When interviewing for new positions, it is useful to know the importance of different people who are interviewing you. The office hierarchy, the ladder, is quite interesting in Taiwan. At my company, this is the general idea:
- President
- Vice President
- Senior Director
- Director
- Senior Manager 高級經理
- Manager 經歷
- Assistant Manager 副經理
- Section Manager 科長
- Senior Specialist 高級專員
- Specialist 專員
- Assistant 助理
You then also have Special Assistants, who are not really assistants, but more like advisors, and seem to trump everyone except the President him/herself.
When I first joined this company, I incorrectly presumed that a Section Manager is higher than an Assistant Manager. It is more obvious in Chinese (Section Manager = 科長).
What is your company like?
Well, I got to know that here in TW Vicepresidents do matter, at least in the financial sector. Not that a VP in other places, like HK/UK/US is a low level employee, but they do not really carry much decisional power and all rely on the MD/ED to take decision, hire people, increase budgets, etc… They are glorified associates or high level analysts.
Here instead, VPs are big guns, really filling the shoes of the big boss at multiple occasions.
Also manager here seem to be a very revered title.
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I work at a family run buxiban and it’s basically
The Father - thinks he’s the boss but is there the least and no one listens to him
The Mother - Looks after the finances and otherwise wants to be left alone
The Daughter - was being groomed to take over the parents when they retired but had no interest and quit
The son - is now starting to take over as the parents are getting older but doesn’t have very good business skills or role models. Although he has picked it up really quick and gets is dad to stop talking at all the appropriate times 
The son’s girlfriend - Taking over finances from the mother but gets confused with the shifty business and multiple bank accounts
The long term Taiwanese teacher (4 years) - basically the manager of the English teaching department. They don’t want him to ever quit
Me also pretty long term (3 years) - The only native English speaker who they also don’t want to quit ever. Assists the son with business management (interviewing applicants, training and marketing ideas but not finance)
Other English teachers - new employees that haven’t found their feet yet
Anqinban teachers - crazy old women with a power complex that stay upstairs and don’t talk to anyone
No one knows who the boss really is but we all get the impression once the parents retire that there will be huge improvement in student numbers and the general running of the school 
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