龍騰文化事業股份有限公司

The company is large

The closed-mindedness is frightening—so closed-minded that you’ll feel there are many idiots here

None

On the surface, they say there is a one-month year-end bonus, but in reality, they deduct money from you under various pretexts. Even if you work there for several years, you may actually receive only one-quarter of a month's bonus!

No advantages

After filling out the personnel information, I was left waiting in the meeting room. I waited so long that even the flowers wilted, and no one paid any attention to me. It felt so absurd!

When I passed by the reception desk, the receptionist didn’t say anything either…

So strange…

I heard there are three meals a day? Does HR emphasize this?

The interview process felt very unprofessional… No need to waste your time; avoid this company.

You don’t have to worry about what to eat for your three meals, as the company provides them.

There are often employee trips, and the longer you stay, the more subsidies you receive.

It’s extremely demanding—very demanding.

As the printing date approaches, you may have to take drafts home to review even on Sundays and holidays. I personally once worked continuously for two to three months.

There is an unwritten rule that you can only ask for assistance during the week before printing, because that is when the printing date can be coordinated.

Therefore, once the work has been assigned, you have to find a way to complete it yourself no matter what happens.

(As for what criteria the supervisors use to assign work, that remains a mystery.)

Of course, if you ultimately cannot finish the work and coordination becomes necessary, points will be deducted from your performance evaluation.

If you like drinking, you can come here. The drinking culture is extremely prevalent; if you don't drink, it means you look down on your seniors. Women will be pressured to drink even more. If you don't have a few drinks with Xiaopang, he'll go around badmouthing you behind your back, and he'll also call your direct supervisor over to lecture you.

Keep drinking Gold Medal and enjoy yourself.

Base salary of NT$30,000 plus a NT$5,000 allowance, but during the interview they never tell you that after you start work, your supervisor will ask you to rent a company vehicle from the company, deducting NT$2,500. You also have to pay for your own commuting fuel, which means you effectively lose NT$4,000 per month.

The company does not provide a laptop; you have to buy one yourself. There is a subsidy, but it is only NT$500 per month.

The supervisor loves to make grand promises. The bonuses they mention are based on the top-performing territories held by long-time employees, so please apply a 60–80% discount yourself. Only continue considering the job if you can accept that. They will also boast that their company’s *systems* are well established and better than those of their competitors, but in reality it is just the same brainwashing routine as multi-level marketing: only positive things about the company may be said, and other voices are not tolerated. The system is “well established” when it comes to taking money from employees—clocking in and out is also highly systematized, using the system to take advantage of employees. Supervisors use the same tactic to take credit with the boss for saving the company so much in bonuses and other costs.

There is no need to consider a sales position here; going there would only be a waste of your life. Among publishers, Nani, Hanlin, or the Brother-affiliated Kang Hsuan would all be much better.

Although the position is called a sales department role, in practice they just want you to work as a delivery driver, bill collector, logistics warehouse mover, and inventory handler. You have to organize all the textbooks and exam papers for the company yourself, and use an extremely outdated system to re-enter customers’ orders one by one. The current manager, Huang Hsien-Tsung, is also incompetent; all day long, he only pretends to be busy handling trivial matters that cost less than NT$100.

HR was quick, so no time was wasted.

When talking with HR, it felt like the company was extremely closed-off internally.

They never gave clear answers to questions and just talked in vague terms.

They also boasted about how good their own product was, but when I Googled the company’s location, the reviews were all saying that their product had problems and was difficult to use.

The benefits and compensation were glossed over vaguely.

During the interview with the supervisor, the supervisor was able to converse normally, but HR kept boasting about the company and even interrupted me while I was answering questions.

The job listing on 104 stated a salary of 35,000–45,000, but they were only willing to offer 32,000. Why not just list it as 32,000–45,000 in the first place?

HR represents the company’s image. Do you tolerate HR behaving recklessly because your company makes enough money not to care about losses?

They love interrupting answers, have a careless attitude, and just talk vaguely.

They even wanted to outsource their own work to the job applicant. I had already provided information about my previous company, and they still wanted me to call someone at my former company on the spot to make things more convenient for them. Why not just pay me the salary, then? Being this awful is truly unacceptable.

1. Three meals a day:

There are 9 people at each table, with 4 dishes and 1 soup, but the portions are basically for five people, okay? You can only pick up one small bite of each dish. Otherwise, the ingredients are skimpy: a dish called pork knuckle consists of nothing but bones, and the chicken is all joint parts—where’s the meat? Or they add a heap of starch thickener to make the dishes look much bigger. Anyone who buys groceries and cooks knows that they’re simply skimping on the ingredients and only putting on a superficial show!

2. Performance bonuses and year-end bonuses:

There are multiple opportunities throughout the year to receive payments, which sounds like a lot, but in reality, including the year-end bonus, the total still amounts to less than two months’ pay! They deliberately make employees feel that the company is being very generous.

1. Looks matter: Some managers use appearance as a criterion when screening interview candidates.

2. Performance evaluations are unfair:

(1) People in the same position, yet it always happens that nearly 100% of the employees under one department are rated as high performers, while fewer than 20% of those under another department are. Do you really think everyone is doing the same work but has such vastly different abilities? This affects your performance bonus.

(2) Working seriously and achieving a higher subject-market share than other departments will not add to your performance rating. What actually gets you a good rating is flattering people, cultivating a good relationship with your manager, putting on a show, and doing superficial work! Honest, down-to-earth people are not suited to working here.

3. The sales team is also very pragmatic: they look at whether you can benefit them. If your subject is big enough, they’ll treat you well~

P.S. The company used to have a Facebook group called “靠北正能量” (“Complaining About Positive Energy”). If you’re interested, you can take a look for yourself: https://www.facebook.com/complainlungpower

Normally, a second interview is required.

However, she may schedule both interviews on the same day, in which case you will not have to make a second trip.

At first, HR comes in. The initial questions and answers are concise and effective, which leaves a good impression on her.

Partway through, she starts repeating herself and going in circles. The most obvious issue is that

she mentions that there are so-called “inner circles” within the company, which are actually just groups of long-term employees who work together. She makes it very clear that if you cannot squeeze into the group of long-term employees, you will definitely be ostracized at this company.

This ostracism is the kind that can even interfere with your normal work. As long as you do not assimilate, they will make it impossible for you to perform your regular duties.

When asked about benefits and compensation, she says they are the same as what is written on 104, then says that the company’s benefits are excellent and that I will definitely be satisfied, but still refuses to elaborate.

Only after repeated questioning does she reluctantly mention one or two things.

The first is that they provide three meals a day.

The second is that after completing a certain number of years, there is a travel subsidy, but the rules are completely different from what is written on 104.

When she briefly brought up the repetitive questions, the questions she asked at that time were:

1. Please state one of your strengths and then one of your weaknesses.

2. What impact would this have on your work?

My answers were:

1. Whether a trait is a strength or a weakness depends on one’s perspective.

My strength is that I am somewhat stubborn, which allows me to focus on my work. I will definitely finish a task properly before leaving. If something urgent comes up and I must leave immediately, I will still bring the task to a clear stopping point so that I can conveniently continue it when I return or hand it over to the next person.

2. This strength is also a weakness, because I focus on my work. If someone wants to chat or talk about something unimportant, I may not respond because I need to stay focused on my work. This may make my relationships with coworkers less positive.

HR then made an expression that seemed to say, “What are you talking about?” and tried to brush it off with an extremely perfunctory attitude. She indicated that if I did not understand, she could describe it in greater detail, but even after I explained it, she still looked confused.

More problematically, she asked for my zodiac sign (illegal).

Article 5, Paragraph 1 of the Employment Service Act states that, in order to safeguard equal employment opportunities for citizens, an employer may not discriminate against a job applicant or an employee on the grounds of race, class, language, ideology, religion, political party, place of origin, place of birth, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, appearance, facial features, physical or mental disability, zodiac sign, blood type, or former labor union membership; where other laws contain explicit provisions, those provisions shall apply.

According to Article 65 of the Employment Service Act, violating Article 5, Paragraph 1 is punishable by a fine of no less than NT$300,000 and no more than NT$1.5 million.

Citing these legal provisions is intended to let job seekers know that interviews should only include questions related to professional qualifications, rather than allowing unscrupulous employers to collect your personal information.

After HR finished, the supervisor took over. The supervisor focused on my past experience and wanted to know whether I was capable of handling the job.

The questions were all basic, so you only need to perform normally.

Here is a summary for everyone’s reference.

Pros

1. The salary is entirely base pay; they do not underreport it to evade labor and health insurance, and the salary is straightforward rather than being padded with a bunch of allowances.

2. Three meals a day are provided.

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Cons

1. Closed-minded, with its own “Longteng logic”; any normal person would find this logic strange.

2. The company does not have small cliques—it has one large group. If someone takes a dislike to you, you will not be able to continue working there.

3. In July 2022, 104 listed the salary as NT$35,000–45,000. In reality, it was NT$32,000 + NT$3,000 (position allowance). In some respects, this counts as intentionally advertising a higher salary to deceive people into applying (an issue of perception and integrity). They said that reaching NT$45,000 would require working there for several decades and that there was only a “chance” of reaching it. Normally, it is NT$40,000–41,000.

4. HR asked about zodiac signs (illegal).

5. Suppose you interview during the first week of July. Excluding that week, you have to “wait another two weeks”—that is, until the fourth week of July—before they “might get back to you” about whether you were hired. The phrase “might” is used because if she forgets, you will receive no response.

6. The location is inconvenient for transportation (a matter of personal opinion).

7. If you want to conduct an investigation, they repeatedly demand information and contact details for your previous supervisors. I said that this was his personal information and that I could not provide it casually without his consent, but she shamelessly kept pressing me. I had already provided the names of my previous companies; it would not be difficult for them to ask on their own. How badly does this HR representative want to slack off?

8. They do not care about the fate of dispatched workers and push them as hard as possible, treating people like parts; when they break, they are thrown away. I disagree with this, so I listed it as a con.

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I asked a friend who had worked there before about his experience:

1. The year-end bonus is one month’s salary, but various pretexts are used to deduct from it. Being able to receive one-quarter of it is considered lucky; he had seen someone receive one-sixth. Since bonuses are considered an additional benefit, deducting from a bonus is not illegal, whereas deducting from base pay would be illegal.

2. The three meals provided are poor in quality and insufficient in quantity. Food intended for nine servings is cooked into four servings, and the ingredients are substandard.

3. Internal staff flatter superiors and engage in intrigue and infighting.

4. The benefits appear plentiful, but each has restrictions to some degree. They are described attractively, but when you actually try to use them, there are many restrictions and the subsidies are small.

1. The salary is the actual base salary; the company does not underreport it to evade labor and health insurance contributions.

2. The pay and benefits are the best in the industry, and with three meals provided, you can save quite a bit of money.

3. The company was just renovated, so the overall environment is fairly good.

1. The company has a severe bureaucratic culture, with flattery and political maneuvering frequently taking place.

2. Grandstanding and empty talk are the keys to winning managers’ favor, which also affects performance evaluations and promotions. Without a manager’s approval, you won’t receive an outstanding performance rating even if you work yourself to death.

3. The company’s average market share is nearly 50%, the highest in the industry, yet it has suffered losses year after year. Its cost-control problems are severe, but no one is held accountable.

4. Leaving work on time may get you called in for questioning for having too little to do, yet working overtime may lead to doubts about your efficiency.

5. The managers are far removed from reality and like to make simple matters complicated. It is a closed-minded and rigid company.

In conclusion:

Run for your life!!!

Larger than the publishing house I originally worked for

After my interview, I was still waiting for the result. The next day, after returning to work at my original publishing house, news that I had gone to an interview had secretly spread throughout the company. Even a newcomer who had only been with the company for a few days knew about it and deliberately mentioned “Lungteng” to another colleague in front of me to mock me. Who exactly told my original workplace that I had gone for an interview? Although my original company appears to have engaged in collective bullying or surveillance in an attempt to force certain employees to resign, it should not have known that I had interviewed at Lungteng, because Lungteng is really far away and the company could not possibly have tracked me there. Does this mean that someone reported the information to confirm a job applicant’s personal details while they were still employed? This is truly inhumane and could seriously harm job seekers.

Three meals provided

Frequent food gifts to show appreciation to employees

Taking leave does not result in being given a hard time

The salary is entirely base pay, with no tax avoidance

Sports bonuses (but there are many rules), and travel subsidies

Flexible working hours

Poor transportation access

Managers have closed-minded, self-centered thinking, despite presenting themselves well

Most managers have no sales experience, and many regulations skirt the edge of the Labor Standards Act.

The company’s stated policies are inconsistent; most of the supposedly excellent policies it promotes are empty promises

A strong blame-oriented atmosphere in the company

Overtime is not encouraged, but the work is treated as a responsibility-based system.

None

The interview starts with a test, followed by filling out basic information. An HR representative then comes in to learn about your personal experience and family situation. The interview ends within about 10 minutes. If you pass the first-round interview, you will be notified by phone the next day to schedule a second interview with the supervisor.

It feels inefficient and like a waste of time......

Interview:

For the Longteng editor position, there are two interviews and one written test in total. The first is an interview with HR, covering questions such as why you want to work there, your interests, and so on. The salary is non-negotiable because their pay rates are fixed. The second is with the department manager. The manager’s interview is similar to HR’s, but they will also ask more about your family background, professional background, and so on. The third stage is a written test on professional subjects (a score of 60 is required to pass).

Impressions:

Longteng is considered a company with genuinely good benefits within the publishing industry, but the working hours are “really” long. In the past, there was no overtime pay. After many people sued the company last year for violating the Labor Standards Act, this area has improved, but there are still cases of employees not receiving overtime pay.

I was responsible for all the books for one subject at the company, including all supplementary materials. Altogether, this came to more than 40 books (the entire range from the first to the third year of senior high school!), including CDs. The new reform-related work content accompanying the company’s transformation was another painful story altogether. I had thought that all the hard work would be reflected in performance evaluations, but don’t be naive... The more work you do, the more the company (or your supervisor) sees you as someone who can be “worked to the bone.” Yet, as mentioned above, the salary is fixed, and performance rewards go to other extremely, extremely, extremely senior veterans. This is also why their turnover rate is so high.

When applying for a design position, there are two stages: after the first interview, you take an online written test at home, followed by another interview and a background check.

Even if you provide an online portfolio, they may invite you to an interview without looking at it, then tell you that your style does not meet their needs. First, there is an HR interview, followed by a design interview, and they ask you to design a textbook cover at home for them to review.