As Google expands its footprint in Taiwan, it plans to recruit software and hardware talent for its Google Nest smart device team, a chip development team, and teams to support its Pixel and Chromebook products, Google Taiwan said yesterday.
Supply chain management talent will also be in demand, the company said at an online event.
“There will always be openings for software engineers, hardware engineers and project managers,” Google Taiwan human resources head Vanessa Lu (呂亞樵) said.
Photo: CNA
“The strength of the Taiwanese industry is very clear,” Lu said, adding that the company would continue to invest in Taiwan.
Lu also doused some “urban myths” about how Taiwanese candidates can boost their chances of landing a coveted job at Google.
These false beliefs include: “Google’s Taiwanese staff are paid less” and “Goggle is only looking for graduates from top schools who speak fluent English,” she said.
Regarding interview tips, Lu said: “Taiwanese applicants often take too long in search of the perfect answer, but it’s more important to remain relaxed.”
“If the interview is more like a relaxed conversation, the chances of success would naturally be higher,” she said.
Aside from contending with applicants from around the world, job-seekers would also be competing with established Google employees, as the company encourages internal transfers.
Lu offered some tips on how candidates can make their resume stand out, including using concise language, as well as numbers to demonstrate their professional knowledge and other qualities that they can bring to the table.
“The low cost of labor is not why Google is in Taiwan,” Lu said, adding that what is more important is whether top talent is available and whether government policies are conducive.
While it is true that many Google employees come from top schools and speak fluent English, those attributes are not prerequisites, said Jeffrey Shih (石啟瑞), who works on talent and outreach programs at Google Taiwan.
“Most Google jobs ask for only a college degree, and might not even specify a particular major,” Shih said.
The level of English skills required depends on the position, as a sizeable number of jobs require only conversational English, he added.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last