Career-wise, the benefits of our Taiwan experience are...?

Curious to see what kind of opinions are out there regarding this issue. I have been working in Taiwan full-time as an editor for nearly 6 years now. It’s been very worthwhile, both financially and for the work experience, but I think it’s about time to head home. I am currently updating my resume, plus planning for the eventual move back to Canada. Would like to hear from people who have worked professional jobs in Taiwan, then returned to seek work in their home countries – the job-hunting experience, what employers were impressed by, how to best promote yourself, challenges upon returning, etc. If you have some experience or wisdom to share here, please post a reply. Thanks :slight_smile:

~ Mengkai

[quote=“MengKai”]Curious to see what kind of opinions are out there regarding this issue. I have been working in Taiwan full-time as an editor for nearly 6 years now. It’s been very worthwhile, both financially and for the work experience, but I think it’s about time to head home. I am currently updating my resume, plus planning for the eventual move back to Canada. Would like to hear from people who have worked professional jobs in Taiwan, then returned to seek work in their home countries – the job-hunting experience, what employers were impressed by, how to best promote yourself, challenges upon returning, etc. If you have some experience or wisdom to share here, please post a reply. Thanks :slight_smile:

~ Mengkai[/quote]
The fact that you have overseas work experience makes your resume stand out. The cross-cultural experience and the ability to speak another language is often appreciated by potential employers.

on the other hand, a friend of mine was asked what he had been doing for the past 5 years. when he said teaching language in taiwan, they said that doesn’t count!

You’ll find that job skills fall into two categories: “absolutely essential”, and “nice to have but not essential”. Unless you’re a bona fide translator or serious international business dude, potential employers will likely regard your overseas experience and language skills as falling into the latter category.

In other words, “Ni yao bu yao dian shutiao, gen ni de hanbao yiqi chi ma?”

[quote=“Chris”][quote=“MengKai”]Curious to see what kind of opinions are out there regarding this issue. I have been working in Taiwan full-time as an editor for nearly 6 years now. It’s been very worthwhile, both financially and for the work experience, but I think it’s about time to head home. I am currently updating my resume, plus planning for the eventual move back to Canada. Would like to hear from people who have worked professional jobs in Taiwan, then returned to seek work in their home countries – the job-hunting experience, what employers were impressed by, how to best promote yourself, challenges upon returning, etc. If you have some experience or wisdom to share here, please post a reply. Thanks :slight_smile:

~ Mengkai[/quote]
The fact that you have overseas work experience makes your resume stand out. The cross-cultural experience and the ability to speak another language is often appreciated by potential employers.[/quote]

In my experience this statement is false.

I have found my (non-teaching) experience in Taiwan and my language skiils as totally irrlelevant here when I returned home. Neither were valued and I was actually told this on several occassions.

The only time it was considered valued was in rounds for strategy consulting, but then again most people in strat consulting have the same experiences/language skills/background.

What industry were you an editor in?

The thing you have to remember is that while you have overseas in Taiwan your fellow graduates have a solid 6 years of relevant experience (ignore this if your university field was editing of course.)

For example - a mate of mine has been in TW teaching for 5 years. He is a qualified economist. On his return to Australia he was NOT competing against his uni cohort for work but rather the current batch of graduates… 5 yrs younger and cheaper!

As Same Vines said… nice but not essential unless you are already a business person…

Might be an isolated case, but the first time I returned from Taiwan, I had been teaching at universities in TW, and then got a public-school teaching job in the US. The school district actually accepted my TW experience as years of experience toward tenure, and I was able to enter the salary track on a higher rung because of it. I would guess that not all school districts would do this, however, and some of the reason was that I could point to having taught at a junior college, where the age group was similar to the kids I was going to be teaching (9th and 10th graders for the most part). The teaching job was for Spanish which had nothing whatsoever to do with Taiwan.

Otherwise, as a translator/interpreter, obviously all my Taiwan experience is to the good – except insofar as it was not time spent in the PRC. I have to “catch up” on current phraseology and usage from the PRC, and I still don’t feel really comfortable interpreting for folks from the Mainland because of possible accent issues. (But to be fair there are people from the south of Taiwan I can’t understand very well either… :astonished: :frowning: )

I’ve been editing Chinglish for the past too many years. Everything from computer manuals to political analysis to medical papers to news stories.
I can’t believe that would be worth a brass farthing to a potential employer back home.
Maybe a little job on some provincial paper but even that’s doubtful.

Me too. But sometimes I am boring of it.
I gave up on having a career a long time ago.

My five years of various serious occupations in Japan counted not only for zilch, on return to Australia, but counted against me. “Oh, off doing drugs in the Orient” sort of mentality came across from prospective employers. Be it Japan or Taiwan or Belize or Nigeria - it is too far out of the frame for most employers ‘back home’. You don’t fit into the box, you may even be seen as a potential risk because you may suddenly depart for parts foreign at any moment: as they might, sadly, think.

It’s a sad failure on the part of an employer who weighs conformity over independence and an adventurous spirit.

Ditto what the other naysayers think. :thumbsdown: mostly.

Your overseas experience probably won’t hurt you, but it won’t help you either. You’ll have to start from the bottom, like anyone else. Speaking Mandarin fluently helps in certain markets, but it isn’t a deal maker unless you have other specialized skills.

My advice is to save as much money as possible before you return, try and have a concrete job set in place before you go home, and keep your expenses as low as possible once you get home.

The biggest benefit to working overseas (with a few exceptions) is the money you are able to save, assuming you are in fact able to do so.

As for packaging your overseas experience, put yourself in the employer’s shoes–what about your experience will help him/her to make money? Oftentimes, not much. You’ll have to rely on pre-Taiwan experience, or as I wrote above, start from the bottom and work your way up, if you have that much time.

My own post-Taiwan career experience convinced me that the only option was to start my own business, which takes more capital than I had on hand. I found lots of jobs that paid what I made ten years ago, just out of grad school. Unfortunately, it now takes an income of at least US$100,000 to live decently in most markets (the exception being those who invested wisely in real estate before the market heated up, those who are single with no kids, or those whose parents left them with a pile of cash).

If you dont have a skill…you dont have a skill. Advice to many in Taiwan, use your savings to invest in yourself (not 99, vibe, 45, wax etc)

Regards

Go to school, work on your portfolio, network and don’t get upset when you get offered junior and not intermediate positions.

The assumption among employers in Canada (and apparently elsewhere) is that anyone can get an editing/writing job in Asia, and that such experience is unimportant.

Good luck!

my job experience in Taiwan didn’t really helped me on finding a job in US since it was in different field. Yet it’s a conversation starter during interviews…

For my field (molecular biology) it didn’t have the slightest impact. It was more like “Interesting, so what’s it like?” some small talk and that was that.

In the world of Finance - the answer is - it depends

  • what is the brad equity of your employer?
  • what were you actually doing?

There can be at times a FILTH attitiude that results in a discount of your experience back home. If you plan to stary here, you get full value.

[quote=“pjdrib”]My five years of various serious occupations in Japan counted not only for zilch, on return to Australia, but counted against me. “Oh, off doing drugs in the Orient” sort of mentality came across from prospective employers. Be it Japan or Taiwan or Belize or Nigeria - it is too far out of the frame for most employers ‘back home’. You don’t fit into the box, you may even be seen as a potential risk because you may suddenly depart for parts foreign at any moment: as they might, sadly, think.
It’s a sad failure on the part of an employer who weighs conformity over independence and an adventurous spirit.[/quote]

you said it all right there! heck, i even had this kind of trouble after living in chinatown in the states for a couple of years!! it’s like “what were you doing there? can you account for all that time?”

i think there is real drug paranoia in the states. and going to asia brands us a loser. in fact, that’s what the locals (some of them) think about us here. if we’re not losers why are we here (in their minds).closed minded to the max. and nothing you say can sway them.

One of the things that’s kept me working in Taiwan is the opportunity to do more at work – very quickly I was thrown into projects and tasks where more creative planning and decision-making was required. It’s only grown more and more since then: project management, supervising and training staff, dealings with all different departments and branches of our company.
I have kept in touch with fellow grads back in Canada, and this was not their experience at all. Because of the competition for jobs, there is a “pay your dues” mentality that keeps new employees doing grunt work for 2-3 years until they’re graciously allowed to ascend to more challenging work. No thanks. Now these friends are just starting to get the opportunities that were given to me within a few months of working here. So, I am confident that the stuff I’ve learned here will translate well back home. My portfolio tells the tale pretty well also, so I don’t believe employers will think I’ve just been goofing off all this time.

:laughing: he he… that’s what I think about / say to, the locals who have that opinion of foreigners here… “what you couldn’t get your act together enough to get yourself over to Vancouver / San Francisco… loser…” :wink:

[quote=“rantheman”]
I think there is real drug paranoia in the states. and going to Asia brands us a loser. in fact, that’s what the locals (some of them) think about us here. if we’re not losers why are we here (in their minds).closed minded to the max. and nothing you say can sway them.[/quote]

I never knew that was the perception held by the locals. Well you learn something new everyday,eh??!? Well that’s unfortunate that they hold that perception, because most rather the majority of the foriegners I have met here have been more interested in learning about their lives, culture and language.