精湛交通工業股份有限公司

Through the interview, I gained more insight into the domineering interview style of small-company tyrant bosses. You only know what a company that respects people is like when you have something to compare it with.

Although the executive assistant position lists a salary range of NT$32,000 to NT$50,000, in practice it probably would not pay more than NT$35,000. It feels like they are really looking for someone with no more than two years of experience, in the nature of a personal assistant.

From entering the company and filling out the forms to arriving at the general manager’s office, I already had an 80% feeling, even before sitting down to introduce myself, that this company and I probably would not be a good match. Sure enough, everything was confirmed one by one once the interview began. Judging from the environment and atmosphere, employee morale, and etiquette when receiving visitors from the very beginning, it was clear that this would not be a work environment or team suitable for me. (Personal opinion for reference only.)

When looking for a job, besides the duties and salary, the most important factors are still the company culture and team chemistry. If the work environment and team atmosphere are good, even if the salary does not meet my expectations, compared with a high-paying job where the team culture is unsuitable, I would choose the former. No one likes an environment where the company operates as a one-person dictatorship and everything the boss says is right, with colleagues being indifferent to one another and constantly passing the buck...right?

When I went for the interview, many interviewees arrived for the same time slot. I was the first to arrive and stood outside looking around for a while because I saw a notice at the neighboring business saying that they were not No. 8, so I guessed that many people may have mistakenly gone next door. In this situation, the internal staff could vaguely see that someone was outside (the door was made of semi-transparent screen material), and they knew that many people would be coming for interviews at that time, yet they did not proactively come out to ask. This more or less revealed their personalities and style: rather indifferent and passive. Not to mention that there was no greeting or small talk when I was received, nor any tea or water. From beginning to end, there was no particularly warm interaction among the employees, let alone smiles or other expressions; everyone was busy with their own work. Perhaps the timing made a difference, but it is reasonable to guess that this is generally how they work. (Also, scheduling multiple interviewees for the exact same time slot makes it hard not to conclude that they do not respect applicants’ time, and their time management probably is not very efficient either. Generally, there should be an interval of about half an hour to an hour between interviews.)

The general manager who conducted the interview gave the impression that the boss was all-powerful and above everyone else. From his expression when I first entered the office, to pointing at me with his chin without any greeting and saying, “Okay, you can start introducing yourself,” to repeatedly asking sharp questions during the interview without allowing enough time to answer and occasionally interrupting while I was speaking...all of it conveyed the typical style of a domineering boss.

The sharp questions may simply reflect a difference in interviewing styles, but throughout the process it was obvious that the interviewer was trying to belittle the interviewee and deliberately steer the conversation to create an uncomfortable interview environment. Whether this was because he disliked the interviewee and was intentionally making things difficult, or simply wanted to test the interviewee’s ability to respond, it still revealed what the leadership style and internal workplace atmosphere were likely to be like. It was not difficult to imagine how a supervisor might react and what tone they might use to reprimand an employee who made a mistake at work.

The questions asked during the interview were roughly why I left my previous job and what I knew about their company. The interviewer—the general manager—seemed to focus quite heavily on these two points, and apparently expected interviewees to know their company inside and out before coming to the interview. He did not provide a detailed introduction to the company’s internal culture or division of responsibilities within the team. Even after I asked proactively, he gave vague answers, mentioning only that there was a shareholders’ meeting once every two weeks, and that the executive assistant’s duties included his personal affairs and investments. If I could not accept that, I would not be able to do the job.

One thing the interviewer said was quite funny: he said that some of my skills would not be useful at their company, so he could not accept my salary expectations. He seemed like the kind of person who would go to buy an Apple computer and say, “I don’t need these features, so please give me a discount, thanks~”