’s your boss’s name?
Me: Oh? Do you know our boss?
Manager: No~ We’re very familiar with advertising companies~ We’re always in contact with them~
After I answered truthfully, the manager gave a very bizarre response:
“Oh, then you’re probably not a 4A agency.”
Me: That’s right, we’re not. (Internal monologue: I’m sorry we’re not a 4A agency and have disappointed you.)
Then they asked what I was doing now and what I had done before. After I answered, they launched into a long speech, repeatedly emphasizing that the nature of their work and industry was very different, that many people couldn’t handle it, and asking, “Are you sure you’re willing to learn?” I actually think it was perfectly normal and understandable for them to explain these things, but couldn’t they have been a little more polite????
Manager: Although you were also a copywriter before, things are very different here. You could say you’re starting from a blank slate. Do you have any questions for me?
Me: I’d like to ask how this position came about. Is it because the organization is expanding?
Manager: I guess… you could say it’s expansion. (They answered very reluctantly.) We have too many projects, and the budgets are huge—easily hundreds of billions at a time. Ordinary advertising companies are lucky to have budgets of tens of millions; they can’t compare at all, blah blah blah.
Me: Then I’d like to understand the specific responsibilities of this position. (Internal monologue: We’ve been talking for ages and you haven’t even explained the most important thing. I have to ask myself?)
After the manager finished speaking, I asked another question:
Me: From what I’ve heard, does this job lean more toward planning and strategy, while also including budget management? In the advertising industry, budgets are handled by account executives…
Manager (interrupting me directly): No, account executives are blah blah blah.
Hearing that was genuinely both hilarious and baffling. Am I the one working in advertising, or are you? And if you divide the work differently, you could simply say that budgets are managed by the planning team, couldn’t you???
In between, I asked some ordinary questions. Finally, I asked the manager:
Me: How would you describe your company’s way of doing things?
Manager (looking surprised, as if completely puzzled about why I would ask that): We don’t need a brand. The clients already have their own brands. Our job is to sell the clients’ products. Why would we build a brand?
Me (having really had enough): That’s not what I’m asking. I mean, how does your company treat people? What’s your working style?
Manager: Oh, we only let ability speak for itself. Our boss started from nothing; they evaluate people solely based on ability. We don’t place much importance on educational qualifications, blah blah blah.
Manager (with an extremely disdainful expression): I’ve hired people from NTU, NTHU, and NYCU too. Oh, honestly, they were～～～～so difficult to work with!
？？？The way they said it, you’d think people from NTU, NTHU, and NYCU were all begging to be hired by them.
That was the interview in detail. To be honest, I don’t regret coming to this interview—it was truly eye-opening. I’ve never encountered a company this bizarre and arrogant from the interview stage onward. I really wonder whether anyone can be recruited with an attitude like that.
As a property management secretary, the pay is good, and there is also a perfect attendance bonus. After passing the performance evaluation, you will receive another pay raise.
The supervisor is very much about the person rather than the issue. If you offend her, you won’t have an easy time afterward. Every month, you have to go back to the Taipei office for a meeting, and you stay there for the entire day. There is no overtime pay either. After the meeting, you still have to return to the original site to work your shift that evening. In short, there are many regulations that violate the Labor Standards Act. You also have to submit a pointless work log every week like an elementary school student. There are both good and bad secretaries there: some secretaries will go off to smoke and chat for no particular reason, while others will submit petty reports badmouthing you. You will feel hostility at work. If you are good at socializing, it is a very suitable place for you to go.
HR is very friendly, and the sales office receptionist is very courteous.
The first interview was at the head office, where I was received by HR. I first had to fill out a standard form, and then was asked some basic questions. After that, I was scheduled for a second interview at the hotel, with the chairman and a manager. Basically, the company did not tell me at all which position I was interviewing for. At the second interview, the executives simply asked what I had come to do. After I answered, I felt that the company completely disregarded professional expertise and did not need someone from my field. They also kept saying that during the probationary period I would have to work in real estate (Am I here to sell houses?). That aside, they finally asked what salary I could accept during the probationary period. I answered that maintaining my current level would be fine, and the interviewer directly replied that it was impossible and that I could leave. I am very curious: if they do not respect applicants' professional expertise and do not offer good salaries, what exactly could attract good talent to work for them?