What options are out there for those who need a bit of help career wise?
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In Taiwan? Not much really. The local market is generally quite hopeless. Most kids stumbling out of high school or university take whatever is offered and do the least. Those with drive tend to leave for the US or China. I also know a few that have moved to Germany.
There might be a push to expand high end semiconductors as well as CPU and RAM developers but that’s also looking shaky. With a lot of countries now wanting their own manufacturing options to avoid shipping and logistics delays.
There is also a lot of push back from companies in China regarding the hiring of staff in Taiwan. Even highly skilled staff. With managers often demanding the sacking of those staff even if it costs the company in both the short and long term.
What are you looking to change into? If it’s sales find whatever product is wanted back home. There’s a bit of a market opening up for scooter supplies and parts of both ICE and electric. Most high end software/hardware (although hardware is becoming obsolete with advances in computers) companies generally have their own staff that speak English fairly well. But it’s not impossible.
If you have an idea to make something better that would sell back home start establishing the network. No point making however many units of something if you don’t have outlets that will offload them.
Old information. US yes not China or Europe anymore though.
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Not China maybe. Still Europe. Especially in regards to EV development and battery technology. Problem is a lot of that IP is still being gifted back to China through manufacturing requirements.
Thanks guys for your feedback, much appreciated.
I wonder if there’s someone I could talk to for checking resume, career path, options, etc… .
There are people that offer this type of service professionally. Look for “Career Coach” online. I am sure you can find some.
Edit: or did you need something specific to Taiwan?
More like this. Although I’m considering other options, just not quite yet.
So, you’re looking for tech job options in Taiwan? Must be someone here that can point you in the right direction…
Then maybe ask for advice here? I am in Tech (well, IT). I will give advice for free.
Edit: send me your resume in private if you want a quick review.
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Same here. I’m in semiconductors.
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So… my situation is getting ridiculous. Last year at least I was getting some interviews, but I haven’t gotten any response to my applications in months. I even have contacted several headhunters but they vanish with little or no feedback afterwards. Mystery! I contacted a few HR’s after applying to their companies, and same, little or no feedback. Last time I did it, I said I noticed they kept listing the same job, that I had applied to it and that I was a good fit. She then replied with the list of requirements for that job and said that “because of the above requirements we cannot hire you”. I was like WTF are you talking about? my resume shows that I had all the knowledge/experience required (well, except for Chinese, but she didn’t point that out).
Someone suggested I might be in some sort of black list in PTT, but while it’s not entirely impossible that such lists exist, it doesn’t sound very practical. I mean, some people have confirmed me that there are chat groups of HR where they check the candidates’ backgrounds, but that this is only (mostly?) for finance and probably top level positions. With the volume of hires in the tech industry, that chat would be constantly flooded with people asking about candidates.
Anyway, I really need some insights from an HR or a headhunter in Taiwan because there’s obviously a problem here. Or even better, I just need a job, like, yesterday.
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Does anybody know one I could talk to? Much appreciated.
25+ years ago, I talked with a gal by phone at Wang & Li Asia Resources. They were like a 2-person outfit. Now quit big. Website says “for China”, but back then they were also Taiwan.
in what field are you looking ? what kind of positions ?
a few years back, i had a rough time of almost a year of job hunting, managed to go through interviews, but no job offer.
I spoke to a friend and his advice was “maybe you are applying for the wrong jobs”.
is there a good fit between your skills/education /experience and what you want to do ?
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I’m questioning that too. I think that there’s a reasonably good match between my profile and the jobs I apply to, but maybe I’m optimistic considering my lack of Chinese and other factors, like that there aren’t as many offers for these roles as for more technical ones. Problem is… I haven’t done much technical stuff in many years, and that would make me even less competitive when applying to those roles?
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First the environment. How many companies hire foreigners here routinely for white collar roles? !Not too many. Although that could work to your advantage too I guess
Not speaking Chinese doesn’t help for sure then. Your skills in other languages may bring you more success elsewhere …For instance London, Berlin, Dublin, your home country etc.
You aren’t very old so I don’t think its ageism either.
It can take a long time to find a decent job these days. I went through a bad patch before, over a 1 year period all the interviews kept falling through at last round or jobs getting withdrawn. I think it was very competitive and they could find cheaper or better candidates at times, some simply didn’t know what.they.wanted.
To put me back in a positive frame of mind I went to work part time in unrelated industries which helped a lot to keep my confidence up…I worked with sales people to sell.books and I was their top choice to work with. Felt good to be in demand and get some income.
Again, I dont think Taiwan is ideal for certain skill sets. You must consider looking overseas. I keep working in my current role because there really isn’t another person in Taiwan doing this in my industry, almost all these roles would be in Singapore ,.80% of candidates hired will be Singaporean. The rest may go to native Japanese, Koreans and Chinese preferentially in their countries . It’s not easy to access plum roles but keep trying, Taiwan may have the benefit of less international white collars but many exporters (just not in pure services).
You may consider if you want to continue working and living here to learn Chinese more intensively.
The only reason I could get this job was because I covered.the China market also and one of my.interviews was in Chinese. It happened that speaking Chinese was not at all critical for the role, but they wanted to know I could speak when neccessary. Just good enough. Advice about Master’s below is good too. Upskilling.
I forgot to mention you should also look at ITRI and Taowanese trade promotion associations, they do hire foreigners with technical backgrounds who also have some business sense.
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Yes, this could make you less appealing to some companies.
My Asian friend was rejected from many jobs for the following reasons.
- Haven’t worked at an Asian company for a while so may not be able to keep up with the expectation at an Asian company.
- No Masters/EMBA.
- Not specifically said, but strongly hinted at age.
Obviously he didn’t have the language barrier problem, but that is also a reason they would consider.
Also right now the tech industries is not doing too good. So a lot of companies are not only having hiring freezes, but laying off people.
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So, I happen to know a professional career counselor. She may be able to help you to better direct your career if that’s something you are looking for. Or at least she can try to direct you to the right people to contact.
Is that something the interests you?
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Yes, thanks, that’s exactly what I was asking for in this thread.
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