樂虹國際有限公司

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The interviewer's attitude made me feel uncomfortable

Extremely disrespectful

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(The office is very small. The exterior-facing window looks like frosted glass, and it was not opened; only the transom window was open, which felt unpleasant.)

Although the interviewer spoke very calmly and showed almost no emotion, her questions and attitude made me uncomfortable.

The interviewer called during a long holiday to try to schedule an interview for February 28, a national holiday. She said she would be busier the following week, while she was available on the holiday, and wanted to arrange the interview as soon as possible. (I did not agree to it.)

She asked whether I knew the company’s address. However, the job advertisement on the recruitment website did not list the company’s address; it only stated Yonghe District, New Taipei City. I told her that I had found the address by looking up the company registration information on the Department of Commerce website, and she then said she would send the company address to me by text message.

The interview was eventually scheduled for the Monday after the holiday, but it was arranged for after working hours, at around 6 p.m., because she was very busy during the day. (Although I had already felt from our initial contact that there was something very wrong with this company, it was only a few minutes’ walk from my home. Also, since the interviewer was a woman, it seemed reasonably safe, so I decided to go and see what it was like.)

The interview time was unreasonable because whether it was scheduled on a holiday or after working hours, it was impossible to see what the office was like during working hours. She later told me that there were five people in the Taipei office and that the factory was in mainland China.

Before going to the interview, I had checked the reviews on 面試趣 and inferred that they had probably already hired an international trade employee but continued interviewing because they were worried that a new hire might find out. That may be why they scheduled the interview after 6 p.m.

I arrived shortly after 6 p.m., as employees were gradually finishing work and leaving the company. The interviewer happened to be waiting near the office entrance and took me to a guest table for the interview. Because the office was so small, there was no room for a conference room; the guest table was simply a small round table with two chairs.

Originally, there was an English test to complete, but she was in a hurry and asked me to answer orally in English instead, to save time.

One of the questions required writing an English email to reply to and inquire with a customer. Since I was answering orally, I omitted the opening “Dear xxx,” thinking that such greetings were formulaic, and directly gave the answer in English. However, she said that I had to start with “Dear xxx.”

One English question concerned collecting an overdue payment. The question stated that the goods had been shipped two weeks earlier and asked me to urge the customer to pay promptly. Since there was no context, I set the payment terms as O/A net 14 days—in other words, payment was due 14 days after shipment—so I wrote to urge the customer to pay. When I read the payment terms aloud as “O/A net 14 days,” she did not understand and asked why my answer did not match the question’s scenario of requesting payment 14 days after shipment. I later explained that because the question did not specify the circumstances, I had assumed the company allowed 14 days for payment; since 14 days had passed after shipment, I asked the customer to remit the money promptly. My answer did meet the conditions stated in the question.

She also asked me to introduce myself in English, which went fine.

She then asked me the following questions:

(1) Had I ever worked in export or international business? I told her in person that I had worked in international business for many years, but she still did not believe me. She asked me to bring my own résumé. My résumé said the same thing, but she seemed to look at it without understanding it, and then told me that my previous jobs had all been in domestic sales. I replied that I had worked in international business, but my companies had also required me to handle domestic business, so I had done both international and domestic sales, with international business as my main responsibility.

(2) I had not previously worked in the cosmetics industry, and she thought I would not understand it. I answered that changing careers does not necessarily mean continuing to work in the same industry, but international trade knowledge and sales operations are transferable, and the industry difference should not be a major concern. She then asked me again whether I had worked in international business, which I found very frustrating.

At the end, she asked about my salary expectations. She then said that another person was still working in the office and, because the office was very small, she was worried that the other person might hear how much salary I requested. She therefore told me quietly to write down my salary at my previous job and my current salary expectations.

Although she spoke very calmly, communicating with her made me feel that her thinking was somewhat rigid. She may handle international trade according to the fixed procedures she is accustomed to. When she heard something she did not know, she would freeze, giving me the impression that she had worked in her own field for many years and had little understanding of other industries. In addition, when answering an English question (such as the payment-collection question above), she already had one answer in mind. If your answer was not the one she expected, she would also think that your answer did not match the question and was incorrect.

The company is too small, and its perspective is too limited. It is probably best not to waste your time interviewing with this company.