来台受训的台积电美国设备工程师心得(留言处有原文连结)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TaiwanSemiconductorGroup
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-TSMC-RVW49365407.htm
(随兴诠释，随手超译，请多见谅)
优点
可以到台湾受训，可以在全球数一数二重要的且完全不同于美国文化的公司里工作。我也
学到了不少实用的技能，有利于我未来转职。然而并不意外的是，台湾与美国的工作文化
、学习/教学风格以及对其他许多事物的期待等等，还真的是不太一样。我的 buddy
(trainer) 只看到我的其中一面，而我想我对他也是如此。虽然有些落差，但还是可以努
力改进的。
Was able to train in Taiwan, work for one of the most important companies on
the planet that no one knows about, be exposed to culture outside the US, am
being given skills I can take to lot's of desirable positions in the future.
There are incompatibilities between work culture, learning/teaching style and
other expectations from the US to Taiwan. This is to be expected. My trainer
I think has definitely met me part way, and I believe I can say I have done
the same. There's still a gap, but this can be worked on.
缺点
台湾的职场文化真的跟美国很不一样。我确定台积电未来一定会将工时调整为每周五天且
每天八小时，或是像其他晶圆代工厂那样，上三天休四天，接着再上四天上三天之类的轮
班方式。因为现在台湾这里一天工时至少 10 小时，实际上大概可能到 12 小时，我说的
还都是针对我们这些之后要回 Arizona 的美国人遇到的情况。至于对这里的台湾人来说
，他们的工时几乎每天都超过 12 小时。此外也有夜班以及周末轮班还有平时也得值班
(on call)等等，不过这其实可理解毕竟 Fab 是 24 小时都在跑。
The work culture in Taiwan is really different than in the US. I am sure TSMC
will have to change to an 8 hour work day five days a week or do what other
companies do with Fabs and run three days on, four days off, four days on,
three days off rotations. As it is right now in Taiwan The minimum amount of
time at the company is 10 hours a day, but realistically is running up to
even 12 hours a day. This is for those of us who are American training to go
back to the new operation in Arizona. The reality for people from Taiwan is
that they are doing even more than 12 hour days often. There's also the night
shifts and weekend shifts on duty and/or on call. That last part is
understandable as the fab lives 24/7.
在这里受训的感觉跟好坏真的跟是谁带你很有关系。虽然我遇到的事情有点杂乱，但基本
上都不算太意外。我有想到一些方法去改善学习新设备与每天的工作，但坦白说我不知道
这真的有用吗？
The training in this experience really depends on one person who is your
"trainer". My experience has lacked any structure, but had no shortage of
expectations. I came up with some process to approach learning new equipment
and daily tasks, but to be honest don't know that I've arrived yet.
感觉台积电并不重视所谓的个人自由。公司提供我们这些从美国来受训的员工宿舍住，但
有超多规矩要遵守的，像是还有门禁，超过一定时间就不能有访客。如果你当初选长期住
宿，那就会住得比较远，会多花不少时间在通勤。
TSMC doesn't seem to enshrine a sense of individual freedom. The company
provides housing for those of us training from the states, but has very much
micromanaged everything we do in our living arrangement. There's a curfew
with no guests allowed for example. And the long term housing adds another
hand hour commute.
对管理层的建议
台积用的软件实在是太老旧了。当然我相信台积不会是唯一一间这样的公司，因为制造业
并不像是软件业那样有着强烈的动机去改善软件，让所有程式都变得很好用。人们会喜欢
那些简单且有美感的软件并不是没道理的。虽然大公司不见得会想要把软件做好，但至少
可以做出一些有最基本功能且至少有那么一点点美感的使用者接口，让使用者可以有效的
使用这些软件以节省大家的上班时间、提升工作效率。甚至台积可以借此拥有自己内部的
软件开发团队，如果有的话那真的可以省下非常多员工的加班费。台积里面的软件有超多
都是不必要的，一堆功能都相互重叠到。台积电应该要把那些用在不同任务上的软件都缩
减一下，设法过滤筛选出那些可以重复使用的软件功能，然后整合成一个简单的大家都能
使用的单一软件。
The software used by TSMC is dated. Of course TSMC may not be alone in this
as industry doesn't have the same motivation in software decisions as the
consumer driven market has, which results in amazingly optimized
applications. The apps people know and love meet a minimalist and aesthetic
criteria for a reason. Big companies don't have the motivation but minimalist
software with an aesthetic UI makes people more efficient at what they're
doing and can save the company time. TSMC could even justify having its own
internal software development team, and it would save massive amounts of
money in people's time. A lot of software at TSMC also seems to be
repetitive. TSMC should reduce the amount of software it has for different
tasks, find functions that are repeated across applications and reduce to a
common application.
我加入台积的理由就跟我想当一名工程师的理由是完全一样的。我想要做一些我有热情且
能长期改善人们生活品质的事情。半导体是非常神奇的东西，从过去到现在，半导体都一
直在改善我们人类的生活。但很不幸的是，台积电对世界的影响似乎跟它真正带给员工的
并不一样。台积电这样的公司的支出其实只有非常非常小一部分是真的用在员工身上的，
大部分的钱都是用在维修设备装机以及那些实验晶圆等等。台积一定是可以增加找到更多
的员工来帮大家分担工作，以让每个员工可以回家，并且有符合常理的时间陪伴家人，同
时也保有不错的福利。我认为台积电至少得在 Arizona 厂做到这点，不然台积电在招募
人才方面怎么可能赢得了就在附近的 Intel 呢？
I joined TSMC for the same reason I became an engineer. I want to do
something I'm passionate about and improve peoples lives in a lasting way.
Semiconductors are a magic bullet that have changed and are changing our
quality of life and the way we live. Unfortunately it seems TSMC doesn't
enable the same outcome for many of its employees as the technology enables
for the planet. The percentage of the budget going to pay employees at a
company like TSMC is small compared to the cost of a fab, the equipment it
houses, defective product and other issues. There's no reason TSMC can't
increase the number of employees it has to allow people to go home to their
families at a reasonable time each day and give them good benefits. I think
TSMC might at least approach this in Arizona as it has to compete to retain
and attract talent against companies like Intel right across the street.
每天真的花太多时间在开会。早会就是 review 昨晚或是昨天的工作，下午就是开会
review 整天的工作。一天下来很容易就花超过三小时再开会。我觉得只要软件功能好一
点就真的不用开这么多的会了。我非常相信有一堆会议都可以"被自动化"。上一位碰这位
机台的工程师直接记录机台状况跟调整过的东西，然后留下自己的建议。主管可以允许或
是略过这些建议，接着下一班的工程师就只要看他们负责的机台，然后做他被赋予的工作
，解决可能存在的假设问题。唯一真的需要花三小时监督这件事情的人就只有需要核准操
作或是请工程师来做事的主管本人，有需要的话则是自己介入动手来做。其余的员工就可
以花 5-10 分钟报告跟他们真的有关系的事情。台积可以用软件把这一切自动化。这也可
以解决高工时的问题。坦白说在台积电上班的台湾人真的没有比每天只上八小时班的美国
人还要有效率，大多人都把时间浪费在那些毫无实质意义的工作上面。
Too much time is spent in meetings to review the work from the last night/day
in the morning, and to review what was done during the day again in the
afternoon. These meetings add up to three hours in a day easily. That's a lot
of the work day. Some of the solution may be in software. I truly believe
most of these meetings could be automated. The engineer who last worked with
the equipment would record tool status and changes, and makes
recommendations. The manager gives approval to any recommendation or
overrides, and the engineer coming into the next shift only looks at the
tools they've been assigned to on this "hypothetical" application. The only
person it makes sense to have three hours looking at this stuff is the
manager who would have to make approval, hold engineers accountable or
interject if need be. The rest of the staff should be able to cover the
material that actually relates to them on their own in five to ten minutes.
TSMC could automate this through software. This could also solve some of the
issue with the long work days. People in TSMC Taiwan honestly are not being
more productive than Americans on an eight hour work day. But tasks which
don't contribute to what actually needs to be done in an efficient way suck
up the employees time.
台积电用来培训员工的 "e-learning" 系统超烂的，根本就该直接把它砍了。我认真觉得
台积电应该要做对整体员工作匿名调查，而且要特别对来这受训的美国人做匿名调查看看
大家对这 "e-learning" 系统的使用心得是如何。因为这系统还有一堆中翻英的问题，这
让整个受训变得更烂了。如果这调查真的是匿名的，那么大家很可能会坦白说他们从来没
有在 "e-learning" 学到任何东西，他们只是在上面浪费了一堆可以用来学制程的宝贵时
间。
The "e-learning" system TSMC uses to teach new employees is terrible and
needs to be abandoned. I would seriously recommend TSMC to provide an
anonymous survey to the entire company, but also specifically to the American
hires as there are additional translation issues from Chinese which make the
learning even worse. Chances are high that if the survey is actually
anonymous people will confess they haven't learned anything from the
e-learning, and it just wasted time they needed to learn their process.
懒人包: 台积电太肝了 整天都在开会 内部电脑及软件落后