Disappointing Experience
Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
Munich office was very nice, food allowance/coupons were provided by the company.
Company car was also a good advantage to colleagues in Sales/Application Engineering.
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
For each business trip, we needed approval from 7 persons in the chain which was often not approved in time.
This business trip approval process where employees have to provide a full itinerary down to each minute was very ineffective.
During expense claim, I had to manually separate the actual amount from the taxes and tips which took a big chunk of time from my schedule.
During business travels employees had to pay everything from their private bank accounts, the company reimburses the amount later (but ONLy if you have all the receipts as proof).
Sometimes the company owes you several thousand euros.
I myself had to buy an expensive accessory for the customer for which I payed myself and was reimbursed bearing all the financial burden myself.
For the first 4 months, I did not get the travel allowance and daily allowance for my trips to the Eschborn office as they were considered on-job learning trips and not business trips.
As I arranged and finalized meetings with my customers in different locations, the week before the meeting, the project manager refused to join saying "You are on your own", but my team lead jumped in to support me at that time.
Verbesserungsvorschläge
The onboarding structure did not exist which made it difficult for me to quickly familiarize myself with the processes.
Inefficient processes derail the focus of the employees from the main business, these processes MUST be improved!
The expense claim process was also very manual where automation should have been introduced to make the process short so employees could focus on the business.
The data quality for each account is very poor.
Data was scattered in different places and with multiple colleagues.
Instead of a central database, the data was saved by individuals using Excel, and most of the time (in calls) was wasted comparing different versions of the same document.
Different versions of Excel files contained errors; and finding, checking, and fixing them was very time-consuming.
Arbeitsatmosphäre
It was a very Korean-dominated company and Koreans used the power given to them by the higher management.
Even the German higher management struggled to get their voice heard.
There seemed to be a constant conflict between cultures (German and Korean) at the company.
Kommunikation
I am giving 2 stars as the market news was shared immediately with the team members, BUT account related communication between the headquarters and Eschborn office was really bad.
Some colleagues in the headquarters were also very rude and took questions/comments as an offense replying very proudly and harshly to most of the emails.
Kollegenzusammenhalt
Team members had been very supportive.
My German team lead had been very supportive in all aspects.
Work-Life-Balance
Just one day per week home office was allowed, if you happen to be on a business trip on that day, it won't be replaced with another day.
During business trips, travelling time is not considered as working time or compensated in any way.
Travelling time is employee's private time and at the end of the quarter, the company deletes any recorded overtime that exceeds 16 hours.
There is a strict core working time and minimum working time per day that takes away flexibility from combining work and private life.
I had to take my son to a doctor once, being inflexible, i was asked to apply for half a day leave before leaving to the doctor.
If you are sick, you HAVE to submit the sick note on the very first day.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
I had observed instances where ethical standards were compromised, which conflicted with my personal and professional integrity.
The project manager of the passive components business unit during my time at the company was very rude.
He promised to support but when asked technical questions, he often considered answering a waste of time.
His incomplete answers and behavior often put me off and by the end of 4 months, I wanted to resign from the position.
Interessante Aufgaben
There were some interesting tasks on Microsoft Excel which I enjoyed but mostly the tasks were very monotonous.
Gleichberechtigung
Women were not seen as a competition by management and higher management as those positions were always filled by men.
Umgang mit älteren Kollegen
Some of the older non-Korean colleagues were not trusted or treated well.
Arbeitsbedingungen
Micro-management displayed by some colleagues showed distrust and disrespect towards the employees and created an environment of unnecessary stress in the team.
Umwelt-/Sozialbewusstsein
As much as customers wanted to move forward with Samsung Electro Mechanics together with sustainability; environment and climate protection was not given priority.
Gehalt/Sozialleistungen
Salary was fair.
Image
The image of the company was very different from reality.
The company’s processes were convoluted, time-consuming, and inefficient leading to unnecessary delays, frustration, and a decrease in overall productivity.
Karriere/Weiterbildung
You can develop your German and Korean language skills only if you are in Eschborn office, other offices did not have those perks.
No real career development opportunities offered.