Another note: though the hourly wage/monthly salary may be a fixed amount, it’s important to remember that bonuses can often comprise a significant amout of your overall yearly take.
I didn’t work at Acer, but I did work in building A, you know, the one that burnt out cause of the temple book store whatever shop that was burning inscence downstairs. I had “fond” memories of taking those busses home every day. Of course, I had to pay, but hey, guys, it was an “intangible beneifit” if I joined Acer. Hard sell those Acer guys have in interviews. Instead of the foreigner begging for a job, it usually turns out that Acer beggs the foreigner to work.
Anybody have any experience with Trend Microsoft? I notice that their ad pops up a lot and wonder why they would have such high turnover.
[I’m sorry. It’s not Trend Mircosoft. It’s Trend Micro.] [I hope Bill Gates doesn’t read this.] [Don’t tell him, okay?]
Thanks Juba and Jeremy for the information.
Do you mean “Trend Micro”? I just assume they use them and abuse them. From what I hear, it’s a Taiwanese-stared/invested company that is actually listed in Japan. I have a classmate friend of http://www.gsb.uchicago.edu that works at Trend Micro. He is Taiwanese. He is pretty straight up. I’ve asked him what’s up. I get the same reply as those from http://www.ulead.com. Their business model is cheap cheap cheap. They have a high turnover rate, not just with foreigners, but also with locals, especially software engineers. They hire bright young skulls full of mush out of college, work them like dogs for two years or less, and then these guys/gals get experience and know that they could be making more at a bing long stand … Places like Trend and Ulead are successful with this business model. Employee retention doesn’t seem to negatively impact them in ways that affect their Taiwanese low-cost business model.
Shouldn’t the first interview be with the HR person and the more interviews you get the higher the staff gets? Well not at Trend Micro! My 3rd interview was with a very friendly, overly happy person from HR, where as my 2nd interview was with the Manager and the 1st interview was with some regular dudes in documentation. It was really odd! They kept calling me for more and more interviews. After the 3rd interview … I just told them to stop wasting my time. They never gave me an offer and at all three interviews they dodged the bullet on salary.
By the way I’m a computer programmer with technical writing experience. So I was qualified and they knew they wanted me … but they claimed that there was no perminant spot open but offered me a contract position. Hmmm so why all the interviews? Inside scoop was they were waiting for someone to move out so I could move in!
I know this thread is a bit old, but I feel compelled to post a different viewpoint. I have been working as a technical writer at Trend Micro for about seven months. Before coming to Taiwan, I had several years experience in the US software industry as a programmer, system administrator, and manager. While Trend may not be the greatest company on the planet, they are one heck of a lot better than the average Taiwanese hellhole. They actually started in California, and still have a substantial workforce there, as well as in several other countries. As a result, the company has a very western feel to it. I would say that the professionalism is about average for an American company, though not on par with the best of them; at least not yet.
The technical writing team currently has a very professional manager, and excellent writers. Based on what I have heard and seen, it is vastly improved over what it was two years ago, or even one. I don’t know the specifics of Roseha’s experience, as I was not with Trend Micro at the time. As far as her opinion about the order interviews should go in, it is just that-an opinion. There is no single right way to do it, although the process she describes is different from what we currently do. There have definitely been some refinements made to the hiring process since she posted. However, keep in mind this is not a teaching job or a position for someone who just wants to finance their Chinese language classes for a year. (No disrespect meant to the many teachers who actually take their job seriously and care about what they are doing.) This is a professional position with a multinational company. In this type of job, it is not at all unusual to go through at least three interviews before money is discussed, especially when the individual interviews are seldom longer than an hour. At least Trend Micro does not do the marathon 5 - 8 hour interviews with what seems like every employees in the company that I have experienced elsewhere. They also do not subject applicants to three interviews with an HR recruiter before they even get to talk to a person who actually understands the job, as EDS did to me. As for her “inside scoop,” I am quite sure she was misinformed. That is just not the way the technical writing team at Trend operates. And as for her assertion that she was qualified since she is a computer programmer with tech writing experience, I can only say that I have known many good people who fit this description who would have no chance whatsoever of getting hired for this job.
I have much less knowledge about how Trend Micro’s Taiwanese employees view their jobs. I suspect that it depends in large part on who their manager is, just as in many American companies. I know Trend Micro is pretty picky about the people they hire, and I have heard they pay pretty well, but I can’t be sure. The turnover rate has not seemed to be inordinately high, nor do they work unbearably long hours as a rule. The engineers generally seem to be happier with their jobs than most I have worked with in the USA.
Overall, I would say being a technical writer at Trend Micro is a good choice for the right person, especially if they want a career. The people are nice, the work is reasonably interesting, the processes are well designed, and the hours are OK most of the time. The pay is decent to start, and if the employee sticks around for a couple of years and performs well, the compensation can approach US levels when bonuses and stock options are included. There is usually an opening-they have one of the largest technical writing departments in Taiwan, and since the employees are generally all foreigners, there will always be turnover. There is also good opportunity for advancement. I am glad I went to work at Trend Micro, but it is not for everybody.
[quote=“Walter”]I know this thread is a bit old, but I feel compelled to post a different viewpoint. I have been working as a technical writer at Trend Micro for about seven months. Before coming to Taiwan, I had several years experience in the US software industry as a programmer, system administrator, and manager. While Trend may not be the greatest company on the planet, they are one heck of a lot better than the average Taiwanese hellhole. They actually started in California, and still have a substantial workforce there, as well as in several other countries. As a result, the company has a very western feel to it. I would say that the professionalism is about average for an American company, though not on par with the best of them; at least not yet.
The technical writing team currently has a very professional manager, and excellent writers. Based on what I have heard and seen, it is vastly improved over what it was two years ago, or even one. I don’t know the specifics of Roseha’s experience, as I was not with Trend Micro at the time. As far as her opinion about the order interviews should go in, it is just that-an opinion. There is no single right way to do it, although the process she describes is different from what we currently do. There have definitely been some refinements made to the hiring process since she posted. However, keep in mind this is not a teaching job or a position for someone who just wants to finance their Chinese language classes for a year. (No disrespect meant to the many teachers who actually take their job seriously and care about what they are doing.) This is a professional position with a multinational company. In this type of job, it is not at all unusual to go through at least three interviews before money is discussed, especially when the individual interviews are seldom longer than an hour. At least Trend Micro does not do the marathon 5 - 8 hour interviews with what seems like every employees in the company that I have experienced elsewhere. They also do not subject applicants to three interviews with an HR recruiter before they even get to talk to a person who actually understands the job, as EDS did to me. As for her “inside scoop,” I am quite sure she was misinformed. That is just not the way the technical writing team at Trend operates. And as for her assertion that she was qualified since she is a computer programmer with tech writing experience, I can only say that I have known many good people who fit this description who would have no chance whatsoever of getting hired for this job.
I have much less knowledge about how Trend Micro’s Taiwanese employees view their jobs. I suspect that it depends in large part on who their manager is, just as in many American companies. I know Trend Micro is pretty picky about the people they hire, and I have heard they pay pretty well, but I can’t be sure. The turnover rate has not seemed to be inordinately high, nor do they work unbearably long hours as a rule. The engineers generally seem to be happier with their jobs than most I have worked with in the USA.
Overall, I would say being a technical writer at Trend Micro is a good choice for the right person, especially if they want a career. The people are nice, the work is reasonably interesting, the processes are well designed, and the hours are OK most of the time. The pay is decent to start, and if the employee sticks around for a couple of years and performs well, the compensation can approach US levels when bonuses and stock options are included. There is usually an opening-they have one of the largest technical writing departments in Taiwan, and since the employees are generally all foreigners, there will always be turnover. There is also good opportunity for advancement. I am glad I went to work at Trend Micro, but it is not for everybody.[/quote]How many people are working in the technical writing department in Trend Micro? And how many would you say there are in an average technical writing department in Taiwan?
Roseha, in Asia, it is becoming more common for the hiring manager to take the first interview to determine the “job fit”. If the HR manager sees you next, likely, they will make an offer. I was about to apply to Mirco Trend as a Technical Writer but would prefer a job where I can work from home and come in the office say, for 2 weeks straight in a month. Walter, do you know if Micro Trend offers such flexibility?
Does anyone know if there are such flexible openings for Technical Writers? Appreciative.
I was a programmer for 3 years, designed wireless/ mobile application systems for 2 years, written technical specs, UATs, user guides etc. I read Chinese and speak relatively fluent Mandarin and some Taiwanese. And English of course.
Thanks dudes.
When you’re looking for a technical writing job it’s important to avoid companies that run wanted ads frequently in the Taipei Times (Trend Micro and HTC are two examples).
Speaking from experience, companies that run ads constantly are no good because it shows that they can’t keep writers from leaving. After being suckered with promises of stock options, people who work for these companies usually burn out before collecting.
It would be helpful to talk to a writer currently on staff and ask for overtime pay before accepting a position with an IT company. In some cases, most of the work are formatting and copy&pasting rather than writing.
Any more thoughts from other TrendMicro folks? After yesterday’s election I need to get the hell out of the States asap. :loco:
What’s the average salary like and is it really as bad as all the other technical writers make it out to be? What avenues for growth are there beyond the tech writer role? I’ve got a phone interview lined up this week, any tips would be appreciated! Regards…
Making a small leap from tech writing to B2B copy, does anyone know how the working conditions / corporate culture, etc. are at Global Sources?
Many Thanks.
For a long time I considered going back to technical writing in Taiwan, as I had previously been a technical writer at a couple of different software companies in the U.S. My Taiwanese friend, who graduated from the same U.S. Master’s program I did, and who works as a technical writer in Taipei, helped me to check into the possibility.
What I kept hearing again and again was that you will essentially live at the company, sometimes staying the night, and that extreme project overload is the norm. Well, this didn’t really sound that different from some of the high tech work I did in the U.S. Many weeks I didn’t see daylight there either. But, when she inquired for me with several friends as to how much a foreigner with my credentials (M.A. in writing, about 3 years technical writing experience) might expect to make, the average seemed to be about 40,000-60,000 NT per month! In Taipei! So, thanks but no thanks. I’ll stay with teaching English, thank you very much.
If you work at a job that requires such a high level of expertise and experience for such an ungodly wage, I would be highly interested to know what motivation drives you to such extremes. Truly! I just couldn’t see it, especially with the general work overload, beuracracy, disorganization, and lack of planning that exists here, that has got to be one mental breakdown inducing job!
Has anyone hear of Advantech? They have several different locations, including Nei Hu. I would really appreciate some info about that company.
Hey everyone,
I think I’m going to venture back into my previous work. I used to do system administration and network enginneer: Windows, Linux, Cisco, stuff like that.
I’m at a loss to figure out where to find such jobs. 1111 and 104 seem pretty sparse. Are there better sites out there, in English or Chinese?
Where do you programmers look for work here?
Gary
No, not really. If you’re looking at SA/NE work, your best bet would be at an MNC. I know that JP Morgan is looking for Tier 3 Unix support personnel. They’re (re)building their internal IT operations support staff after not renewing their contract with IBM Global Services. Also, Taiwan is a Microsoft island.
As for programming what do languages do you know?
Finally, my comment about the technical sophistication in Taiwan is well, not up to par with US practices by a long shot. Based on your last post in the Linux thread, you’d be so far ahead of most people on this island you might as well be speaking Martian.
PM me if you need more information.
I’m not really a strong programmer. There have been times when I’ve intensely loved programming, and spend 20+ hours a day for weeks on end learning it. Those have been one offs. In honesty, I really have a lot to learn to get started.
And really my Microsoft and networking skills are much stronger than unix. I do use unix everyday, but it’s just beneath OS X. I mess around with it, sometimes more than casually, but I am by no means an expert.
So Microsoft servers or networking, Cisco, NetScreen, and the like, is where I’m looking.
I found one Cisco job on 104. I spoke with the guy. He liked me but said I need to know Chinese. He was very generous and offered to mention me to his friends at other companies.
This may be hard. I’ve also seen these jobs with salaries of 30k a month? It’s not too hard to get 5 to 10 times that much back home. This is gonna be different.
[quote=“gary”]
So Microsoft servers or networking, Cisco, NetScreen, and the like, is where I’m looking.
I found one Cisco job on 104. I spoke with the guy. He liked me but said I need to know Chinese. He was very generous and offered to mention me to his friends at other companies. [/quote]
Microsoft 2000/3 Servers, Professional, Active Directory, Terminal Services (maybe Citrix), Cisco/Dlink, nix on the netscreens (they probably haven’t heard of them and use other firewall/VPN devices from Cisco, HP, Dlink.
Yeah, it will be very different. And you definitely need to know Chinese as their operating systems are going to be Traditional Chinese, help desk in Chinese and documentation in Chinese. It will have nothing to do with your knowledge of the systems or technology which probably will be higher than a lot of the folks out there.
I think you’ll have more luck emphasizing your *nix and programming skills. You might think it’s nothing, but it may be a lot better than what’s here now.
GL,
Local salaries for engineers start around that level and AFAIK don’t go much higher than 50, maybe 60k a month. And as YC already pointed out, without knowlegde of Chinese it’s even tougher to find a good and well-paid job in those areas.
Good luck anyhow! 
Thanks everyone for the tips. I will see where I can look. I hope there are more places.
Yellow Cartman, Please tell me more about JP Morgan or other possible opportunities. Thanks.
You’ll find much more lucrative and satisfying jobs teaching English than doing technical work here. That’s just the way it is.