Job Discussion Forums

[naturegirl321]

What options are there for my husband to work in his career, System Engineering? And how much time would it take for him to find work? He knows Systems, Networking, and Database. What kind of competition would he be up against? Would he have to leave his career behind and become a teaching in order to be able to work in China? Is teaching the only option for him?

[brsmith15]

How's his Mandarin?

[bdawg]

I don't want to sound pessimistic but in-country hiring of professionals outside of the TEFL industry is not common among foreign companies. I know this as I rub shoulders from time to time with numerous managers and engineers in my city who have all spent numerous years with their respective companies and are sent to China to lend their experience and knowledge company projects. None of them speak mandarin, and have told me that while mandarin would have been helpful, their it was never a major requirement..as their experience and knowledge of company workings, politics/and relationships was far more valuable.

The goal of oh-so-many...even used to be a goal of mine.

Working for a Chinese company could be a possibility, but in this case, decent mandarin skills would most likely be required...also one must bring some serious skills to the table in order to justify a decent salary. One would be competing against hundreds of thousands (I'm not kidding) other hopefuls for the same position, most of whom would start working for 1000RMB/month and can operate seamlessly within a Chinese company structure. If one manages to land a job with a decent salary working for a local company, this company will easily drop you if they feel the gimmick of having a foreigner begins to wane.

I've met a few people who have done it...but it's not easy.

Personally, I don't think people give enough credit to Chinese professionals...sure...there are a large chunk of morons out there, but there also is a large chunk of competent, well-educated, well-traveled, bilingual and inquisitive people who are fully capable of operating companies effectively.

[SnoopBot]

It's almost impossible.

My undergraduate degree was EE and I have some IT/CS certifications and I would still have difficulty finding a position in this field.

You need to have Good Mandarin ability to get these positions. The US embassy jobs still require Level I or II mandaring ability for their jobs and you cannot get in any of those positions unless you have US citizenship, Veterans Status, or know someone.

You husband is from Peru? Try checking any companies doing business from South America or the Peruvian Embassy.

Many of us would rather have a higher paying IT/EE/CS position with the possibility of upward mobility than a lower paid ESL position.

They are difficult to find, at least 1 million Chinese graduates are looking for jobs right now too.

But, don't let that stop you from looking for them.

[brsmith15]

I join with Snoopy. My undergrad is MechEng and I have PE licenses in a few US states. My Chinese is just about non-existent. I teach, but not any science courses. Getting any kind of a technical 9-5 type of job is out of the question..........wouldn't take one anyway. Traditional Chinese managers (Not the newer MBA-educated breed) are a marvel of poor planning, whacko ideas and jiao-pinching. In the west we talk about Management by Objective and Management by Exception. Here they have a new one: Management by Surprise!

I think the best bet is for him to look for an ESL job at one of the private schools that may not care if English isn't his 2nd language as long as he can hold forth in the classroom. The very best ESL teacher I ever saw in action was from the Ukraine....but besides English he spoke fluent Mandarin, Russian, and a few others.

[naturegirl321]

[SnoopBot]

[naturegirl321]

[Kurochan]

Several places in Shanghai are looking for IT/programming people. A friend of mine works at a place called Ideawise, and they are looking for people. It's a multilingual/cultural company, owned by German guys, with Americans, Africans, French, Chinese, Greeks, etc. working there. The pay is pretty good. You can search the company online.

[naturegirl321]

[SnoopBot]

[naturegirl321]

Thanks for the idea about real estate, we'll be starting that here in Peru. Once we get our feet wet, maybe we can try China.

About the cert courses, he's studied a few, just has to get around to taking the exams. HOpefully that'll happen this year.