No Future If You're Not an Engineering Grad? A Workplace Rookie on Leaping Straight to Senior Management: Real Interview Stories to Help You Break Free of Seniority Requirements

Hi everyone, I'm Ariel Chen (陳佑青). It's been about six months since I graduated in mid-2023 and came back to Taiwan, and I've been through two job searches in that time. Only after living it did I realize how hard the whole chain is: editing your résumé, writing cover letters, mass-applying (?) to openings, preparing for interviews and waiting to hear back. Besides improving yourself along the way, I think the most important thing is getting your head in the right place.

I'm sure plenty of people have been gaslit in interviews: told their degree isn't good enough, their experience too thin, their extracurriculars not impressive enough, while the same opening tagged #NewGradsWelcome somehow expects to attract seasoned, highly experienced stars. Take my first, short-lived job after coming home: I had the bad luck of landing an exploitative boss and spent every day being worn down mentally in a toxic workplace. While trying to adjust, I realized the job didn't match my career expectations, so I quit abruptly with nothing lined up to look for a role that really suited me. It also made me realize I didn't want to be just a small cog in a company. Being a dispensable presence with no real impact didn't fit what I expected of myself, and that pushed me to aim my job search at senior management roles.

Readers of this job-search write-up could come from anywhere: friends I've known for years, and of course first-time readers the algorithm happened to send my way. So I'll start by introducing myself with my résumé. If your education, experience, interests or skills happen to overlap with mine, you can use it as a reference, and I hope my journey can help nourish yours.

🎓Education

Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls High School

National Tsing Hua University, B.Ed. / minor in Information and Media

Simon Business School at University of Rochester, MS in Marketing Analytics (STEM-designated in the US)

💼Internships

KKBOX campus ambassador, 5th cohort

Digital editor, Fashion Center, ETtoday

Intern, POP Radio (Taipei pop music radio station)

Columnist, LINE Hotspot

Brand ambassador & digital marketing, National Tsing Hua University

🔮Other experience

Partner lecturer, Center for General Education, National Tsing Hua University

Seed teacher, International STEAM Education Association

Camp instructor, 17鬥陣學習網

Volunteer English teacher for Syrian refugees, RNT

Digital marketing, Google Developer Student Club at National Chiao Tung University

📚Work / milestones

Video "My Never-Miss Interview Tips, Revealed" reposted by 1111 Job Bank

Article "The Single Girl You Think You Know" passed 200,000 views & was reposted by mainland Chinese and Hong Kong media

Cover illustration for the book EN帶你寫個作業系統：來趟RISC-V開發輕旅行 (published 2022)

Cover illustration for the book EN帶你入門5G核心網路 (to be published in 2023)

📝Skills

Google Analytics / SEO certifications

Data analysis: Python / R / MySQL / Tableau / PowerBI

(The companies below are listed in the order I interviewed with them.)

1.OrbitNext

Source: Applied on CakeResume

Position: Creator Partnership (Business Development) Manager

About the company: It's a startup with only a few employees, so BD reports directly to the other executives and the founders and handles expanding the company's brand and finding partners.

The company's business model is similar to venture capital: it gives promising up-and-coming YouTubers a large sum of money and does work similar to a PR firm's to help grow the creator's platform. The difference is that a PR firm nurtures you like a nanny, while OrbitNext provides "support" and "coaching" and doesn't get involved in or interfere with any original ideas or decisions.

Interview process: 3 rounds in total

First round: Application review; if you pass, they email you

Actually, before I got the email, the founder found my LinkedIn and sent me a connection request, so I introduced myself again in a message and mentioned that I'd applied for the position on CakeResume, which helped pull my résumé up so it got seen

Second round: online meeting

It opened, as usual, with brief introductions on both sides. I think this interview was mainly for the company to learn more about your background: what else can you do beyond what's on paper? Also, I found the company's business model rather unusual, so in this round they also explained and clarified a lot of things. The founder is a young NTU (National Taiwan University) alum, and the whole conversation was pleasant. Right before the end I was asked, "How soon can you confirm with us whether you want to move forward?" Since I was actively job hunting and quite interested in the role, I answered openly, "Right now. I'm very interested," and then waited to hear back.

Third round: physical meeting

At the end of the previous round the interviewer said they'd get back to me as soon as possible within a couple of days. The very next day, before the end of the workday, they added me to a LINE group with just the two founders and explained what I needed to prepare for round three.

For round three I had to prepare a client presentation, persuading a creator to work with OrbitNext from the BD manager's position, with the interviewers playing the creator that day. After the demo there were a few open-ended, think-on-your-feet questions.

1. Here's an airplane. By any method, using your imagination, tell me how you'd figure out its capacity.

2. Most of the remaining questions were about details of the demo, such as: Why should we choose OrbitNext instead of a PR firm? How does OrbitNext operate? How do you make money? (I think this part tests how much the candidate learned about the company after the last interview. My advice is to grab every chance to shine and show your sincerity and ability.)

2.HackMD

Source: Applied on CakeResume

Position: Digital Marketing Director

About the company: I noticed this opening because the founder is one of my LinkedIn connections, so I went on CakeResume and applied.

It's also something of a startup, though it moves a bit slowly; it only closed its angel round two years ago. Its main product is the HackMD note-taking system, which I'm sure many people have used in school. It's convenient for regular notes and for coding alike, and it's a software tool with a lot of growth potential on both the business and campus sides.

Interview process: 3 rounds in total

First round: Application review; if you pass, they contact you by private message on CakeResume

Second round: case study

A one-on-one conversation directly with the founder. There were no especially technical or difficult questions; at this stage you just make the most of the chance to sell yourself. Before the end the interviewer said I'd need to prepare a demo, with one week to prepare: pretend you're GitHub's digital marketing director 10 years ago. Given the company's situation at the time, how would you plan a marketing proposal?

I spent a full, uninterrupted ten hours on this demo. There's no trick to it: based on my own understanding of GitHub as a collaboration platform plus research online, I put together a complete marketing plan that could represent the entire marketing department. My case study roughly covered: introduction (a brief overview of the company ten years ago, which also defines your own assumptions and conditions), challenge (the problems the company faced at that stage, following from the situation above), KPI (the problems to solve and how to measure whether targets were hit and the work was effective), communication channels (which channels would you choose for digital marketing?), content marketing strategy (which methods would you use?), social media strategy (same), community engagement, impact measure (were the KPIs listed at the start achieved? how do you judge?), and alternative plan (if the plan fails, what's your plan B?).

Third round: online meeting

After you submit the case study, if there are no problems, the interviewer emails you an invitation to a third-round online demo. As I recall there were four people on the call that day: one lead each from Taiwan and the US, plus an RD and a PM (not totally sure). People from each department asked questions and raised discussion points from the angle of their own department's work. The whole meeting took about an hour, including the demo and Q&A that could come up at any moment. The questions were numerous and tricky, mostly follow-ups and probing on what you'd mentioned in the plan, for example: Do you have a full budget for this part? Have you actually thought about how much time per week it would take to execute this item? Beyond the marketing department, what resources from the company or support from other departments would you need for this part?

My advice is not to aim for breadth or quantity here. Depth and detail are what really count. Rather than offering lots of options to choose from, build out and make the case for the two or three ideas you have.

3.動區動趨 Block Tempo

Source: Applied on CakeResume

Position: Digital Marketing Manager

About the company: A mainstream blockchain media outlet in Taiwan focused on promoting blockchain industry news. It's a great fit for people who want to move into communications while also trying cross-disciplinary knowledge; this job involves a lot of exposure to the latest in crypto, blockchain and related industries.

Interview process: 2 rounds in total

First round: Application review; if you pass, they notify you by email

Second round: online meeting

I'm not sure what the interviewer's position was, but from their self-introduction I learned they had also studied in New York. The conversation was pretty relaxed and mostly expanded on what was on my résumé. Another very important part was things like: How much do you know about blockchain? Do you know what the company does? Any recent news that caught your interest? Do you trade crypto yourself?

My advice: when you interview for a job you should understand the company thoroughly anyway, and that goes double for this one. It's a highly specialized field, so learning a bit more before the interview can only help. If you want to try for a similar role, you could also spend a little money experimenting with crypto as a personal test to gain some experience. Whether it goes well or badly, it adds to your "story" and lets you talk more freely and comfortably when sharing in the interview.

4.Initium Media (端傳媒)

Source: Applied on CakeResume

Position: Digital Marketing Director / Event Facilitating Manager

About the company: A new media outlet that started in Hong Kong and mainly covers stories from across the Greater China region (mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong). Because its topics are fairly sensitive, its headquarters later moved to Singapore. The work is fully remote, so many managers and staff are scattered across the US and around the world. Its business model mainly relies on reader subscriptions to sustain itself, improve, and give readers more in-depth reporting in return. Many universities and colleges in Taiwan have already signed agreements with Initium to give their students reading access.

Interview process: 4 rounds in total

First round: Application review; if you pass, they email you an interview invitation

Second round: online meeting

This round was a one-on-one interview, and the email said in advance it would be 50% Chinese and 50% English. The interviewer was a Chinese person based on-site in the US (judging by their accent in Chinese), with very standard English intonation and pronunciation. It opened with the usual self-introduction, in Chinese. Once that had gone on for a while, they said we'd move to the English Q&A. The questions were all fairly open-ended, so don't box yourself in with any assumptions.

1. What will be your alternative position？

2. If Initium provides you a big amount of money, what kind of product do you want to do? why and how?

3. (Because my background mentioned that I studied data analysis for my master's in the US) Which part of data analysis do you think is the most important? And why?

4. What kind of difficulty did you meet when studying data analysis in the US?

The interviewer had a very "STEM" way of thinking and was very rational. I think a big part of it is that although people across mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong all speak Chinese, word choices differ, so maybe the interviewer worried about not understanding each other precisely. Every so often they'd stop for a quick summary to make sure we were on the same page. The questions in this round were quite detailed and many of my answers got follow-ups, but I could tell the interviewer was genuinely trying to dig into the candidate's past and strengths, and I got plenty of positive feedback along the way, so overall it was a pleasant interview.

Third round: online meeting

I got an interview invitation from another manager, based in Hong Kong. The email said the previous interviewer had been very impressed with me and they wanted to invite me to the next interview. It also shared three questions in advance so I could prepare: What do you think news is? What do you think a news product is? If you join, what's the first event/project you'd want to run?

They didn't ask for anything in writing, but to show my sincerity I made a PPT. As for the theme, since it happened to be Initium's eighth brand anniversary, I designed an online campaign inviting readers, whether or not they were current subscribers, to take part and submit pieces on "What does freedom mean to you?" To me, Initium is a fairly artsy, literary new media brand, so I added an extra layer of packaging to many details, for example naming the theme "A Lighthouse in the Hearts of Chinese People." My suggestion is that while you research a brand, also get a feel for the atmosphere and values it wants to give consumers. That makes you more persuasive in the interview.

Fourth round: online meeting

At the end of the previous interview, the interviewer said that based on my background they'd like to recommend me for another manager-level position (Events Facilitating Manager), so they set up one last online interview. This one was a panel interview. Unlike the usual group interview, it was several of them and just me: the two interviewers from the previous two rounds plus the incoming CEO. During the interview they told me we were already past the "are you capable enough" stage, and that now the point was to set aside the shackles and baggage business school had given me and talk about my most genuine views and ideas, based on what I had in hand and what was on my mind. Across these rounds, the one thing that stayed constant from start to finish was this: they all cared a lot about why you'd choose Initium. What makes Initium special to you compared with other companies in the same industry or in different fields? What feelings or values do you like that Initium gives you? And so on. Basically, they were testing and confirming, step by step, that you're the candidate who most genuinely fits the brand image.

5.Gemtek Technology (正文科技)

Source: An HR rep contacted me through 104 Job Bank and asked if I'd be interested

Position: Investor Relations

About the company: Gemtek is a long-established, publicly listed networking and communications company, and it introduced me to investor relations, a distinctive and challenging role. The position sits in the spokesperson's office. Simply put, you're responsible, in the capacity of spokesperson, for all related work, such as hosting the company's annual investor conference, presenting and reporting to investors at business forums, doing industry analysis, and doing financial analysis through sales analysis. As for grade, Gemtek classifies it as a senior management specialist.

Interview process: 2 rounds in total

First round: online meeting

Because this role can be seen as the executive director's representative for the company (Gemtek's executive director and spokesperson are the same person), the first round was a one-on-one online interview directly with the executive director. The content was fairly standard: from my self-introduction to what I learned in business school, whether I understood the role well enough, and whether my personality really suited this kind of work.

The interviewer also gave a sincere, straightforward and detailed introduction to the company and the industry, and asked whether I wanted to move forward. If so, I could wait to be contacted about the next step.

Second round: physical meeting

After the email notice I moved smoothly into round two and went straight to headquarters for a written test and interview. Before the interview itself, the company scheduled about an hour of an English test and an aptitude test. The English test (reading + listening) was set up like the TOEIC, but I'd say it was several times harder and faster than the real TOEIC. The aptitude test was a long series of gut-feeling either/or choices, mainly to understand the candidate's work preferences and mindset.

Note: both tests were taken in a dedicated testing room inside the company, with a computer and an over-ear headset for each person.

After the tests, HR took me to another interview room. First the executive director explained the job details again in more depth, then HR went over the next steps and salary expectations.

Conclusion

I'm sure Taiwan's job market leaves many new graduates very discouraged. Lots of companies post #NewGradsWelcome while also requiring work experience, which is a contradictory and unfair way to judge people. I firmly believe that, at school or at work, ability should do the talking, and people shouldn't be ranked or judged a success or failure by years of experience. That's the original reason I decided to go for senior management roles.

Putting it all together, my advice for candidates who want to try for senior management openings is this: in a position above everyone else, you'll need to understand the company's operations and business model more thoroughly than junior staff, and know how to combine your department's capabilities with other resources to get the most out of them. That's the hardest part of reaching above your level for a senior role, so focus on fully showing the abilities that aren't on your résumé.

That wraps up this post. If you want more detailed write-ups, stay tuned to my channel for new articles. If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to reach me on LinkedIn, and if you found this helpful, a few claps are always welcome🤩