Advantech_研華股份有限公司

None

The HR representative asked many questions, then asked me to ask them questions, followed by a bunch of questions unrelated to professional matters. They also did not introduce the professional aspects of their company or department.

The supervisor was very courteous and polite, but as for professional ability, hmm.

I wasn’t hired…

The interview organization was very considerate and willing to accommodate an interview after work hours.

I arrived at Advantech on time for the scheduled interview. The receptionist asked me to wait first. Afterward, a very polite older woman (60+) escorted me to the meeting room and even poured me some tea. Shortly afterward, the interviewer (a woman in her 50s) passed by the meeting room, confirmed my name (“What’s your name?”), and then came in for the interview. She immediately asked me to introduce myself. The product in question is not particularly popular in the industry. I have three years of relevant experience and had already familiarized myself with Advantech’s product line, so I raised some relevant questions. The interviewer showed absolutely no reaction.....? Judging from that reaction, I knew the chances were not good. She asked only two simple questions, then said there were no problems and asked me to ask questions. I was KO’d in 10 minutes!! Regarding my questions, I really doubted whether she was actually from the hiring department. All the answers were evasive and perfunctory, and she even proudly said that she had to interview more than ten people a day and was very busy......... It was not a pleasant interview experience.

My current company guarantees an annual salary equivalent to 14 months of pay, plus stock; excluding variable bonuses, it comes to approximately 15.5 months of salary. I heard that Advantech only guarantees 13 months and does not offer stock. Estimating the incentive needed to change jobs at an additional 10–15%, Advantech would need to offer a monthly salary increase of 31–37% for it to be worthwhile. I already knew before going that this was impossible, but the experience itself was still unpleasant!

Average salary

HR is extremely unprofessional; it’s only a matter of time before they’re reported to the Labor Bureau

A bunch of old-timers going through the motions

The manager is having an affair and still thinks they’re very capable; they have absolutely no respect for people

There is no training at all; you’re entirely on your own to survive

There are a great many freeloaders

1. Shuttle bus transportation to and from the Linkou plant

2. Plenty of parking spaces in the Linkou plant’s underground parking lot

3. Comfortable environment in the sports facilities and gym

4. Lunch subsidy of $35; pay $50 for all-you-can-eat meals

5. Annual income equivalent to 13–16 months of salary

6. Overseas units offer good benefits and a comfortable pace

7. Senior management has a vision, and the marketing team is capable

1. The shortcomings everyone mentioned above are factual and undeniable

2. The company does not value training and frequently falsifies online test results

3. The company does not prioritize frontline labor safety. Every month, the occupational safety instructor arranges a 10-minute gathering and talk, after which everyone rushes back to the production line

4. A first-rate industrial manufacturer, but materials management needs improvement. The manufacturing lines rely entirely on luck—perhaps it really is just marketing packaging

1. Meal allowance of NT$35

2. It’s fairly decent for a small number of people

1. The monthly salary can be negotiated slightly higher during the interview, but the overall annual salary is low, with only a guaranteed 13 months of pay

2. Most of the staff are long-time employees, but the only ones willing to teach are the newly arrived people with experience; the other long-time employees are indifferent

3. The boss is indecisive when making decisions. Today they tell you to change these things, and tomorrow they scrap everything and start over in a different direction

4. The medical examination has to be done on a weekend

5. There is no real SOP for new employees to learn from; you have to figure out many things yourself by following videos

6. Some PMs are inexplicably aggressive and do not respect the opinions or ideas of the EEs

The only advantage is that once you get in, as long as you negotiate an acceptable salary, you can slack off and coast until retirement without any problem.

The salary is extremely low, and the bonus is laughable. HR goes around in circles and deceives everyone.

It’s unbelievably terrible. The company is stable, which has resulted in there being far too many long-serving employees.

The more long-serving employees there are, the worse the efficiency becomes. The office atmosphere is extremely toxic—you can go the entire day without anyone saying a word.

The manager is always evasive and dodges responsibility; subordinates take the blame, while the manager is first in line for the benefits.

Young people should leave this company as soon as possible.

1. The building is very large; two buildings have been constructed, and the third is also nearing completion.

2. Many activities for a fulfilling life.

3. A lunch subsidy of 35 dollars.

4. The parking spaces are very large.

RMA—forming cliques; problematic cases are often given to others while they keep the easy ones for themselves. It’s best to have someone backing you if you want to join. If you don’t mind that, you can go.

Single-board production line—tourists often come to look at the animals, and cases often involve a game of passing the buck. In the end, they still come back to you.

Benefits = 0. For example, the health checkup required by the Labor Standards Act has to be done on your own weekend time.

For example, the restaurant is unbelievably terrible; the cafeteria across the street is clean, hygienic, and cheaper.

The café is unbelievably expensive—the prices are three times higher.

The benefit points can only be used twice a year and are unavailable the rest of the time. Any unused points are taken back when you leave the company.

The year-end bonus is fixed at 13–14 months’ salary. If you want to reach the ceiling of 14 months, you may have to work until your photo is hung on the wall.

If you live in Taipei, transportation costs plus vehicle depreciation alone will take away NT$6,000–8,000 a month.

Working there for two years is basically hell, filled with negative energy.

When working there, if you’re thinking about the company’s benefits, don’t bother—they’re simply zero.

The downside is that you have to stay for two years before leaving; if you go back one more time,

you’ll leave after just two days.

I’m someone who wants to apply for an operator position at the Xizhi plant.

I’d like to ask anyone who has worked there: Are the colleagues friendly?

I’d also like to hear about your experience and impressions of working there as an operator. What is the work generally like? Is it very difficult?

How do they interview applicants for operator positions there?

(I need a job, but I don’t have much work experience.)

Please, everyone! 🙏

I’m not sure yet.

I interviewed for a software engineering position; the technical questions were not too difficult.

The work seems fairly flexible and offers room for individual initiative.

No overtime or on-call duty is required.

Engineers provide support for operations and maintenance.

They stood me up on the day of our scheduled second interview.

The company has budget limitations on salary offers...please consider this when stating your expected salary.

Suggestions:

If you schedule an interview, please do not stand someone up on the day of the interview.

P.S.:

I interviewed for the Neihu site.

I had already taken leave from my previous company that day.

The company has abundant resources, and there are welfare points that can be used to redeem food for free.

Managers pass the buck and do not help; sometimes they have no idea even when asked. It operates under a responsibility-based system, and overtime is commonplace.

The Linkou production line engineering unit; sometimes the business team treats us to snacks in the afternoon; a 10-minute break at 3:00 p.m.

1. I had only been there for less than three weeks when my supervisor suddenly seemed to lose it. They told the senior colleague training me that I was testing more slowly, comparing me with others and saying that others could test independently after two weeks... I had just started, and I worked overtime every day from Monday to Friday. If I don't work overtime, I even have to write down the reason!! It's really ridiculous. Hardware testing involves many small details and steps that require attention—is there really any need to be so aggressive?

2. They also told my senior colleague that if this job wasn't suitable, I should consider transferring to another unit or even leaving!! During the interview, they couldn't find enough people and desperately hoped I would join. Now they're saying things like this, which really makes me angry......... I sincerely advise fresh graduates not to come here. The salaries for engineering (assistant engineering) and production-line positions don't even reach NT$26,000. I'm really not exaggerating (there are even lower salaries.... employees themselves will reveal them).

3. There are many internal cliques, and people love gossiping about others.... You need to understand this before joining. I don't know how much longer I can endure it; I may leave this large company with its low salary.

The lobby is impressive. There seems to be afternoon tea available to eat and drink on B1.

Unfortunately, there is no “extremely poor” rating option.

1. I applied for a position requiring skill A, but during the interview, I was told that skill B was more important. They even explicitly said that they did not value expertise in skill A. In that case, why did you invite me to interview? The discussion kept straying further and further off topic, and the interviewing manager did not even know what kind of talent they were looking for. How could they think it was acceptable to waste both our time by having me come for an interview?

2. They do not respect interviewees. If they cannot even show respect during an interview, what kind of good working environment could there be after joining? Not to mention how unpleasant the interviewer made me feel. I had no idea what the HR representative’s name was or who they were, and I did not speak with them at all. Were they just trying to meet a performance target? They did not introduce the company environment, employee benefits, or even what the company does. Impressive—in the wrong way.

You can tell whether a company is worth joining just from the interview.

None

They brought in a large group of people for a group interview for interns.

They said they would notify us of the results in three days, but there was absolutely no follow-up.

As if no follow-up weren't enough, they privately selected a few people for a second interview.

Later, I heard that even those who were notified about the second interview never heard anything further.

What exactly is this company's HR doing? Not a single promise was kept.

All I can say is that you can tell how good or bad this company is just by going to the interview, lol.

Other than the salary being paid on time, there are no other advantages.

The company has more people who talk than people who actually get things done. If you are capable of solving problems and like to get hands-on, don't go there—you'll be driven crazy by a bunch of people who are all talk.

None

The HR department is very unprofessional. I encountered an extremely outrageous HR representative named Crystal.

I was originally selected as an intern and was willing to intern, but this HR representative took it upon herself to contact an alternate candidate to replace me. She also kept lying and deceiving people throughout the communication process, and I have no idea what she was acting so arrogant about. As a result, I lost my offer just like that.

The supervisor was very nice, and there are other professional HR representatives there, but this Crystal was extremely terrible. Please be careful if you encounter this HR representative.

The department head and colleagues I interviewed with seemed like very nice people.

The interview experience with HR was extremely poor.

They were unprofessional and lacked expertise, yet still acted arrogantly.

The HR interviewer was named Emily.

The person who sent the email and the person who hosted the interview were different.

1. They misremembered the interview time they had sent themselves. When I arrived, they said I was early; only after I showed them the email did they admit there was no mistake.

2. The department manager and HR conducted the second interview together, but HR arrived very late, halfway through the interview.

3. They lacked professional knowledge but kept challenging me, while acting as if "I am very important." They could not understand my explanations, and in the end the department manager also stepped in before they finally stopped.

Neihu Headquarters IAG RD Impressions

Pros:

1. The lunch has fairly good value for money (NT$50 per meal).

2. R&D at a brand-name company offers more room to exercise your abilities and make your voice heard.

3. You can negotiate your monthly salary as high as possible; the annual salary will be the same anyway.

4. If you know senior department executives or firmly attach yourself to your manager, things can go "very" smoothly.

Cons:

1. The annual salary is guaranteed for 13 months; at most, you will receive the equivalent of 14–15 months for the whole year, or around 16 months in a particularly good year.

2. Although employees do not clock in on the surface, working hours are secretly monitored. Since overtime cannot be claimed without clocking in, the value for money is poor.

3. If you are in Department A, one of its managers talks extremely loudly during casual conversations and likes to micromanage everything. According to colleagues, this manager even dictates employees' attire for meetings. For department dinners and social events, new employees are required to pay everyone's expenses upfront and claim reimbursement themselves afterward (there are about 10 people in the department, at roughly NT$600 per person). At work, this person mainly talks rather than contributes; even on matters outside their expertise, they insist on weighing in.

4. Company meetings are always held on holidays. Employees at senior engineer level or above must attend; those who do not go have to take leave.

5. Seniority-based attitudes and internal infighting are serious; even different products within the same business group may be hostile toward one another.

Recommendation: If you join the company, negotiate a higher monthly salary and expect an annual salary equivalent to 14–15 months. If the interviewing manager or HR mentions 16, do not take it too seriously—it is basically an illusion. Join only if you like this kind of department culture; otherwise, think carefully.

If you consider your sales abilities strong enough and can handle pressure well, you can give it a try. After all, having this company’s name on your résumé is quite useful when looking for a new employer.

The sales system is highly competitive both internally and externally, and competition gives rise to many problems. Issues such as fighting over orders and competing for customers occur frequently.

A leader in this field domestically.

I explained that my child is young and that my wife is a nurse who often works shifts, so until our child starts full-day school, I would need to leave work on time to pick them up. The supervisor immediately looked displeased and stated explicitly: “If you want to receive the bonus, you need to be prepared to work overtime every day until after 9 p.m.; otherwise, your performance will be poor...”

After the interview, they assigned a pile of tasks: study all the operating manuals and complete all the cases within a short time, then respond to the supervisor in advance. There was no response afterward. I proactively called to follow up, but they brushed me off without clearly saying whether it was acceptable or not... This delayed other job opportunities!

Advantech Technology, Linkou — warehouse management, commonly referred to as material preparation staff. Every day, production control provides the required quantities for the production line to the staff member who prints the orders. The orders are then printed and materials are prepared for the production line. At the new Linkou plant, the warehouse is in the basement (B1), QC is on the first floor, and the restaurant is also on the first floor. Here is the key point: food waste is collected in the basement—in other words, in the controlled-material warehouse. The food-waste collection room is also in the basement. That’s right! Every day, you have to smell the odor of food waste, and you have to work there for 8–10 hours.

Advantech’s hiring process has three stages: an initial interview, a section manager’s interview, and then waiting for notification. Only after passing these stages do you proceed to discuss salary and other matters. But don’t have overly high expectations for the salary; the benefits are not particularly good either. At first, you are hired as a contract worker for NT$24,000. Your salary is only NT$2,000 more than that of students in cooperative education programs. They can leave work on time, but you cannot. Besides being unable to leave work on time every day, the pressure is very high. There are about 30–40 material-preparation work orders every day, and you simply cannot finish them all, even with overtime. You also have to come to the company to work overtime on Saturdays and Sundays. If you do not work overtime, your supervisors will deduct from your performance rating, which affects your year-end evaluation. In addition, long-serving employees will complain, saying things like, “Are all the new people leaving this early?”

At the beginning, HR will tell you that you can become a full-time employee after three months. In reality, you have to wait at least a year, and some people have waited three years before being converted. The full-time salary is only NT$25,000. Lunch is deducted from your salary; the company subsidizes only NT$25 per meal. Finishing work at 8 or 9 p.m. every night is the norm.

If materials are missing, they will look for you because the production line has the greatest authority. During the manufacturing process, if something is damaged, for example, they will simply take a replacement directly without asking for your consent. When materials are missing, they will not come to you because they will bypass you and take them directly from the warehouse. So when inventory is checked and the stock count is inaccurate, you do not know who took the materials. All you can do is accept it and write a shortage report.

As for promotion, don’t worry—you will never get a turn. There are many long-serving employees ahead of you in the company, and you definitely will not be chosen for promotion. This is not a particularly suitable place for young people to work. It really is a place where older employees go to retire. Don’t assume that a large company necessarily offers good benefits and pay. At this company, you cannot see a future, nor can you see any opportunities for advancement, even though the stock price is good. (From someone who has been there)

Pros: A good place to coast until retirement—and that’s it.

The salary is not particularly high, and the benefits are not particularly good.

Overtime is routine, and you have to work overtime on Saturdays and Sundays.

There are cliques, and the work pressure is high.

Position: PM

Salary: With 6–8 years of experience, if you join as a senior engineer, you can negotiate a salary of around NT$60,000.

As an assistant manager, it will be a little higher (really, just a little). There is a guaranteed 13 months of salary.

A little over 15 months’ salary per year.

Benefits: Basically none. They are completely unrelated to the company’s reputation and stock price.

Location: Linkou. Basically, there is nothing around it. It is extremely desolate. If you drive to work, there will be traffic jams both going to and leaving work.

It is very inconvenient. Although there is an MRT station, it takes more than 20 minutes to walk there.

Promotion: Don’t even think about it. Those who joined before IoT became popular have already been promoted. There is not much opportunity if you join now. If you are also a graduate of one of Taiwan’s top four universities, you may find upon joining that most people with slightly more seniority than you are graduates of five-year junior colleges or vocational schools. You may need to spend extra time adapting to the culture.

Boss: A typical Taiwanese boss—spend as little as possible. Extremely stingy about what should be provided to employees.

Impression: Basically, it is a company for coasting toward retirement. The cushy positions are occupied by long-timers. Most of the PMs are women with families; male PMs are a minority. However, you can tell that people work with a “just earning a living” attitude. They do not demand much in terms of benefits or salary. Management is lax, and working hours are fairly flexible. You can go out for lunch at noon and come back at one or two o’clock, and no one will really care. In any case, project cycles are relatively long, and the pressure is nothing compared with that at a typical systems company. Young people who join are essentially crippling their own careers. You will definitely regret choosing Advantech as your first job. If you are young, you should go out and take risks. Others earn in one year what you earn in three or four years, so do not make the mistake of choosing this company.

If you already have good experience, such as at a foreign company, this is not a bad place to coast toward retirement. There are quite a few parachuted-in management positions here.

I am not very optimistic about Advantech’s growth. After all, everyone is now entering the IPC business. The company is relying almost entirely on M&A to drive growth. Think twice before joining.

For a PM with around six to seven years of experience, the salary is approximately

The company is raking in money and is the world's number-one IPC, but only senior executives get to enjoy the benefits. When it comes to employees, they are extremely stingy—even over amounts in the tens or hundreds. The management system is highly arbitrary and personality-driven.

A highly profitable yet extremely stingy company. Their attitude toward benefits is basically that you should be grateful to get anything at all. There is only a guaranteed 13 months of salary; even if you work yourself to the bone, it might only reach 15–16 months.

The equipment in the Neihu office area is so old and shabby that it looks like it was picked up off the street. Don’t be fooled by the first floor and basement. They really like holding meetings on holidays, and everyone has to squeeze into the headquarters basement for meetings. When there’s absolutely no room, they split people into different video conferences. Some people even have to sit outside the door. Is it really necessary to cut costs this much?

The boss only likes to hear good things, so it’s difficult for the voices of frontline employees to be heard.

The boss of one department has very obvious favorites. The favored employees get promoted year after year while everyone else can only watch helplessly from the sidelines. Decisions are made based on mood and are completely unprofessional.

The working hours are not as normal as outsiders might think. There are still people working overtime at 8 or 9 p.m.

It's really exhausting here—don't ever assume that the pace in industrial computers is slower than in consumer electronics. This is definitely not a place to coast into retirement!