[quote=“madhawan”]Having gone through all the comments made on this post, I would love to take the opportunity to share my experience in front of everyone here (specifically, the OP). Some initial background, been in Taiwan for nearly 5 years, came here for my masters in Computer Science and after graduating, I started working.
I have been working for close to 3 years in Taiwan and fortunately, My experience in the 2 companies I have worked has been positive and my current job is in a well-known organisation located near the science park in Hsinchu.
I am a software engineer, specifically Mobile developer who works on iOS/Android platform. My first company was in New Taipei city and honestly, I do admit to the fact that I undercut myself on the salary front (I was paid 42k ). However looking at the bright side of it, in the 1.5 years there I never remember a day when I worked over 9 hours. It was a fixed 9-6 job and often I would myself being ideal with nothing to do even before 6.
Let’s start with the bad, The first thing which comes to me is that Taiwanese companies(especially small petty ones) lack a global vision (國際觀) and fail to do things with proper planning, Most things are haphazard with virtually no thought about process or a well-defined development model (especially for software). This leads to a lot of trouble, if not in the short term then definitely in the long run. As a software developer, I remember making changes to my app nearly 3-4 times a day for the demo next day. Another thing which always messes up my mind is that how prone Taiwanese are to saying “Yes” and accepting all kind of bullshit thrown to them. However, being the only 老外 , My boss never tried that on me knowing I would never take it.
The good things, I learned a lot. My Chinese level improved loads- I mean loads, from very basic to nearly fluent. I participated in exhibitions all over Asia, met with various clients and made some nice business relationships. Further, My job never affected my personal life since I never needed to work overtime or on the weekends. In fact during my second year, my company even paid for my air ticket back to my home country. And, I got a decent 年終 (2 months). More importantly, working in a small Taiwanese company with some unique/niche product got me a chance to move to a better workplace.
My current workplace is absolutely nothing to what I have read and seen from the people here. Again, I work from 9 to 6 and in case I need to work overtime, I get paid extra. My basic salary is 60,000 nt with nearly a 2 months bonus (not super high, but more than enough for a single person). Everything is in order here with well-established rules and nothing seems haphazard. They helped me apply the work permit and made sure I knew of every rule and regulation, this included knowing my rights as well. I get 14 days off annually, twice the number of most Taiwanese companies.
The bad- well, again I wish there was more planning, our products had concrete specification and everything was done within a well-defined scope. However, these problems are much more exclusive to software as compared to the problems mention above by others.
In my 3 years of work experience, never have I been paid late, never been made to work overtime without overtime pay, never lied or tricked about my salary/bonus. Everything has been transparent, be it joining or leaving, I never felt I was tricked or cheated. In these 3 years, I have learned quite a bit which apart from software development also include sales skills and language skills.
To sum it up, My working experience has been positive apart from some points which arguably you could have in every workplace. There is no job where you could say that you ain’t got nothing wrong, I have learned a lot of things and the problems which I have seen have rather helped me broaden my vision. So, rather than painting everyone with the same brush, I would rather say there are indeed good companies in Taiwan (might be difficult to find and get into) and rather than getting disheartened by others, give your best shot. Try 104,1111,Linkedin (I found my current job using Linkedin ) and go to the individual company’s website, send your resume directly to the HR. Chinese skill+related experience can work wonders for you!! You know your strengths !! 加油 不要放棄了[/quote]
Thank you madhawan !
Just gotta grit my teeth and push it on !
Shall step it a notch !