堯舜語言服務有限公司

＊Introduction:

－－If you are reading this review, you probably have some expectations or interest in translation, or perhaps you simply happened to receive an interview invitation and want to investigate the opportunity. I believe many junior and senior students from the same major may want to enter the translation industry, or may simply want to add some shine to their résumé, so I am sharing my experience after working there for a year.

＊First, some background about myself:

’ I graduated from a related major not long ago and previously worked in foreign-language customer service. I have a TOEIC score in the 9xx range. I wouldn’t claim that my foreign-language ability is outstanding, but at least I don’t feel much pressure in a fully English-speaking work environment, and I also chat and joke around with native-speaking language partners in my spare time～

I actually wanted to write this right after resigning, but my rational side told me to let things settle for a while. After all, I needed to avoid bringing too much personal emotion into it in order to be as fair as possible.

＊Below I will briefly list the pros and cons of working as a translator at this company. I will explain why I resigned and what I wanted to say at the end. If you want to save time, you can read the pros and cons directly. (The reference point is a comprehensive assessment based on my previous jobs.)

＊Just telling it like it is

＊＊Upside:

＊The translator role itself is straightforward: the work is essentially translation. One good thing is that as long as you finish your work early, that time is basically yours, so you can use it for self-study or do whatever you want (as long as there is an unspoken mutual understanding􁁑􁁑). A few senior colleagues genuinely wanted to address issues such as the high communication costs between Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China, and the differences in education systems and industrial structures that lead to gaps in how translation is understood. They also took training newcomers seriously. Working with some colleagues from Hong Kong and mainland China was fairly comfortable, and local colleagues were always willing to help one another (my deepest thanks to them). Working from home was allowed when sick, which was quite a nice benefit. The HR manager was very conscientious and would respond to messages even on holidays. Although your language ability would not improve much at the company, your sensitivity to wording and numbers would definitely improve.

＊＊Downside:

１．The SOPs were extremely poor. Even an undergraduate with decent graphic-design skills could have done a better job. Onboarding was very chaotic. When I first joined, I was assigned to a Customer Service representative, and the training was extremely rough. You may think, “It’s just translation—what kind of training could there be?” I can confidently tell you that the work was completely different from what you learned at university and what you imagine translation to be. The company is a Hong Kong-owned business specializing in financial translation and coordinating work among Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China. The managers, HR staff, and most senior colleagues were from mainland China. Financial translation is different from general film, television, or book translation; the margin for error can be described as “zero.” Consistency is heavily emphasized, and past materials are extensively referenced and copied. Rather than being translators, we were more like editors: 70% of the time, we were unable to translate freely ourselves.

２．The company has what it calls a busy season, in March, April, July, and August. During these months, about 90% of the time was spent working overtime, and taking leave was not permitted. Legally, under the Labor Standards Act, the company cannot refuse leave, but you should be mentally prepared to be silently marked down for it. If you want to use your annual leave during summer vacation to go on a trip, you may as well forget about receiving a year-end bonus next year～

３．The reward-and-punishment system and benefits system were extremely unclear—or rather, they were never clearly explained at all. (Benefits are probably what everyone cares about most, so I will discuss them in detail in the next section.)

＊Benefits:

１．Basically, the company provided only the minimum benefits required by the Labor Standards Act—neither more nor less. The monthly salary was around the low 30,000s. Honestly, the salary and benefits were the lowest I had received across all my jobs. However, translation was an industry I was interested in, and this was my first attempt, so I initially thought that passion could overcome that shortcoming.

２．The year-end bonus was subject to review. But rather than saying the review criteria were unclear, it would be more accurate to say that they were never explained at all—it was simply up to the boss.

＊Miscellaneous:

１．At the beginning, the company did not assign a senior colleague as my mentor; instead, a Customer Service representative trained me. Honestly, this was the most unprofessional instructor I had ever encountered. It was only after experienced senior colleagues began getting involved that I gradually learned the company’s translation requirements and Standard Practice, and slowly developed my own methods and workflow—but by then, it was already too late～～

２．A few months ago, the company began applying for ISO certification, which required a video conference with an organization in Canada. Since I had never neglected the language side of things from school through my working life (at least when it came to listening and speaking), and I could communicate fairly fluently with native speakers, I volunteered to help organize a great deal of meeting material despite being busy. I also provided suggestions on spoken English for the colleagues responsible for the meeting. A few minutes later, however, I was informed that because my performance the previous year had been poor and I had not taken my work seriously, payment of my year-end bonus would be delayed until early April. Still, since I had agreed to help, I saw it through and completed the meeting minutes with tears in my eyes. (The year-end bonus was shockingly small too.) In the end, I decided there was no need to be humiliated for that tiny amount of money, so I resigned decisively.

－－－I heard that even after I left, I was described as an irresponsible, romantic, and easygoing colleague. Thanks～

＊Finally, I still cannot help saying this:

’If you are always going to complain that Taiwanese employees are inferior to employees from mainland China and Hong Kong, then you might as well not open an office in Taiwan! If you are going to open one, please do your homework first (on the industry, culture, education, and so on). Otherwise, even if you really recruit ten people with master’s or doctoral degrees in foreign languages, they still will not be the candidates you want. And stop constantly comparing Taiwan with mainland China and Hong Kong and complaining that Taiwanese people are already very fortunate and even have two-day weekends (?? Why not just say that Africans do not even have clean drinking water, while people working in Taiwan get free air conditioning and drinking water?? Your logic is completely broken, my goodness. Why should you forcibly impose your harsh working environment and inhumane systems on us? Have you ever heard of moral blackmail and emotional blackmail?

／／The boss was right: compared with Hong Kong, we still have room to choose.

I am lucky that I still have a choice.

And I am also glad that I was able to choose to leave this company and successfully find a job with better pay and benefits.

／／Btw~If you wanna talk shit behind people's back, remember the walls are thin.

＊Written test:

１．For people with a basic foundation in English, it is not particularly difficult. But note that this job has little to do with language ability. In other words, being good at languages does not necessarily mean you can do the job well, and having weaker language ability does not necessarily mean you will perform poorly.

２．Considering all of the above, if you are interested in finance and are not under too much financial pressure, this job may suit you. Aside from the overwhelming overtime during the busy season, the work is fairly comfortable during the other months.

What is unsuitable for me may not be unsuitable for you, but I still recommend thinking carefully. I will give it the fairest rating of 2.5 stars.

＊＊Additional information:

As far as I know, the following information was written by an outsider. I only discovered it recently, so I am providing it for reference.

＊This is not a statement by the original poster (excerpts; please refer to the full text on the site yourself).

’’’This company has translators in Taipei

handling cases assigned from Hong Kong (company board documents/document translation).

The salaries for the two translators in Taipei are only NT$32,000/35,000.

During the interview, the boss kept complaining to me about how poor Taiwanese people’s English ability is

and how terrible their work ethic is.

Mainland employees are constantly cleaning up after them, to the point that they directly said, “The two sides should unify as soon as possible, so people from mainland China can come to Taiwan to work and replace these useless people.”

These are their exact words. I am not exaggerating or adding anything. Please do not delete this post because of these remarks＞‘’＜

But the salary is lower than that of a convenience-store clerk—what can you expect?

Moreover, these employees were all hired through your interviews. If there are so many problems, doesn’t that mean the interview process also needs improvement?

If things are really this bad and you are not going to fire them, why create a position called “Office Director” to manage them instead?

This strange position was the one I interviewed for. The boss also made one point very clear: if the Taipei office could not make it, it would be closed after six months. Therefore, there was a possibility that this job would last six months and then leave me unemployed.

(This is because the boss actually has little confidence in Taiwan and has decided that mainland China will invade. He is unwilling to invest much in either salaries or the office.)’’’