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Ask Slashdot: Find a Job In China For Non-native Speaker?
An anonymous reader writes "My fiancée has recently been accepted into a Chinese university into their Ph.D. program, and I've been looking at jobs in China (specifically the Beijing area) and not having any success. I'm a developer with 8 years of experience (java), mostly on the server side, so I'm not lacking in the general experience, but the problem is I don't speak Mandarin or Cantonese. I am a native English speaker from Canada though. The only jobs I've had any responses from were teaching positions for simple English which isn't exactly my first choice. Has anyone had any experience or success as a programmer finding a job in China, without being able to speak the native language? Any websites I should be focusing on?"
That's what people who can't speak the language do in the US.
You don't want to go to Beijng. Trust me. I've been there for 3 months until I developed asthma. The air pollution is INCREDIBLY bad, you can't even remotely compare it to the worst cities in the US. That being said, there are a lot of 'western' companies where English is used for every communication. I know, because I worked at three. I strongly suggest that if you go there, look out for those western companies. They pay better and have a much nicer working atmosphere than the local companies. But seriously, If you care about your health at all, or eating manners of your peers, or respect for (animal) life in general, stay in Canada. It's such a wonderful country.
Hey, I spent some time in Nanjing last year trying to find a good job. Because I speak Mandarin fluently, I thought it wouldn't be a problem. I didn't want to teach because I still wanted to improve my Mandarin by speaking with colleagues. But the only jobs that were easy to find as a foreigner (even non native) were the English teaching jobs. And most of them are better paid than IT positions in Chinese companies! That's why Chinese people will assume that as a foreigner, you don't even want some other kind of job. That and the fact that English teaching is a big big industry there and they need every foreigner they can get. I finally only spent the time there improving my Chinese. If I ever wanted to find a job there again my new plan would be to find a multinational corporation to work in and then get myself sent to China to work there. That way, the salary is way better and you can still work in IT. Cheers, Murmel
I emailed a company in Shenzhen a couple of years ago, asking if I could do an internship as a CS major. They said yes, and when I arrived they had me working on improving their perception in the eyes of Westerners generally. I re-translated technical manuals (Chinglish to English) and re-wrote whole sections of manuals (they were awful) and did some prototype testing. They really wanted me to come back full-time after school, but I got an offer from a US firm that I couldn't refuse.
I had a great experience, but the company was "different" by Chinese standards. It was a start-up, created by younger (sub-30) engineers who were creating original, high-quality work that they were proud of. They were not owned, in any part, by the Chinese government, which gave them a significant competitive disadvantage within China, but their product was recognized as top-rate outside of China.
If you can find something like this, you might even offer your services at a discount in the short-term. After getting to know you, these newer companies will see the benefit of having a seasoned outsider. Don't plan on writing much code, though.