群創光電股份有限公司

You can scroll on your phone while working. When things are slow, they’re really slow; when they’re busy, they’re very busy. However, there are quite a lot of oddballs here. When someone is PUA-ing you, just talk back to them :) That way, you won’t suffer mental or physical harm. Even if you don’t have much ability, you can still muddle along and become a principal engineer, acting as a salary thief. It all depends on your attitude. If you’re slow to resolve issues, just say that you’ve been working on them. Even when you make a serious mistake, it’s okay if you work slowly. The base salary is considered high compared with traditional industries, but there isn’t much bonus—just 14 months’ pay. The annual salary is around 800,000. Basically, you can leave at 6 p.m. (when the product project isn’t busy).

Other R&D TD units may be better and offer opportunities to learn. Absolutely do not become a product engineer—there are a ton of annoying tasks. You have to deal with both internal factories and external suppliers, and there are many miscellaneous matters to handle. You can’t learn any professional skills; maybe all you’ll learn is how to argue. Considering the job responsibilities, it’s really awful.

When looking for the entrance (the factory guard post), definitely don’t rely on Google Maps.

I got lost both times I went there.

Lunch vouchers are provided for interviews.

Overall, it’s not a bad company.

There are sofas inside the company where you can rest.

Here are some of the less-than-ideal aspects I experienced.

I interviewed three times in total. Twice, I happened to interview at Innolux after confirming that I had received job offers from other companies, and canceled the jobs I had already accepted at the last minute. However, I was ultimately not hired by Innolux either.

I initially applied to Innolux because its cleanrooms have an exceptionally high degree of automated precision. I compared this with my past experience in highly developed English-speaking countries’ automated cleanrooms, as well as my cleanroom work experience in Taiwan and mainland China, and Innolux seemed very good by comparison. Unfortunately, during the interview, it was suggested that a “coaling” culture may still exist among the company’s senior management. According to the interviewer, among senior managers at the vice president level, there are people who have children but have divorced their wives. Given that the company involves frequent business trips, this inevitably brings to mind the outdated practices often associated with older Taiwanese companies, such as hiring escorts during business trips, keeping mistresses, or having multiple households (with children who have different mothers or being divorced).

I interviewed three times, and passed the first stage all three times. The test questions were identical each time. The English test included listening, grammar multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, and so on. After the first two interviews, I waited two months before receiving a call from the interviewer saying that the hiring process had been postponed because they had previously undergone surgery. Later, it seemed that the offer was canceled because the company’s HR department had also been affected internally by the pandemic.

During interviews, the interviewer would initially assume that the candidate would accept the position and state that there was a need for the candidate, then ask questions to assess whether the candidate was genuinely a good fit.

The questions I was asked included:

Q1: “Our company has technologies that TSMC also wants. You’ll have the opportunity to learn them here, and once you’ve learned them, TSMC will want you. The question is, are you willing to travel for work?”

My answer: “Isn’t Innolux already a very good company? It shouldn’t need to be used as a stepping stone, right? I’ll pass on business trips.”

Q2: “Why don’t you go to TSMC?” (This question was asked five times—by five different interviewers.)

My answer: “I tried, but I wasn’t accepted.”

People there seem to really like comparing themselves with TSMC. I wonder if there’s some interesting backstory.

1. The base salary is considered high in southern Taiwan.

2. The colleagues are easy to get along with.

1. You can claim overtime pay for working on holidays, but you "cannot" claim overtime pay for attending training on holidays—do your good deeds to the fullest.

2. The company culture is somewhat militaristic: when a superior says something, it goes, with little room for discussion.

3. The turnover rate among engineers at the factory is extremely high; engineers are treated like operators.

4. The system integration is chaotic, often leaving people confused about how to use it.

5. People who smoke are suspected of having gone to smoke whenever they are not at their station.

The D factory has a fairly large parking lot.

HR matches people to positions very haphazardly and notified me about many jobs I never applied for.

You have to call them personally to confirm the job details,

but some job titles are very similar.

Even HR can't clearly explain the differences,

and you have to go to the on-site interview to find out.

For interviewees,

well... it's valuable experience, I guess~~

1. The company is very large, with complete departments, providing opportunities to learn from engineers across many departments.

2. The starting monthly salary is higher than that of system manufacturers and traditional industries. The annual salary is neither the best nor the worst, and the stated benefits are not lacking.

3. The company’s policies are connected to the group, allowing employees to understand the broader environment of the panel and system-manufacturing industries.

4. Employees can apply for a corporate MVPN account to contact colleagues in mainland China and Taiwan.

5. The atmosphere of cooperation among colleagues (excluding management) is fairly good.

1. The company is excessively focused on “cost cutting.” For example, the laptops are so poor that they attract customers’ attention; employees must prepare their own office stationery; and the amount of company-provided A4 paper that can be used is controlled, so colleagues bring paper from home for photocopying.

2. The employee expense reimbursement process is slow: travel expenses require receipts and invoices to be retained, manually attached, and submitted for approval. The reimbursement usually does not arrive until one to two months later.

3. Management is based on personal discretion, with loose and inconsistent standards. Policies often change direction, and how well one adapts depends on one’s luck.

4. Overtime is common during peak seasons (fixed-responsibility work system), and MVPN ties employees up at night and on holidays.

The advantage is also the disadvantage; the disadvantage is still the disadvantage

The company's training for new hires is really terrible. Learning to operate a machine

is made to feel like training for a decathlon, with constant tests:

C inspection, microscopes, machines, claw machines.

You have to learn everything, even things you'll never use.

Out of three months, only a month and a half is available to learn the machines.

Although the trainers apparently don't dare put new hires on the line immediately after three months,

how much time has been wasted? Once new hires are put on the line, they have to take care of UPH.

They give you so little learning time, yet you still have to worry about production capacity—WTF.

When a new hire's production output isn't enough, the team leader still chases them around.

It's absolutely ridiculous—basically throwing someone into the deep end.

No wonder no Taiwanese people want to learn the machines; even the Filipino workers can't keep up with them.

Look at TSMC. During new-hire training, they even dare to let new hires watch

how to become the TSMC of the panel industry—speaking in the language of Mengka.

The company is very large.

I believe there are still good departments.

I worked as a PM for a year and a half at the time, and have now been gone for over a year.

Let me briefly describe the situation at the time.

Many people took whatever they could and slacked off whenever possible.

The production-line team leaders had inconsistent levels of ability.

They would call to say there was no network when the network cable wasn't even plugged in.

Some people couldn't even tell the difference between Windows 7 and XP.

Whenever there was a problem, they would frantically ask others to handle it; they themselves were incapable. Why did the company hire you?

Materials were stolen here and there, making them nearly impossible to control; the safeguards prevented mistakes but not malicious behavior.

The workload distribution was extremely uneven.

Capable engineers were forced to leave one by one.

Thanks to the incredibly awesome systems engineer who taught me back then.

In 2017, Innolux was divided into two systems: one in the south and one in the north.

Regardless of whether it was the Engineering Department, Information Department, or even areas such as management, sales, and others, the northern system was the original Innolux Corporation, and the company culture was generally as follows:

1. The seniority system took precedence above all else.

2. Falsifying information and prioritizing report-writing came before actual results.

3. The culture of flattering superiors was extremely prevalent.

4. Employees engaged in open and covert rivalry.

The southern system was the original Chi Mei Electronics, and its company culture was as follows:

1. The people in the Engineering Department were highly professional.

2. The atmosphere was friendly.

3. Promotions were slow (but they were also very short-staffed).

4. Colleagues were very united.

Having worked in both the south and the north, I found the company cultures to be very different.

If you are someone who is very calculating, you absolutely should not go to the southern plant; otherwise, you will only be ostracized.

If you want to learn seriously and work steadily, you absolutely should not go to the northern plant; otherwise, you will be very miserable.

Definitely do not go to the fourth-floor side office on the fourth floor. Manager Fang XX, Assistant Manager Wang XX.

You can experience what it means to work overtime without any performance pay.

If you want to leave, they will still drag things out—they're really good at that.

The night-shift duty-room PM—not an engineer, mind you.

You have to know how to do everything. They treat you like an engineer, but don't even give you the most basic performance pay. Pretty impressive, right?

Innolux Fab 4, 6th floor, Engineering Manager Fang XX

If you are lucky enough to win, the PM—especially a PM-favoring one—

will ensure that you have to arrive early for work and will not be allowed to leave on time, working at least 1–2 hours of overtime.

The night shift is covered by the PM (isn't it supposed to be covered by engineers?)

Engineers don't work night shifts. The “baozi plant” wants to save money on engineers, so they send the PMs instead. They never give out monthly performance bonuses. Fang XX is really something.

Only a small number of favored employees have a chance to receive performance bonuses, resulting in an excessive bonus balance—and they still want to find people to put on the payroll. Amazing.

At the morning meeting, the night-shift PM gives the report, letting you enjoy being scolded from 7:30 a.m. until noon without being willing to let you leave work.

Meanwhile, the person on duty should have been able to leave work by 9:30 at the latest.

You want to build a fully automated factory? Just hearing that makes me drunk with disbelief.

Innolux Plant 5, photolithography department: After a 12-hour night shift, you still have to attend a morning meeting for at least 1–2 hours. There is no overtime pay for the extra hours. The turnover rate is over 50%. Applicants, please think twice before applying. Don’t come only to leave soon afterward and waste your life. From someone who has been there.