Reflections on Job Requirements for My Second Frontend Engineer Position

Introduction

After leaving my previous company, I took a break for over a month and then spent another month searching for my second frontend engineer position. During this career transition phase, I had more time and stimuli to reflect on my job requirements, so I'm recording and sharing these thoughts, allowing my future self to look back and reflect.

mountain climbing Solo hiking across Yangmingshan Mountain. Even with a planned route, you never know what scenery or unexpected situations you'll encounter along the way

This article is divided into four sections:

Job requirements I originally thought were essential
The most important factors in this job search
Things I'm particularly grateful for
Postscript: Changing jobs again after one week (added in December 2021)

Since job requirements are quite personal—what I want might not be what you want, and vice versa—I suggest treating this as a reference or story. I can't guarantee any takeaways, but perhaps it will provide some perspective on job requirements.

Job Requirements I Originally Thought Were Essential

This section documents the job requirements I had initially considered but later removed during the roughly two-month period of unemployment and job searching. After reflection, I realized these weren't necessarily suitable for my current career stage.

During this reflection process, I asked myself two questions:

Why am I setting this job requirement?
Is this job requirement achievable?

If I found that the reason behind setting a goal wasn't reasonable, or if the goal was difficult to achieve this time, I would likely remove it. Of course, there were other considerations, but the core process was deeply reflecting on these two points.

Finding a Strong Role Model

【Initial Thoughts】

I've always wanted to find someone in the workplace who is excellent in all aspects—someone who makes me think, "This is who I want to become in the future!!!" I considered this a job requirement.

【Evolving Thoughts】

Why did I set this requirement? Because I believed having a role model would help me grow quickly. But then I reversed the question: Can't I grow quickly without a role model?

Based on my past experiences, I've actually grown quickly in situations without role models.

Reflecting further, I realized that for me, the key elements for rapid growth are:

Being a project owner
Continuously producing valuable output
Having discussions with multiple people who provide diverse perspectives

For example, in the final stage of Appworks School, I had to create a complete portfolio project. In just over a month, I learned React, Firebase, and other technologies from scratch (with existing HTML/CSS/JavaScript frontend skills) to implement a live SPA website. I handled everything from requirements conceptualization to wireframing, frontend development, and database setup. I was the product owner, and while the pressure was significant due to the need to absorb knowledge and produce code rapidly, the growth was substantial. Despite having many areas for improvement, the final result gave me a great sense of achievement. Being able to focus entirely on creating a product I had conceived was an amazing feeling.

Other similar experiences include being the lead organizer for a graduation event in university, being a project manager before transitioning to frontend engineering, being responsible for a small product in my first frontend job, and conducting training for a medium-sized product at my first frontend job.

Based on these experiences, I rejected the idea that I needed a role model to grow quickly.

Moreover, it's very difficult to determine during the interview process whether there will be someone who meets your criteria for a role model. Even if you have friends at the company, their idea of a role model might not match yours—everyone wants different qualities in a role model.

【Conclusion】

I now believe a better approach is to learn something valuable from each person I work with, which also contributes to growth, rather than seeking just one person who embodies everything I aspire to.

Of course, finding an amazing role model would be fantastic and would likely accelerate my growth, but it's more of a bonus than a necessity—something to hope for but not demand.

Relating back to my desire for "rapid growth," my job requirements should focus on opportunities that better align with: chances to be an owner, delivering valuable output consistently, and having people to discuss technical, product, and company perspectives with.

Wanting Complete Freedom in Working Hours

【Initial Thoughts】

I consider myself a fairly spontaneous and free-spirited person in my personal life, so I wondered if I would want complete freedom in my working hours—like being able to come and leave the office whenever I wanted.

【Evolving Thoughts】

Reflecting on my remote work experience at my previous job, completely flexible working hours actually made my schedule rather chaotic (perhaps I need more practice).

After thinking about it, I realized that for me, work and life can be quite separate. At work, rather than complete freedom, I seem to prefer efficiency. When it's time to work, I give it my all; when it's time to clock out, I enjoy relaxing with friends.

Having a regular work routine, with the occasional flexibility to work remotely or take time off to recharge when needed, seems to be the most effective and suitable approach for me.

【Conclusion】

Of course, extremely flexible working hours—such as just needing to complete 8 hours at the office whenever you choose—would be nice, essentially giving you absolute freedom of choice. But this is a bonus feature, not an essential job requirement.

Relating back to my desire for "the right to take occasional breaks to recharge," my job requirements could focus on finding companies that offer more vacation days than the Labor Standards Act requires, or that have some flexibility in arrival and departure times.

Wanting a Company with a Vision Aligned with Self-Fulfillment

【Initial Thoughts】

Since we work 8 hours a day, it would be meaningful to find a company whose vision aligns with self-fulfillment (for example, if you value environmental protection, working at a company dedicated to the environment; or if you believe education is most valuable, working at a company transforming the education industry).

NPOs might actually offer better opportunities for this since they focus more on idealistic goals rather than commercial ones. However, I'm not considering that path yet, mainly because I want to experience how business models operate in the capital market first. I'm also still in a phase of seeking rapid salary growth, partly because I borrowed over NT$100,000 to transition into frontend development. I want to avoid situations where I lack basic financial resources when pursuing something I'm passionate about, so I'm planning to save a certain amount first.

【Evolving Thoughts】

After browsing job openings, I couldn't find a company whose vision aligned with my self-fulfillment—a place where I'd be extremely motivated to fully commit to their ideals.

I think there are two reasons for this:

It's difficult to verify whether a company is truly moving toward its stated vision, and whether the practical implementation of that vision (not just talk, but actual actions) truly aligns with self-fulfillment. Even if a company's vision doesn't align with self-fulfillment, it's still possible to gain a sense of achievement/contribution at work. The key seems to be finding opportunities that create this sense of achievement, making work feel meaningful. Additionally, tying self-fulfillment to a company might have pros and cons. If there's a significant gap between expectations and reality, it can easily lead to wanting to resign—and such gaps are quite common, as most companies prioritize business goals, with vision statements often serving as supplementary or mere rhetoric.

Furthermore, if my self-fulfillment aligns with the company's vision, and the company is genuinely working toward that vision, but I don't own any projects, lack serious technical discussions with colleagues, or face no challenges that provide a sense of achievement—would that be okay for me? Probably not.

【Conclusion】

Self-fulfillment can actually happen outside of work hours, such as joining certain projects or groups, or even initiating and doing something yourself.

To be honest, I haven't completely abandoned the idea of having work that aligns with self-fulfillment—it's just that it seems unattainable at my current career stage, so it's not an essential job requirement this time. If the opportunity arises in the future, I'd definitely want to try it.

Wanting to Work at a Prestigious and Powerful Company

【Initial Thoughts】

Companies that are widely recognized as strong and prestigious usually have excellent technical expertise, and having them on your resume makes future job hunting easier.

【Evolving Thoughts】

These companies are typically medium to large in size. Currently, I'm more interested in finding a flat, small company. I've already worked at a company with 400-500 employees and want to try a different approach, to see if a small or startup environment might be more suitable for me as a software engineer.

On the flip side, if I don't join a company that's widely recognized as strong, will it significantly impact my technical skills and resume in the future?

Based on my previous work experience, technical skill improvement depends more on personal deep research and discussions with team members, rather than simply completing company features. And given my current situation—only about 1 year and 4 months of frontend experience—it shouldn't be difficult to find new things to learn and implement in any company.

As for whether a resume can help secure a better job in the future, my recent job-hunting experience suggests that a resume is just a ticket to get interviews. A good resume focuses on the problems you've solved, and as long as you continue to tackle increasingly difficult or novel problems, you can build an impressive resume. Additionally, referrals from friends or community members can also help secure interviews.

More importantly, the subsequent interviews matter most. Software engineering skills are relatively easier to validate during interviews compared to many other professions. Live coding, building features by calling APIs as requested by the interviewer, discussing how to improve your code, and delving into the details of your technical experience—if the interviewer designs the process well, it's hard to fake your way through. This reveals whether you have real skills or not.

So I don't believe that not having a prestigious company on my resume would directly prevent me from finding a job or lead to significantly worse opportunities in the future.

【Conclusion】

I haven't even addressed whether I could successfully apply to prestigious companies—meaning I might want to join but don't yet have the skills to get in.

But when thinking about why I set this goal, I realized it doesn't need to be an essential job requirement this time. Of course, well-known large companies offer many other benefits, but they're not part of my current job search considerations. Perhaps I'll have different considerations in the future and will take on that challenge then.

Summary

There were other requirements I initially considered but later removed. However, the points above are ones I particularly wanted to document and share, to see if my thoughts will be different after some time.

The Most Important Factors in This Job Search

This section documents what I consider to be the most crucial aspects of my current job search. I won't list all my job requirements, but will focus on the key idea: "Balancing work achievement, personal growth, and a healthy lifestyle."

Work Achievement

Work should include projects that present challenges and can be added to my resume, ideally with both qualitative and quantitative metrics.

Ideally, there should be numerous opportunities to own projects. These could be major projects like being the frontend owner of a product or the company's UI library, or smaller projects like being in charge of new employee training or an Epic Task. Owning projects typically leads to faster growth and makes it easier to build a strong resume.

However, it's quite important that the projects I own have value that I acknowledge, whether it's necessary technical optimization or new features with business value, rather than just doing something to enhance my resume.

Work achievement is very important—I can't be in a situation with nothing to do or no challenges. Otherwise, I'd likely want to change companies or teams quickly to pursue more interesting projects.

Personal Learning

Personal learning involves both work hours and after-work time.

During work hours, I believe that as long as I own projects and continuously think about how to gain experiences I haven't had before, I'll keep growing—and this growth will be oriented toward solving real problems.

After work, I believe in continuous output, whether it's notes just for myself, technical articles to share externally, solo or collaborative side projects, or recording tutorial videos. Output drives input, helping to absorb and internalize knowledge, leading to growth.

Additionally, because my spoken English is terrible and my listening comprehension is average, and because I definitely want to work in an international, diverse environment in the future, improving my English skills during after-work hours is a necessary learning item.

In the long term, personal learning affects not just my current job but my entire career development.

Healthy Lifestyle

For about a year, I worked and lived with constant bloating and acid reflux, which took a toll on my mental and physical well-being. During this time, I had two gastroscopies and one colonoscopy, and took countless digestive medications. This situation finally improved significantly during my unemployment period, after consistent exercise, sleep adjustment, and mental relaxation.

Looking at health issues from a fortunate perspective, at least they occurred before I turned 30, allowing me to experience firsthand the importance of health. As a result, I've included maintaining a healthy lifestyle directly in my job requirements, to ensure I don't neglect it again.

A healthy lifestyle is highly related to long-term personal development—a career is a marathon, not a sprint.

Summary

In "Balancing work achievement, personal growth, and a healthy lifestyle," the most important word is "balance." Let me try to roughly estimate the time allocation.

Looking at a week as 168 hours, after deducting time for commuting, eating, medical appointments, etc., there are about 140 hours left, which I would roughly allocate as follows:

Work achievement: Ideally about 40-50 hours. I can accept occasional overtime, such as before product launches, for online hotfixes, or for event monitoring—these are reasonable and acceptable.
Personal learning: Ideally about 15-20 hours, focusing purely on after-work learning, including reading articles, writing articles, side projects, and learning English.
Healthy lifestyle: Ideally at least 70 hours, including at least 50 hours of sleep per week, at least 5 hours of fitness and other exercise, and about 12 hours for social life and relationships.

Honestly, these are rough estimates and won't be precise, but the general direction is: "The goal is to spend 50 hours or less at the company each week, with the option to work more through overtime, but not working overtime should be the norm."

Of course, this reflects my current job search situation, and it may well change in the future. As I age and need less sleep, I might increase time for other activities. Or I might find more suitable ways to maintain health while dedicating more time to work and learning. Or perhaps I won't be able to learn for as long as planned and will need to adjust later. I'll adapt as I go.

I'd like to add an idea I really appreciate:

You don't necessarily have to completely sacrifice something to achieve a specific goal; it's usually just a matter of adjusting time allocation

I don't agree that if you want work achievement, you must sacrifice a healthy lifestyle—that's too absolute. The key is how to adjust the time allocation between the two to achieve a reasonable balance.

In reality, few choices are binary opposites. Usually, the important thing isn't choosing between two opposing options, but finding the balance point between them, creating a third or more options. You don't need to see things as black or white; they can be shades of gray, leaning toward black or white.

Therefore, my job requirements for this search are all extensions of the core idea of "balancing work achievement, personal growth, and a healthy lifestyle," including but not limited to plans for company culture, personal growth, team members, product status, base annual salary, and more.

A special mention for setting a "base annual salary"—why is discussing salary important? Because learning English, hiring a fitness trainer, health checkups, quality of life, etc., all cost money. Plus, it affects the base for your next salary, so it's quite important.

I can't guarantee that listing job requirements will lead to finding the right job, but at least it increases the probability. Even if I end up in a job with a big expectation gap, I can reflect on whether my previous job requirements need adjustment. In any case, thinking seriously about this will yield some benefits.

Things I'm Particularly Grateful For

While writing this article, I naturally thought of things I'm grateful for, so I'll include them here.

Grateful for Articles That Prompted Reflection

【Discussing Career Choices from Personal Experience】

The cost of choosing the wrong job isn't as high as you might think: The time cost of being stuck in one place for too long is actually higher. If you really make the wrong choice, you can quickly resign within a week or two and look again, or even go back to previously rejected offers and ask if there's still a chance (try to be sincere and clear about why your previous decision was wrong).
There are learning opportunities in any choice: Good experiences come from correct choices, and correct choices come from the experience of incorrect choices. Regardless of whether the outcome of a choice is good or bad, as long as you reflect seriously, there's an opportunity to learn. Furthermore, in small teams, there's an opportunity to optimize and change the team or technical environment, and this experience of change, whether successful or not, can help you grow (of course, you need to consider the cost of change—if it's too high or if the change fails, leaving might be a better option).

【You Can Lack Passion, But You Shouldn't Limit Yourself】

Having a high passion for technology can indeed naturally help someone become increasingly stronger in technology.
However, whether you have passion or not is a spectrum, and as long as you're not completely lacking the motivation to learn, you can continue to grow technically. It might be slower, but it's feasible as a profession.
In learning without limitations, what's important is learning how to learn. If one day you completely lose passion for software engineering, you can choose a different path—the mindset of learning is something you can take with you.

【Career Guide for People Without Dreams】

I quite agree that focusing on the effort itself rather than thinking about career choices is easier, and humans often choose the easier path. So we need to remind ourselves not to just keep our heads down working, but to continually reflect.
It's okay if you don't have an ideal or aren't pursuing one at this stage. What matters is that you're walking a planned path that continuously increases your career options (skill improvement, sufficient money, learning ability, etc.). Perhaps one day you'll meet an ideal along the way and have the ability to choose to pursue it.

There may be other reflective articles that I've forgotten; I'll add them if I remember.

Grateful for Interview Fun, Salary Comparison, GoodJob, and Other Workplace Information Platforms

I think workplace transparency is a great thing, whether it's about interviews or salaries. Sometimes just by looking at interview questions, you know you don't need to interview at that company.

I strongly encourage everyone to visit these platforms and leave information about interviews or salaries, allowing workers to have more information to enhance their workplace value.

Grateful to Friends Who Helped with Mock Interviews, Discussed Careers, and Recommended Jobs

It's really fortunate to have made a few friends at different stages of life and work, even through online communities, with whom I can have deep conversations and maintain contact. We continue to give each other feedback! Thank you all!

Postscript: Changing Jobs Again After One Week

Some time after writing this article, at the end of November, I onboarded at a startup company. After a week of work and reflection, plus conversations with the CEO, PM, and Frontend team members, I decided to resign immediately. The main reason was the significant expectation gap between reality—"no product to work on at this stage"—and what was mentioned during the interview: "after joining, you'll participate in building a product from zero to one, and it will be busy."

I'm adding this record because in the "Grateful for Articles That Prompted Reflection" section of this article, I mentioned: "The cost of choosing the wrong job isn't as high as you might think: The time cost of being stuck in one place for too long is actually higher. If you really make the wrong choice, you can quickly resign within a week or two and look again, or even go back to previously rejected offers and ask if there's still a chance." I was essentially practicing what I preached.

I must say that during the decision-making process, my mind was filled with many reflective dialogues and self-doubt, and I also had to face others' perceptions. It wasn't as easy as I imagined.

However, looking back at my core job search goals, the company simply didn't meet the expectations I had during the interview, so after discussions with various parties and directly explaining my reasons, I chose to resign.

The entire process of verification, decision-making, and action took about a week. It wasn't a decision that satisfied everyone, but I believe I did what was necessary, such as answering everyone's questions or challenges about my departure and providing feedback to the team and company (though in retrospect, perhaps I could have been gentler, or maybe didn't need to say anything at all? I'm not entirely sure about this). The longer I stayed, the higher the time and financial costs for both myself and the company, so leaving immediately was what I considered the best choice at the time.

After leaving, I quickly took the next step. On the day of my resignation, I wrote a letter to a company that had previously extended an offer to me and which I believed met my job requirements. Essentially, the letter included:

A sincere explanation of why I left the previous company after one week.
A detailed explanation of my job goals and decision-making process.
A proposal: If they were still interested in me, I hoped to talk again with potential future colleagues to confirm more details; at the same time, they could conduct another behavioral interview and reference check on me, thereby avoiding potential expectation gaps between us.

The next day, after discussions with potential future colleagues, confirmation from HR, and correspondence, it was confirmed that they would extend another offer to me, and I would join their company.

Overall, I wanted to echo what I had written earlier: "If you choose the wrong job, you can indeed decide whether to resign quickly after discussions with various parties." Rather than not making a choice and hesitating in place for too long, it's better to think carefully, verify, then choose what you consider the best option at the time, and continue to reflect and adjust. If it doesn't fit, think and verify again, then make a decision. This is more efficient.

Over time, perhaps career choices can become more efficient and meet self-expectations, because good experiences come from correct choices, and correct choices come from reflection on incorrect choices.

This is my current thought, hence this postscript.

Finally, I want to share some negative emotions to avoid giving the impression that I was always positive throughout the process. In reality, my state was low during this time. Despite believing I had reflected a lot, I still felt frustration and uncertainty after making my choice. This also meant I didn't choose to interview at more challenging companies, perhaps taking the easier path, which isn't commendable.

But this is all practice—practicing how to do a good job, live well, and continue to improve myself even when uncertain about career decisions, paving the way for the future.

If I have new reflections, I'll record them in a new article.