The First Interview Is the First Brand Experience

When I first arrived in Taiwan in the early 2000s, I went through a handful of job interviews that all felt strangely similar. The processes were formal and often lengthy, but many of the most basic questions remained unanswered. What would I actually be responsible for? Who would I be working with? Where was the company heading, and how did this role fit into that direction?

Details most candidates care about, such as salary range, paid time off, working style, or even who the direct manager would be, were often treated as something to be revealed later, sometimes much later. I remember being invited back for additional interviews and asking directly about compensation, only to receive vague answers or deflections. When I declined to continue without clarity, the reaction was surprise, as if asking was somehow inappropriate.

Over time, I realized this was not about bad intent. It was about habit. Many companies simply were not used to explaining themselves.

What struck me then, and still does today, is that hiring is one of the most direct expressions of a company’s brand. Long before a candidate becomes an employee, they are already forming impressions about how the organization thinks, communicates, and makes decisions. The interview process is not neutral. It is the brand in action.

Stability as a Legacy Brand Promise

For decades, stability served as one of Taiwan’s strongest employer value propositions. Many people spent their entire careers at one company, slowly progressing over time. Loyalty mattered, and staying put was often seen as a sign of success.

I noticed this early on, even before joining Acer. When I eventually led creative teams there, many of the designers I worked with had been at the company for twenty years or more. That kind of tenure says a lot about commitment, resilience, and institutional knowledge. It also reflects a system that rewarded consistency and patience.

But expectations have shifted. Younger professionals I speak with today often value different things. Flexibility, time, remote work, meaningful projects, and clearer boundaries around personal life come up again and again. Compensation still matters, but it is no longer the only signal of a good employer.

Stability is not irrelevant, but on its own it no longer communicates direction. When a company cannot articulate where it is going or how a role contributes to that future, candidates tend to assume the answer is nowhere in particular.

Inside Large Organizations

Large companies are complex by nature. They pursue multiple initiatives at once, often led by different teams with different mandates. I saw this first-hand while working inside a global technology company.

At one point, different teams were promoting very different visions of the future. One emphasized greater personal control over data and infrastructure. Another focused on cloud-native devices designed to live entirely within a third-party ecosystem.

Both directions made sense in isolation and were driven by capable teams. The challenge was not incompetence or confusion, but alignment. When these stories reached the outside world without sufficient context, they created mixed signals about what the company stood for and where it was heading.

Internally, the teams were strong, thoughtful, and proud of their work. Externally, the narrative required more cohesion. This is where brand becomes more than messaging. It becomes a decision-making filter. When internal clarity and external communication drift apart, trust erodes, not only with customers but with potential hires as well.

From the Founder’s Side of the Table

As a founder, I now see similar patterns in smaller companies. Many B2B businesses in Taiwan have healthy cultures and capable leadership teams, yet their hiring materials tell a very different story.

Career pages often read like procurement documents. Long lists of requirements, exhaustive tool stacks, and minimal explanation of why the role exists or what success actually looks like. The intention is usually practical, covering all bases and securing internal approvals, but the outcome is transactional rather than inviting.

I have heard founders say things like, “Once they join, they will understand,” or “We do not need to explain everything upfront.” The assumption is that culture speaks for itself. In reality, silence communicates just as loudly as clarity. If candidates cannot see themselves in the story, they simply move on.

Strong companies do not repel talent deliberately. They often remain invisible to it.

Culture Is a Brand System

Hiring is not separate from brand building. It is one of its most revealing touchpoints. Candidates evaluate companies the same way customers do, through tone, consistency, and experience. How interviews are run, how feedback is given, how clearly expectations are set, and even how rejections are handled all send signals.

I have seen small improvements in clarity dramatically change hiring conversations, without altering compensation or benefits. Simply articulating what the company is building, why the role matters, and how decisions are made can shift the entire dynamic. It signals respect, maturity, and intent.

Brand is not a logo or a campaign. It is how a business behaves when no one is watching, and hiring is one of the few moments where people are watching very closely.

From Stability to Direction

Taiwan’s traditional employer strengths have not disappeared. Loyalty, craftsmanship, and long-term thinking still matter. But they no longer speak for themselves.

The companies that attract the next generation of talent will be those that communicate direction as clearly as they communicate stability. They will treat hiring not as an administrative process, but as a brand experience that deserves the same care as customer-facing work.

Hiring does not require reinvention. It requires translation. The same discipline used to explain value to global customers must now be applied to people deciding whether to join.

Because the first interview is not just a screening. It is the first impression of the brand.

(This piece reflects the author's opinion, and does not represent the opinion of CommonWealth Magazine.)

CommonWealth Magazine welcomes op-ed submissions. Please send your article proposals to [email protected]

About the Author:

Joshua Roberts is the Founder of Level Interactive™, a Taipei-based brand strategy and design consultancy. A former global creative director at Acer, he has lived in Taiwan for over 20 years, helping local enterprises bridge the gap between engineering excellence and global brand equity. He can be contacted at: [email protected].

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Uploaded by Ian Huang