睿傑國際商業服務有限公司

A few days after submitting your resume, HR will contact you by phone and explain the company’s operations (Note 1) and the job responsibilities (Note 2), as well as confirm your motivation for applying. At this point, they will also reconfirm whether you are still willing to apply for the position. If you have no questions and are willing to learn more, they will send you a written test after the call. It consists of three questions: an English situational question (approximately upper-intermediate level, requiring you to explain your response and thought process), a Japanese reply-writing question (difficult, requiring formal business Japanese), and numerical logic calculations (the calculations themselves are not difficult; the purpose is likely to test logical thinking). You have approximately one day to complete it. The sooner you finish, the sooner HR will respond. I completed mine at around 1 p.m. and received an official interview invitation that same day.

On the day of the interview, go directly to the company (ring the doorbell and explain the purpose of your visit, and someone will come). The interview took place in a meeting room. At the beginning, Manager A conducted the interview alone. First, I was asked to give a brief self-introduction in Chinese. Manager A then explained the company’s operations and the job responsibilities once again. Any questions I had forgotten to ask during the initial phone call could be raised at this point, so it was a good opportunity to learn more details. Manager A was also very kind and answered all of my questions. After explaining the company and the job, Manager A began asking questions about my resume: Why did you take a particular job? What are your strengths? Why did you change fields? What was the greatest difficulty you encountered at work? Manager A provided feedback based on my answers, which made the process much more relaxing. After successfully completing the first stage, the second stage was an interview with Manager B and Employee C. Originally, a Japanese employee was supposed to test my language ability, but that person may have had an urgent matter, so Employee C (who I believe specialized in Japanese) conducted the test instead. Employee C asked me to introduce, in Japanese, the job I liked most and the reasons why. After I answered, Employee C left, and Manager B began the interview. I have forgotten some of what I discussed with Manager B, but there was also an introduction to the company and an explanation of the job. I could likewise ask questions, and we also discussed my previous job entirely in English. The atmosphere was fairly relaxed and not overly serious. At the end of the interview, HR representative D took over. The discussion at this point focused more on compensation and company policies. There is an annual bonus (I have somewhat forgotten the details, but I remember that there was one) and salary adjustments (the amount depends on performance). Regarding leave, the policy is based on the better aspects of Taiwan and Hong Kong, and I remember it being more generous than at many other companies. Before the interview ended, they gave a brief summary and feedback on the overall interview process. I personally asked HR representative D for their views on my resume and career. Unexpectedly, I received very useful feedback and advice. The entire interview process was enjoyable, and I felt respected. I could also sense that they genuinely cared about job applicants. Even though I was ultimately not hired, I received notification within a week.

Note 1: This was explained both during the phone call and the interview. As I recall, it is a Hong Kong trust company with branches in Taiwan, the Cook Islands, and Singapore (a branch to be established soon?). The Taiwan branch is mainly responsible for post-sale reviews of trust products, after-sales service, and other follow-up procedures. Therefore, the Taiwan branch does not deal directly with customers.

Note 2: Although the position is Japanese-Language Administrative Staff, in practice, employees are responsible for different regions depending on their English, Japanese, and Korean proficiency. At first (based on ability, possibly for six months), you will be responsible for the Chinese-speaking regions (Hong Kong and China). After becoming familiar with the work, assignments will be divided into groups depending on the circumstances. The work is approximately as follows: After the front-end teams in each country sell trust products, you review customers’ financial circumstances and eligibility. This reportedly does not involve highly specialized legal knowledge, and senior colleagues will provide guidance at the beginning. Before the contract is formally completed, you will also call customers to confirm once again that they fully understand the contract terms. If customers are unclear about anything, the sales team will explain it again. People who have experience buying or selling insurance should have some idea of this process. In addition, because you will sometimes need to communicate with the sales teams responsible for your assigned regions, this is why the language abilities mentioned above are divided by region.

A few suggestions for other job seekers

(1) Practice your English and Japanese. You should not have major problems with English if your TOEIC score is around 800 or above. For Japanese, I strongly recommend improving to at least N1-level business honorific Japanese.

(2) You can relax somewhat during the interview. The atmosphere is not overly serious, and the HR staff and managers are all very kind. The interview should also be conducted either one-on-one or two-on-one, so you do not need to worry about other candidates being present. You also do not have to worry about being watched by outsiders in the interview environment.

(3) Feel free to ask questions during the interview (about the company, the job, or yourself); you may gain some unexpected insights.

(4) The interview is relatively long, so pay attention to managing your energy (14:30–18:00).

None

Only learned about the situation through a phone interview

Position applied for: Japanese-speaking administrative staff

After submitting my résumé, the other party asked to have a phone interview first to discuss the job details.

Once we were on the phone, they first asked about my TOEIC score, then only briefly introduced the company, saying that its headquarters are in Hong Kong, Taiwan is the main back-office operation, and there are fewer than 40 employees in Taiwan. They said they are a trust company and that the Taiwan office is responsible for back-office support.

I said I couldn’t find any information about the company online and wanted to know more about it.

They only said that they are a trust company and that the Taiwan office is responsible for back-office support (in simple terms, they couldn’t really explain anything clearly).

Maybe they were just too lazy to explain?

The position they posted was Japanese-speaking administrative staff, and I applied because I was looking for a job where I could use Japanese.

But then they said: “You might not actually use Japanese (?!!!!).” The main responsibility is back-office work, and English may be more important because they already have a professional JP Team handling Japanese business. (Then why did you post this position in the first place? What is going on?!)

Maybe because the position didn’t align with my career direction, they didn’t explain many details about the company.

By this point, I was already too tired to continue talking to them.

I simply said that it was okay then and thanked them.

The call ended.

I’ve always believed that job seekers and companies should have an equal relationship.

You’re evaluating me, and I’m evaluating you too.

During the call, I couldn’t feel that the other party had any respect for job seekers.

They weren’t even willing to clearly explain what the company does.

Honestly, who would want to work there under those circumstances?

Just sharing this little experience for everyone’s reference.