Info about Jobs
How to Find a Job in China
Getting a job in China is not difficult, but you have to know where to look. Be prepared to spend a while job hunting, and to wait for weeks (months) until you get a reply to your request for informa¬tion, or your application letter is acknowledged. Bureaucracy can slow down the procedure.
• Where to find a job
The Chinese government actively invites 'foreign experts' and 'foreign teachers'. Qualified and experienced technicians, experts in international trade and finance, as well as teachers (especially language and music teachers) are much in demand.
Other skills areas also offer vacancies, although in smaller numbers: You have a good chance, for example, as a teacher for western-style hairdressing or as a chef for western cuisine, but you won't be able to choose among many vacancies.
The best paid jobs can be found in the big cities and in the coastal provinces.
A teacher, on the other hand, who doesn't mind a lower salary and living standard, or a colder climate, could go to Inner Mongolia, northeast China, or any remote rural place, and find schools begging them to teach.
Taiwan, too, offers good job prospects, because of a labour shortage. The government motivates women to return to work and have careers, and subsidises daycare centres for children and the elderly to enable more women to join the workforce. Domestic and childcare work is an area wide open to foreigners.
English language teaching also provides excellent opportunities, and most teachers find a job within a week or two. Apparently, there is also demand for westerners modelling for fashion and advertising. These are well-paid temp jobs.
The newspaper Overseas Jobs Express and the magazine Jobs International sometimes carry situations vacant advertisements by employers or sening agencies, for Mainland China and Taiwan.
If you have no particular qualifications or experience, consider investing in a one-month TEFL course which prepares you for teaching English as a foreign language. The Chinese demand for English teachers is insatiable and is likely to increase over the next few years, both in mainland China and in Taiwan.
• Going with a sending agency
There are benefits, as well as drawbacks, if you decide to sign on with an agency which posts people to China instead of investigating openings yourself.
• Advantages
• Jobs with sending organisations are easier to find and more accessible, because you can apply to an address in your home country. You may even find the jobs advertised in the national press.
• You are likely to find a job faster, and may have a wider choice of jobs.
• Sending organisations have the experience which you (prob¬ably) don't have. They know the country, the institutions and the pitfalls. They vet the jobs for you, and can, in short, save you a lot of trouble.
• Because they represent many job applicants, they are in a stronger position than you as an individual to negotiate working conditions and contracts.
• They often take care of visas and other formalities.
• In many cases, they have field offices or representatives in China, who can come to your assistance in an emergency.
• Usually, they provide some training, either back in your home country or on arrival in China, which may include a free language course.
• Sometimes, they pay the airfare.
• Sometimes, they pay for medical preparations (health checks, immunisations).
• They usually provide emergency medical care (although you or your employer have to pay for non-emergency health care).
• Some of them arrange visits by representatives, which can be a relief especially if you are based in a remote place far from another western soul who understands your western way of thinking!
• Disadvantages
• Every organisation has its own philosophy (eg based on Christian belief) and rules (eg dress codes), which you have to follow whether you like them or not. If you feel uncomfortable with the rules and philosophy, it is better to go solo—or to find another organisation.
• Some sending agencies recruit only volunteers, who receive only a nominal salary (usually just enough to live on).
• Most organisations recruit only people with particular skills or qualifications (eg English teachers).
• You will find that you have two bosses—your Chinese em¬ployer as well as your field officer or China desk officer at the sending agency.
• Some organisations actually demand that you contribute to¬wards the cost of the posting (which you should only accept if it is a charity, and if you can afford it).
• You have to commit yourself for a specified period—usually one or two years, with little flexibility to negotiate shorter or longer periods, or to change jobs.