Design Jobs in Taiwan

Hello guys,

I am looking to move to Taiwan and I was wondering if it would be possible to find any Graphic / Web / UX Design jobs there without having virtually any knowledge of Chinese language (I am learning but it’s a slow process).
Also I have been told that design jobs in Taiwan are very poorly paid compared to other countries, can anyone comment on that?

Thank you!

Don’t expect much. General consensus here is “working” is sufficient, no need to be fancy. And why pay someone to do this when I can get my multi-tasking engineer to tackle another job? UX, you might have something there. In short, perhaps try Yahoo at TPE.

Wow, that’s really disappointing to know.
So there is a lack of specialized design studios and/or advertisement agencies in Taiwan?

Oh they exist, same as everywhere… the full spectrum of student freelancers to bbdo & co.
It’s just that competition if fierce for local work and the only people I know have either set up there own shop or freelance to customers abroad.
As a random place to start, try to hit up guys @ subkarma (subkarma.com/lan_en/index.php) via email for portfolio feedback and a chat re: getting started in Taiwan.

But as someone said above, don’t expect much. Have you considered freelance market sites (e.g. studio.envato.com)?

You might keep in mind that a starting salary for a designer is around 30K with the possibility of lots of unpaid overtime. UX jobs can be classified internally as engineering or research which will up the starting salary somewhat.

In my experience, depending on the company, many design folk don’t have a great command of spoken English, so it’s going to be next to impossible to communicate about work related things without a good command of Chinese.

Design jobs in Taiwan are poorly paid and largely an under-appreciated craft. Don’t expect anything more than 30 or 35,000, pushing 40,000 a month if you’re lucky. At least that’s what some of my friends earn. Also expect lots of overtime.

I would not bother coming to Taiwan for that sort of money, unless you’ve got a stack of savings and just want a good time/experience for a year or two.

This region is known for cheap labor. Dont expect top dollar for working a job. And if i can choose between a local who does not complain working for 25000 a month who can speak chinese and english and has a local network they can draw from. Your position as a foreigner is pretty weak. Unless your design work is really top level, it’s going to be hard to compete.

The real money is to open your own design shop and keep working for your foreign customers. Some foreigners have been succesfull at that.

Thank you for your comments. I had already heard that the salaries for design work in Taiwan were pretty low, if you add the daily expected unpaid overtime to it and the lack of holidays I’m more or less convinced not to work for a Taiwanese company at all.

The real money is to open your own design shop and keep working for your foreign customers. Some foreigners have been successful at that.

This seems indeed like the only way to go.