星球工坊_星奕企業有限公司

104 is quite often recruiting for e-commerce planning/marketing positions, and it was only after the interview that I truly understood why.

Because I have online marketing experience in different industries, I decided to proactively submit my résumé and give it a try.

A few days later, I received a call inviting me to interview. They did not discuss much on the phone, mainly just arranging a time.

First of all, this was the most unprofessional and unfriendly interview experience I have encountered in my more-than-10-year career.

The company is located in Nangang, in an old industrial area near the Huandong Boulevard, and is at least more than 1 km on foot from Nangang Railway Station. It is more suitable for people who commute by scooter or car. The company’s entrance is extremely inconspicuous: the entrance is up a small staircase beside an old elevator, and after walking up, there was also a noticeable smell of a restroom?

I pressed what appeared to be the company’s doorbell, but there was no response, and I was not even sure whether I had pressed the right thing. When I arrived, two people who appeared to be employees were discussing work at a small table outside. However, even after seeing an unfamiliar visitor enter the company, the employees did not proactively ask why I was there; they only helped after I asked them.

The office had the feel of a typical old-style office in a traditional manufacturing company. I did not count the seats carefully, but there were probably no more than twenty. I glanced around and saw what seemed to be around ten people seated.

Here is a summary of my interview experience:

At the beginning of the interview, they asked the interviewee for a résumé and provided some forms to fill out, basically a simple questionnaire.

A department manager came in to conduct the interview. The manager did not introduce themself, and neither their words nor manner suggested much leadership. Instead, they gave off an air of being somewhat overbearing, arrogant, and difficult to get along with. After taking my résumé and flipping through it, they began criticizing me for having work experience in a similar industry, saying things like, “If I were like that, I wouldn’t have stayed at Company A and then gone to interview at Company B,” and so on.

At that point, I actually wanted to end the interview. It was obvious that they had not read the applicant’s résumé—otherwise, why would they react that way? Why have HR invite someone in at all? My experience in a similar industry was from several years ago. Besides, this is the leisure-food processing industry; is there some kind of high-level non-compete clause involved?

Of course, during the interview, I still endured it and answered:

“Oh, I mainly feel that experience in a related industry can be applied here and developed continuously.”

After that came a series of questions from the manager. Based on my interview experience, most of the questions were highly unprofessional and overly broad—for example, asking what I would do with a certain product at this point in time. Then, while the other person was still answering the previous question and had not finished describing their thoughts, the manager would continue asking about something else.

They also asked about my qualities, the areas of work I specialize in, and how I evaluate results.

Me: I tried to bring out a work sample/demo and supporting evidence for what I was saying.

The manager, however, looked uninterested and did not seem to want to look at them.

They also kept saying that this was different from my experience.

All I could do was smooth things over by saying that this was how my experience had been, and that every company and manager would certainly have different ways of evaluating results.

I think the worst part of the interview was when I answered questions by describing the qualities I felt this position required and explaining my own personal qualities. For some reason, however, the manager kept questioning me in response: Isn’t communication important? It was simply astonishing. If this manager thinks communication is important, they should not ask questions in this way.

Was this some kind of obedience test? Or a stress test? I only felt awkward and bewildered.

I really wanted to ask them face-to-face: In what job is communication not an important part of workplace interaction?

When it was my turn to ask questions, I thought carefully about it. Rather than worrying first about this company’s compensation, employee benefits, attendance system, and so on, I thought it would be better to first worry about whether the work experience under this kind of person would involve effective leadership.

So I tried to think through the key points from the perspectives of both a manager and a subordinate, and raised several questions that I considered important. I felt that these questions reflected the basic requirements of teamwork. If they could not answer them well, this probably was not the kind of team I was looking for.

1. Actual division of responsibilities: I specifically asked why they were recruiting for this position, what the recruited person’s responsibilities and role in the team would be, and, since the website also listed many marketing duties, what the proportions of the different tasks would be.

Manager’s answer: Managing e-commerce channels, I suppose. There is too much to do and it cannot all be finished, so that is why we are hiring someone. We are still planning things. Some tasks are already being handled by others, and the responsibilities have not yet been clearly defined.

2. Proportion of marketing, operations, and channel resources: How does your company allocate resources between its own channels and external channels? Is one considered more important?

Manager: They are all important. This year, we want to strengthen resources for external channels and reduce resources for our own channels.

3. Is there a particular type of talent the team is lacking, or what kind of person would you like to join?

Manager: We do not have any particular requirements or preconceptions.

Me: ???

Although the e-commerce planning position on the 104 website listed many marketing duties, they did not seem to be primarily recruiting someone for online marketing, or for planning and execution. Instead, they appeared to be combining two different functions: e-commerce business work involving the operation of EC channels, and marketing planning.

The manager conducting the interview was not very good at asking about professional functions. Most of the questions were overly broad and impossible to answer comprehensively in just a few words, yet they emphasized that they cared about communication and speaking ability?? I also could not sense that the manager had professional expertise in e-commerce or marketing, yet they came across as quite arrogant.

In short, based on the content of the interview conversation, my inference is that the e-commerce planner this company is recruiting is essentially an e-commerce business person for EC channels, primarily managing external channels and handling platform PM work, purchasing, and sales. Marketing and the company’s own channels would probably be handled on the side as well.

I emphasize that e-commerce business work for external EC channels and online marketing planning are different functions. If focusing on sales performance allows someone to meet their main KPI, this creates a negative mismatch in performance design when the job is structured. In that case, who would seriously devote themselves to the additional duties they are only handling on the side?

None

A very disrespectful company. I was inexplicably notified that I was unsuitable and terminated. If you really want to find employees with a zero error rate, please focus on screening them instead of wasting job seekers’ time.

None

I felt it was quite disrespectful.

They had not reviewed my résumé beforehand and only realized during the interview that I was not what they were looking for. After chatting for just a few minutes, they said they would notify me if there was a second interview.

I was interrupted halfway through speaking. It was really disrespectful.

I suggest that the company carefully review applicants’ résumés before deciding whether to invite them for an interview. Otherwise, conduct a phone interview first—don’t waste each other’s time.