Close to the MRT station
If your political views are highly aligned with theirs, and you are extremely good at managing upward and ingratiating yourself, you may feel a sense of belonging here; it is also highly suitable for people who want to test the limits of their mental resilience and stress tolerance.
Enter with caution! A toxic workplace lacking transparent systems and rife with political fervor and PUA
Opaque evaluations and severe favoritism: The company is completely unable to make performance evaluations open and transparent. Promotions and resources depend entirely on the boss’s personal preferences, and favoritism toward certain employees is extremely obvious. Working hard is less valuable than knowing how to please the boss.
Leaders lacking relevant expertise, obsessed with PUA: Although the boss’s academic and professional background is unremarkable, they are extremely fond of treating employees with belittling and baseless criticism to establish a sense of superiority. Anyone who is not thick-skinned enough will absolutely be mentally tormented by this malicious treatment until they are physically and emotionally exhausted.
A politically fanatical office atmosphere: The entire office is saturated with extreme political overtones—a textbook green “Bluebird” echo chamber. The approach to work is excessively radical, leaving no room for objective and rational discussion. If your political views differ, or if you do not have a so-called “party membership card,” you will feel extremely suffocated and out of place in this environment.
The office’s industrial style is very beautiful.
1. The stress test during the interview was quite obvious: they said that the details in your work were insufficient and looked unrefined in their eyes.
2. The interview did not mention that I would need to enter the department store after 10:00 p.m., wasting my youth.
3. I had to clean up after the company’s cats—I forgot whether this was mentioned during the interview. (I have since left the company.)
In addition to 3D exhibition modeling, you also need to know graphic design. The supervisor said that he is an adjunct university lecturer and has fairly strict requirements; sometimes he can be a little emotional. The work can be quite frustrating, but looking back afterward, this job helped me understand what "high-end graphic design" means and improved my personal sense of taste.
1. The company designs department-store displays, mostly large-scale displays. In practice, the details involved in producing small-display components are not actually as extensive as the "attention to detail" discussed during the interview.
2. There is no overtime pay; you can only take compensatory leave. Projects are simply impossible to finish. In addition to 3D design, designers also have to handle graphic design (brand promotional materials, discount coupons, peripheral products—everything is handled by one person), coordinate with vendors and communicate revisions, and go on-site. Since all department-store installations take place from 10:00 p.m. to midnight—or overnight—there was one time at the Zhongxiao SOGO site when I supervised the work outdoors all day without sleeping. The on-site installation duties were not mentioned during the interview. Every one or two weeks, you have to visit major department-store chains for installations. Designers only handle installations within Taipei City; dedicated staff handle installations outside the city.
3. You have to help take care of the company's cat litter and clean up its feces. This was the first time in my career that I had to scoop litter for a company's cat. The cat has quite a personality, and scooping the litter really smells terrible. (I had never owned a cat before; the first time I scooped litter was for the company's cat.)
There are cats, the company environment is good, and colleagues are easy to get along with.
, but the boss very obviously wants to completely exploit all the strengths of the employees. While doing so, they also belittle and criticize you, saying that your work is poor and terrible and that you should start over from scratch. The most important thing at work is a sense of achievement, and this boss is completely stingy about providing it!! The salary is not particularly high for the industry, there is no overtime pay, and the working hours are long. Fresh graduates who want to gain experience and build up their patience can give it a try!
When I resigned, the boss even made sarcastic remarks, saying, “You’re wasting my time like this.” I thought to myself: Isn’t my time time too?
The only advantage is the convenient location.
The interviewer acted very self-important, believing that what I learned at university was useless, and even criticized my school.
The company proactively invited me to an interview, yet proceeded to disparage my work. If they really thought my work was so poor, they simply should not have invited me to interview in the first place, right?
After criticizing it, they kept aggressively asking whether I agreed, hoping I would express myself.
I don't know what self-worth I'm supposed to express when I'm being negated.
The environment is not bad, and they hire people to clean.
The boss is fairly capable and has good judgment, but does not trust employees, has a strong need for control, and cares a lot about saving face. There are several surveillance cameras inside the office. The managers think that working overtime to contribute to the company makes someone an exemplary employee. Most projects are very rushed, the workload is heavy, and communication costs are high.
The turnover rate is extremely high, but there is never a shortage of recent graduates and newcomers to the workforce being lured in by polished sales pitches.
The company has cats, the environment is clean, and there are opportunities to work on a wide variety of projects. You can learn about pitching, design, communication with vendors and clients, and event setup and teardown. The design requirements are demanding, but the company’s eye for design is fairly good. Projects are often rushed, so your design skills improve by quite a lot.
There are too many projects and not enough staff, so you have to work overtime to keep up with them, but there is no overtime pay.
Clients can request unlimited design revisions, while vendors and employees are often expected to produce the results by the next day. If they cannot, they are criticized.
One supervisor is emotional and unpredictable and only says things that sound nice; another has many opinions and likes to take credit behind people’s backs.
The ideal employee in the supervisors’ eyes is obedient, smart, and good-looking, who stays silent when treated unfairly and is grateful to the company for the learning opportunities. If you want to be a servant, this may be the place for you.
Good location and pleasant environment
When I went for the interview,
they first asked a bunch of irrelevant questions about my family background.
Then they criticized my portfolio at length.
Even though I had already sent my portfolio over.
If they didn't like it, why waste my time by asking me to come for an interview?
Or did they simply not look at it beforehand and ask me to interview anyway?
The company has cats
The manager has a bad temper, takes out their anger on others, and likes to criticize colleagues behind their backs. There is no overtime pay, no time off in lieu for overtime worked on weekdays, and no bonus system. The average workday is 12 hours; they say one thing and do another.
The company has cats
No labor or health insurance. Manager's personality: emotional. Strongly recommend not coming