Working at TSMC: Pain and Pleasure Coexist.

TSMC offers high salaries, good benefits, and is extremely generous with dividends and bonuses, but the work pressure is also relatively much higher. A male netizen posted on Dcard, sharing that he has been out of TSMC for 12 years, and the turning point of his departure was when he heard the founder, Morris Chang, talk about the "screw culture," which made him determined to leave.

The original poster (OP) stated that in 2012, TSMC was about to mass-produce the 20nm process. At that time, there were about 20 new employees in his cohort, all of whom were fresh graduates from prestigious schools. What was very memorable was that they were young at that time, and the words of their superiors filled everyone with motivation. Many people brought the spirit of working hard and staying up all night for experiments from their engineering college days to the company. He also once volunteered to go back to the dormitory for dinner and a shower at 8 pm, and then come back to the company at 9 pm.

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However, after joining TSMC, the OP realized that he was learning nothing and what he had learned in school was completely useless. He frankly stated that TSMC simply needed high-quality human resources to reduce errors. During his two years of work at TSMC, many frustrating incidents occurred, making him realize that he couldn't continue like this. He thought, "If I leave TSMC after 10 years, what else would I be able to do? What if TSMC doesn't want me anymore?"

The last reason that made the OP decide to leave was when he heard TSMC's founder, Morris Chang, mention the "screw culture," and Chang's belief that employees' career planning is their own business and has nothing to do with the company. This made him realize that this was the DNA of TSMC. After that, he worked for other foreign and domestic companies and found that experience and knowledge in the semiconductor industry can be accumulated, and so can connections. Therefore, 12 years after leaving TSMC, he does not feel regret at all.

Netizens have different opinions. Some netizens believe that "most companies won't care about your career planning," "If you work at TSMC for 12 years first and then go to a second-tier company to be a small supervisor and take it easy, isn't that better?" "But if you were still at TSMC now, you should have several houses for rent, right?"; There are also netizens who agree with the OP's thoughts, "Health is the most important, if your body breaks down due to shift work, you will regret it when you are old."

How intense is it to work at TSMC?

A former process engineer who claims to have worked at TSMC in Arizona for over a year posted on the American job information website Glassdoor, expressing three major negative impressions of TSMC, including militaristic management, a culture of gossip, and limited career development.Semiconductor industry insiders say that no matter how advanced wafer foundry technology and research and development become, the focus remains on manufacturing and factory management. When it comes to yield rates and manufacturing, it inevitably involves the essence of discipline.

Some companies have indicated that Europeans and Americans have never been keen on monotonous and tedious work, and there is no right or wrong in this. This is also why, over the past few decades, culture and industry have naturally evolved, leading Europe and the United States to outsource semiconductor manufacturing to Asia, creating a global division of labor.

The older generation in the United States has long been disinterested in manufacturing, and it is even less likely that young Americans would choose the semiconductor industry. For Western countries to develop their own semiconductor manufacturing, there is already a certain cultural barrier to overcome.

An American engineer who participated in TSMC's training program stated that in the Taiwan region, one works at least 10 hours a day, and it could actually reach 12 hours. TSMC's employees in the Taiwan region often work more than 12 hours a day, not only with night shifts and weekend rotations but also being on call at all times, with excessively long working hours.

This American engineer believes that in the future, TSMC in the United States will definitely switch to a 5-day workweek with 8-hour workdays; or adopt a shift system similar to other wafer foundries, where one works for three days and then has four days off, followed by another four days of work and three days off.

The engineer also mentioned that TSMC does not place much emphasis on "personal freedom." Although the company provides accommodation, there are many restrictions and rules, including limiting visitor hours; if one stays for an extended period, they would be assigned to a place farther away, resulting in longer commute times.

A very small portion of TSMC's expenditures are actually used for employees, with most of the funds going towards equipment maintenance and installation, as well as experimental wafers. TSMC should enable every employee to go home and spend more time with their families under reasonable circumstances while maintaining good benefits.

Furthermore, the American engineer also pointed out that TSMC spends a considerable amount of time on meetings, with more than 3 hours a day, which could be largely automated using software, eliminating unnecessary meetings.

The engineer also offered suggestions to TSMC's management, stating that the software used by TSMC is quite outdated, and there is a lot of unnecessary software with overlapping functions. "TSMC should streamline the software used for different tasks, identify functions that can be reused, and then integrate them into a simple, unified software that everyone can use." In particular, the "E-learning" system used for employee training should be "directly scrapped," as it has many language translation issues that make the entire training process poor, and it is impossible to learn anything from it, making it a complete waste of time.

Previously, an internal TSMC employee discussed their work experience online, stating that they studied diligently from a young age, following their parents' wishes to pursue a degree in science and engineering. Although they knew early on that they were not interested in science and engineering, they could not resist the temptation of job stability and high salaries, and ultimately joined the mechanical engineering department of a top university.After graduation, he also sought employment multiple times and was fortunate enough to land a job as a device engineer at TSMC, with an annual salary reaching one million New Taiwan dollars (approximately 230,000 RMB).

However, after spending 6 years there, he grew tired of his job at TSMC and warned those juniors preparing to join the company, stating that working at TSMC was merely a physical labor, even requiring readiness on weekends.

Comparing himself to his peers, he mentioned that his classmates who joined MediaTek as design engineers earned an annual salary ranging from 1.5 to 2 million New Taiwan dollars, could rest on weekends, and did not have to work overtime, being able to leave work on time.

He complained that after 6 years at TSMC, the only skill he improved was his proficiency in Excel.

In response to his criticism of TSMC, some netizens questioned why he didn't resign and find another job. The TSMC employee did not shy away from the question, stating that due to his specialization, the salary offered by other companies was only half of what he was making at TSMC. The million-dollar annual salary was his final consolation, and he might stop working by the age of 35.