This page collects workplace experiences, questions and discussions submitted by users. Dates shown are submission dates, not periods of employment. Individual reports do not describe the entire company.
Read the community guidelinesI had previously seen that the reviews here were very mixed, but after actually joining the company, I feel that it’s really quite good (I’m someone who’s easily influenced by negative reviews, haha).
There are unlimited snacks and drinks, free massages, as well as quarterly gatherings and birthday celebrations. (I joined recently, but happened to be able to enjoy both the gathering and the birthday celebration, so I feel super lucky XD.)
The work atmosphere may still depend on the department,
but everyone is pretty easy to get along with.
I haven’t experienced any particular drawbacks so far. If I come across any, I’ll add them here for everyone!
The company is fairly large, and there are free drinks and snacks.
1. New hires are often thrown into decade-old systems with tens of thousands of lines of code that are so outdated they stink, then put on the front line of development after only a few days of handover. There is not even any documentation. If you ask questions, you get scolded for not figuring it out yourself; if you misunderstand something and make a mistake, you get harshly berated for not asking first. Then, as part of the PUA, you are told that the problem is your own ability. In the end, more than a dozen new hires all leave within three months. **This is the norm**.
2. Juniors really do not learn much. The old systems left over from more than a decade ago can be summed up in one word: chaotic.
3. What people said below about the interview being one way and the reality after joining being another is true. The Scrum process is described as running like clockwork, but after joining, you discover that the process is so incomplete it is astounding. During the interview, they make it sound as if everything has been fully planned; in reality, it is a constant meteor shower of urgent changes. Hilarious.
4. The technical managers are constantly painting rosy pictures for upper management while repeatedly changing requirements. The specifications cannot be reconciled, but the deadlines remain the same, so overtime and rework are often required. It is a responsibility-based system with no overtime pay.
5. Because the company cannot recruit enough people, it has started raising its compensation. However, it seems completely unaware that, after the pandemic, the software industry outside the gambling sector has also begun raising its standards. It is still boasting that its salaries are among the highest in the industry.
6. Because China has banned gambling in recent years, the company's biggest source of revenue has declined, and many benefits that used to be available have gradually been reduced.
The department I joined is currently under Rega’s “Startup Division.” Benefits are the same as Rega’s; you can search online for reference. In my opinion, they are more or less as described online.
The following pros and cons apply only to reviews of this department:
1. The RD colleagues are easy to communicate with and friendly.
2. The art colleagues are very capable.
1. The technical manager lacks substance and spends all day relying on seniority, repeatedly emphasizing that he is a senior engineer with 10 years of experience.
2. They say one thing before the interview and another after you actually join. (For example: claims that they run Scrum very well, that the entire product is already very complete, that everything to be done each quarter has been planned out in great detail, and so on—sales pitches that give you the illusion that the team is highly organized and capable.)
3. There is little room for junior employees to improve. The technical manager is unfamiliar with design patterns and says your code is terrible, but after completing the code review, cannot provide any substantive suggestions.
4. Tight deadlines result in a heavy workload, and there is no overtime pay. The manager will even complain that you are incompetent and work slowly.
5. The technical manager is very good at lying and shifting blame—deceiving upper management and finding elaborate ways to shift blame whenever problems arise. In short, he is incapable of taking responsibility and relies on deception.
The starting salary for new hires is very high
They use high salaries to attract new hires. Be careful: once you’re assigned to the Admin department, they may use fabricated accusations to prevent you from passing your probationary period.
The benefits are pretty good for newcomers, and there are lots of afternoon snacks and a snack area every day.
Newcomers don't get to develop their skills, the manager has no technical expertise, and there is no technical documentation. The manager is also particularly nice to women but treats men very poorly.
The manager is always dismissive of the trainers hired by the company for external training, thinking they are more capable than the external trainers. But in fact, they are not capable at all.
The company is quite large, with around a hundred employees.
Other than that, nothing.
You can tell that, relying on its many years as a gambling company, the company acts very high and mighty when hiring.
Offering NT$30,000–40,000 and expecting to recruit engineers to write code is pretty amazing too....
Furthermore, overtime comes with neither compensatory leave nor overtime pay; they simply say it is a responsibility-based system.
A gambling company operating in a gray area is also violating the Labor Standards Act....
In conclusion, quite a few people come and go. The benefits were good in the early years, but have steadily declined since then.
Whether you should go is up to you to judge.
The company’s person in charge is rotated among the shareholders. The current person in charge makes project decisions based on intuition. Regardless of PM, RD, or QA staffing arrangements, or any other opinions, what the person in charge says goes, leaving no room for discussion. They may even make last-minute adjustments on the day of a release. Overall, the salary and benefits are not bad by software-industry standards, but salaries are not transparent. From what I know, there are significant salary differences—equal work does not mean equal pay. Overtime is not frequent, but when it happens, it can be brutal; there was once someone who worked nearly 24 hours straight. The benefits used to be good (a self-service buffet birthday gathering or movie screening every two months; now, having one once a quarter is something to celebrate). They have been increasingly cut back. The company’s equipment is good, but it is more for show than actual use: there are a pool table, arcade basketball game, ping-pong table, massage chairs, and so on. I have never seen anyone use them during work hours. The only thing that has probably not been cut is weekly chiropractic treatment.