和泰聯網股份有限公司

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1. The parent company is very powerful and a leader in Taiwan’s automotive industry.

2. The location is fairly convenient. I heard the company will move to a brand-new building in September.

3. Aside from the managers, most colleagues are easy to get along with and willing to share both hardships and good times.

1. It is called a startup, but in reality its way of thinking is completely old-fashioned—basically stuck in ideas from 20 years ago. It has no product mindset, only a project-oriented way of thinking, and survives on its powerful marketing resources.

2. The general manager trusts only the chief operating officer and his people; all other employees are distrusted. The COO and the boss claim to have technical backgrounds, but their abilities have completely failed to keep up with technological development, and they do not respect genuine expertise.

3. The boss likes to use trendy buzzwords such as big data and AI, but in practice it is all empty talk with no viable business model, leading employees and shareholders to dream along with him.

4. They do not want to seriously develop the team, and there is no training or employee development system. You will regret joining.

5. For some reason, HR likes to ask during interviews how many people are in the applicant’s family and what their parents do. They come across as very arrogant. This is nothing like a company that treats people as assets.

6. The managers and employees have all been replaced, leaving only engineers who follow orders and people who diligently pursue sales. If you want to become a competent corporate tool, you should think carefully.

1. A startup backed by the resources of a large company, with strong growth potential.

2. Senior management has many dreams they want to realize, so there are plenty of opportunities to demonstrate your abilities.

3. The company provides motorcycle parking spaces and is close to an MRT station, so there is no need to worry about transportation.

4. Since it is essentially a startup, there are many opportunities to learn various technologies and gain a comprehensive understanding of the know-how involved in different aspects of an entire project.

5. The business and customer service teams are very strong and can solve any problems raised by users.

6. Employees clock in and out, but there is a one-hour flexible schedule, as well as compensatory time off for overtime.

7. There are no restrictions on the technologies used, and there is no historical baggage.

8. I hope to become a small tool within the company; I believe I can gain a good sense of accomplishment here.

1. Project-oriented product development, where the schedule takes priority above all else.

2. When the schedule does not meet senior management's expectations, they directly interfere with the development process.

3. Overtime is almost the norm, but employees are required not to violate labor laws when working overtime, and the project schedule cannot be delayed as a result.

4. Company policies change constantly, and what is said often differs from what is actually done.

5. The training and retention of talent are managed with a hands-off, laissez-faire approach.

6. You can challenge senior management's ideas and decisions, but you must take responsibility for the consequences yourself.

7. The company practices the currently popular "meteor-driven development" approach.

8. It is difficult to advance if you are not favored by senior management.

1. The logic of the marketing and sales staff is stronger than that of the old-timers leading the engineering team.

2. Suitable for people without a relevant academic background or recent graduates to come and write code. The old-timers specify using HTML + CSS + jQuery: “If you can develop with jQuery, why use React?” There is no pressure to learn.

3. There are no performance evaluations. A bug that could be fixed in an hour can be fixed slowly over four days. The old-timers do not understand it either, so you can come and practice your debating skills.

4. Clocking in and out is required; overtime can be exchanged for compensatory leave.

5. Frontline employees and managers outside the engineering team are all easy to get along with.

6. The office will be moved to a new location eventually, but the move has already been postponed once, and the timing is currently unknown.

7. On the way to work at the Xinzhuang campus, you can admire cars for free and get acquainted with the deputy station chief next door (a Corgi).

1. Senior managers lack the ability to distinguish technical issues, often making technical decisions and compressing schedules.

2. Schedules are determined by big data in their heads: connecting three payment services with the head office’s internal accounting system, with no PM and possibly only one Backend engineer available for support in the future, all within a one-month deadline—and a pile of other projects will also be due during that period.

3. For PMs trusted by management, engineers are given only a static image drawn by one Designer, with not a single word describing the requirements, and are told to start development. Because the requirements are unclear, they are changed constantly and the project is delayed, yet management still thinks it is doing a great job. For PMs who are not trusted, even after preparing requirements with Axure, they are still criticized for planning too slowly.

4. The record is working seven days a week, with overtime every day. Afterwards, colleagues were not even allowed to report seven consecutive days of overtime within one week. A colleague got into a car accident due to exhaustion, was found to have a liver tumor after examination, and underwent chemotherapy.

5. The development process is neither Scrum nor Waterfall; it is DDD (Deadline-Driven Development). People are asked to work overtime only when everything is about to explode. Deadlines are imposed without analysis, there is no project risk management whatsoever, and action is taken only when the deadline is almost here.

6. When senior management feels development is not progressing as quickly as they imagined, they outsource the work to external vendors. Therefore, be prepared to take over a pile of terrible code. If the outsourced vendor cannot be pushed to act, you will be asked to work overtime. If performance is not good enough, you are also expected to fix it—but usually it is already too late.

7. Senior management believes that if a project is successfully delivered, there is no question of who was right or wrong. However, you will be the one working overtime to clean up other people’s messes; if it fails, it is because development was too slow.

8. They are skilled at dealing with people who raise problems. Even providing a solution along with the problem is not acceptable. Obey and do exactly as instructed; speak less and do more.

9. When things are not done well, they say they are a startup. Startups everywhere inexplicably bear the consequences of their karma.

1 The parent company, Hotai, is a leader in the automotive industry, so there is no need to worry about startup funding.

2 The sales and marketing teams are very strong.

3 The company will move to a new building in the future, providing a good work environment.

4 The technology, marketing, sales, and management teams are all mixed together in one classroom. The desks have no partitions, so communication is fast; the boss can look directly at you, making it suitable for Neymar-type employees who find it convenient to show their performance to their supervisors.

5 The technology team only needs to develop using methods from 10 years ago, so the work is relatively easy and there is no pressure to learn.

6 There is free afternoon tea whenever there are personnel changes, which saves quite a bit of money.

7 The technical manager is highly capable: any project schedule can be shortened to one-third of the normal development time, making it very suitable for employees who like to work quickly.

1 Although there is sufficient funding, there is no innovative business mechanism.

2 There is no training system.

3 The company uses “being a startup” as an excuse for having no planning or process management.

4 To shorten schedules, employees become so exhausted that they get into traffic accidents and develop cancer.

5 Although the technology appears usable, it cannot keep up with the needs of users in the broader environment and era; after working here for a year, you will become useless.

6 Employees who propose ideas for improvement are treated as outcasts.

7 Although it is a startup, senior management has the mindset of a traditional large company, with no startup style or operating methods whatsoever.

8 Senior management only trusts employees sent by the Hotai parent company and is full of suspicion toward employees who are not from the parent company.

9 Senior management lacks the ability to assess technical competence.

10 The people who should take responsibility do not shoulder it, resulting in the entire company CC’ing people on emails every day.

It is recommended to observe the company’s job postings on 104 and see whether it is frequently opening positions for a new technical team.

It is recommended to compare the content of the company’s job postings with what was discussed during the interview to see whether they are the same.

(1) The general manager and chief operating officer (head of development) are both fairly senior in age. If you are good at communicating with people from the previous generation, this company is very suitable for you.

(2) The chief operating officer has come up with a business model intended to make a lot of money for the company and has invested a considerable amount of time and resources in it. Pray that the market will accept it after launch.

(3) If you have strong ideas of your own and cannot help expressing them, your manager will be happy to engage in intense discussions with you.

(1) Most managers came from Hotai or have a Hotai background, so do not imagine this is a purely startup team.

(2) Managers have their own unique way of evaluating development schedules; it is not necessarily up to the developers to decide.

(3) The job posting says the location is convenient, but the office is actually still in Xinzhuang and will remain there for some time. The new office is not ready yet.

(4) Make sure to ask around about the chief operating officer’s management style before applying; apply only if you can accept it.

Hotai's reputation

The HR representative surnamed Chen at this company has serious problems. From the phone invitation, it was obvious that they had no sincerity at all, and they even hung up halfway through the conversation... How can they recruit suitable candidates this way?