Aerospace Industry in Taiwan

Anyone here work in aerospace in Taiwan?

Or have any info about salaries / state of the job market / overall prospects in aerospace?

EVA occasionally looks for mechanics. At least pre-covid.

Thanks. Looking more for info on the engineering / design / management side.

The United States dominates aerospace. Apart from that maybe China or some European countries do some work there too. 90% are government related meaning you have to be a citizen of that country, and go through security clearances to even be in the job. So you really should be in the US working for Lockheed/Northrop/SpaceX/Boeing/ULA/etc. and not working in Taiwan.

In Taiwan your only option is work for the government developing hypersonic missiles, and I got absolutely no idea how youā€™d even begin to get in. Then you could possibly get a job as an aircraft mechanic.

If you absolutely do not have to work for aerospace, as far as I know aerospace engineering deals with fluid dynamics, and that means look for jobs related to fluid dynamics, like boat design/manufacturing, various mechanical engineering work related to fluid dynamics. Youā€™re more likely to find jobs there than deal with government unicorn.

I majored in aerospace engineering at University of Texas and got out because I realized that outside of the United States you really just donā€™t have any jobs, and 90% of all jobs related to aerospace required US citizenship.

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Thereā€™s a lot of aero jobs that donā€™t require citizenship / clearance, all around the world - basically all the commercial stuff doesnā€™tā€¦ thereā€™s a lot of aerospace outside us defense. Boeing commercial, Airbus, space x, scaled, ssc, gulfstream, embraer, bombardierā€¦ And thatā€™s just the airframers. Rolls, ge, pratt, all have large commercial operations. NASA had a lot of unclassified work. Then thereā€™s all the systems guys, satellite guys, etcā€¦

Taiwan has aidc, but I donā€™t know what the jobs there look like, or what else is there (at min, there will be smaller companies supporting aidc).

Well, Taiwan is famous for semiconductors, so if it isnā€™t that, probably no dice in Taiwan.

There are only few countries in the world that has a vibrant aerospace industry, and Taiwan isnā€™t one of them. Even the missiles Taiwan develops is done with the help of those few countries that are.

I think what is trying to be said, but not blunt enough, is that there are lots of manufacturinng companies making components, oem style, for all industries. including aerospace. to get in with a cutting edge company designing new space shit; as with the post on the satellites which is probably what brought you to post this query, your expertise will dictate that, not so much citizenship. Be sure that without being both legally and ethnically taiwanese you wont ever climb the ranks as a local could possibly do with said talents. But if you are very good and they need you, there are jobs that will pay you well here. As with most developed countries. So your goal is to show off your talent via proof of product and see where that lands you. If the idea is you are skilled but lazy and want to get an easy gig in asia and play that gameā€¦dont complain later. Unless of course you have contacts and connections and can also play consulting guru. otherwise expect an ass whipping eventually.

Absolutely you wont find a high paying job through random internet posts, such as this. But if you pick key words right and post around (as i suspect you are doing) they will find you :wink: be sure of that. Just dont get reckless online, cause that business is ultra paranoid, so play it strategicallyā€¦

Hell, as a Taiwanese itā€™s hard to climb the rank too. In Taiwan test scores dictate EVERYthing. Why do you think parents spend so much on cram schools here? Taiwan is ultra competitive. Government jobs have like 3000 serious applicants to 1 openings, so they use frivolous testing to weed people out. I have seen they use up an entire school just for 3 openings, for the exams, the competition is that big. You gotta be the best of the best, of the best to even get there. All too often itā€™s test scores that determines what opportunities you got access to, and therefore who sees your worth, or your skills.

And those tests are difficult. Makes the SAT or even LSAT seem like a walk in the park. And if you are even one point away from full score, youā€™re out.

This is also why you see Taiwanese parents spank their children for having a 90 on their test. 90 isnā€™t going to cut it in Taiwan, only 100 will. Naturally parents want whatā€™s best for their children and they think 100% on every tests will get them that, so they drive them HARD. Sometimes the pressure is too much, and thatā€™s why we hear about 5th graders committing suicide.

Although thats true for many sectors like manufactring, for innovation jobs they tend not to use test scores in any final decision. This is the point taiwanese workers rely on, their tests, and have little.skill in thinking outside the box on how to get in. The companies i help hire skill for almost never hire based on test scores, and more on personality and apllied skillsets. This is absolutely.dependant on what tier you are apllying for. But for innovative aerospace engineering i can only assume they arent looking for indoctrinated sheep.

No, the satellite post didnā€™t bring me to post this, nor am I looking for a job - if I wanted to come to Taiwan to work aerospace, I would come tdy with an American salary +10% foreign premium, housing allowance, per diem, and private school for the kid paid. :wink:

I work in aerospace in the u.s., and the what would it take to get you to move back to Taiwan discussion in the Taiwan is the most important per capita thread got me wondering the state of the industry in Taiwan, being that Iā€™m most familiar with it in the u.s. I also know that Taiwan has had some codeveloped programs with Lockheed, and recently was heavily involved in the F16V. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas of salaries and overall state of the market.

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Thats great, a good way to look at it. Do you have a family? That might be your first point of research as per the thread you mentioned. The US has many problems, however taiwan does too. I am not involved with the aerospace game at all, so cant comment on jobs nd salaries too much. Talking with others, i would assume the US pays higher salaries. But that has to do with you and the way you portray your skills. you can make a mil a month in fiji if you know how to play the game right. But there are life circumstances to look at, and moving to taiwan will be way different. Both positive and negative. For me, i see promise here and support the country as a whole so i say net plus living here even.if i make a fraction of the money compared to my home country. Others will disagree and have logical points why taiwan sucks sometimes. All of which has been posted quite a lot on this forum so you should have lots of anecdotal info to sift through :slight_smile:

I would assume the U.S. pays a lot higherā€¦ Iā€™m pretty sure what I pay in taxes is considered a pretty good salary in Taiwanā€¦ But thatā€™s based on nothing other than my impressions really. :smiley:

I have family in Taiwan, but they donā€™t know anything about the industry or have any contactsā€¦

Honestly I would love to work in aerospace. I love flying things, but Iā€™m not really that good at crunching numbers, at least not by hand anyways (this is why we have computers). But this is something Taiwan needs to explore, especially because Taiwan has robust manufacturing industries that the US doesnā€™t really have (or at least not anymore). Plus if Taiwan wants to protect themselves from Chinese aggression aerospace is the way.

I used to belong to a rocketry club in the states.

You lack a fundamental understanding of manufacturing in aerospace if you think the u.s. lacks something there that Taiwan hasā€¦ The u.s. can produce every part in the chain for the entire aero theatre - ground, air, space, metallic, composite, ics, processors, nuts, bolts, optics, special materials, wires, fuel, etc. They can produce all the ā€˜typicalā€™ stuff, and stuff that taiwanese companies have never even handledā€¦

Or even know how to produce within tolerance or by composition. Not all manufacturing here can be TSMC.

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Yep. Look at China - theyā€™ve been trying for how long to produce a decent jet engine? Even with Russian engines in hand, working with them for decades, trying to produce copies of those engines, they canā€™t make engines as good as Russian engines from the 70s due to being behind in material sciences and building to tolerances.

Taiwan has reportedly been trying to reverse engineer the GE J85 from the 50s for some missiles.

Not saying the US canā€™t produce stuff, but rather many of their manufacturing capacity have been offshored. So US is great if you want cutting edge everything, but just making average stuff for average uses? You donā€™t need cutting edge tech for that.

Once you get an in, go at them with that kind of passion, logistic knowledge, as well a compassion, you will be making few hundred grand monthly (nt) easily. Tough part is, aas with everything, getting the in. I suggest not using useelss family, message boards and weak friendships. Steer your own ship into their HQ with loads of data and backup ideas memorized, you can make money here. But you need to prove it. Proving it here to a bunch of us monkeys that arent on the game is nothing but an ego boost, and kind of a hollow one at that as this is all anonymous internet chatter :wink:

If you are really good at XYZ in said industry, start researching companies, people, where they eat out and start playing the meeting game via meeting higher positions through social situations. That is how the majority make it, not just by veing.educated. frankly, it is assumed you are literate and certified in whatever field you are in. Take it to the next level, and be rewarded. People that get degrees and wait never climb, they stagnate. This is universallytrue, not just taiwan or the US. To be honest, it is easier in taiwan to climb because most of the competition isnt even trying, or aware, how to play the game and wont dare go outside the box to try and make ins with influential people. If you are that kind of person, it is far easier here than the US, as they are good at that and play mostly off results whereas here social structures are more influential.

But that is assuming you are actually good at what you do, companies here need what you do and/or you are a master bullshitterā€¦

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Iā€™m not saying they can, Iā€™m saying they DO in aerospace. Iā€™m not sure what making stuff for the average user has to do with aerospaceā€¦

Manufacturing in aerospace is not the same as the consumer space. We offshore in the consumer space because of the cheap labor. Thatā€™s much less of a concern when youā€™re selling $100M+ systems. Boeing commercial shop guys make $80k+ in Washington. They make more on the defense side in SoCal.

Now, there IS some offshoring in aerospace as well. The reasons for that isnā€™t capability - itā€™s generally a pain in the butt to get a foreign operation up to snuff, and oftentimes it never gets quite as good, requiring a lot of rework. And just about everything offshored is also still made in the US. But they do that for two main reasons - first, on the commercial side, if you get the country building the parts, itā€™s more likely that the govā€™t run airlines are going to buy those planes for their national carriers and ā€œencourageā€ their non national carriers to buy them. second, on the defense side, thereā€™s usually an offset requirement, so you need to send some investments back into the country.

edit: you think they make a320 aft belly fairings in Taiwan because they have some specialized manufacturing skills that the other countries making other parts couldnā€™t just fold into their lines or something? ;D and a330 trailing edge (more technically complicated than belly fairing btw) in viet nam for the same reason? Sharklet spars and wingtips in the Phillipines?

6 replies in and weā€™ve gone from aerospace to spanking. :roll_eyes: Not helpful to the OP.