Civil Engineering jobs in Taiwan?

Taiwan Moving to Taiwan
1

Hello everyone.

I’m currently in school for my bacholers (USA) in Civil Engineering in aware that Taiwan is a part of the Washington accord so I shouldn’t have any major issues getting my degree recognized. I dream of living in Taiwan. The plan is graduate in 2 years, work for 2 years at a civil engineering company, and then go to Taiwan for my masters. I’ve been learning Chinese for a year and have 4 more to become competent in it.

  1. Is it possible to find a civil engineering job as a foriegner assuming by the time that my Chinese would be good enough?
  2. Is working in Taiwan for a Taiwanese company really that bad? And if so what specifically is bad about it compared to the US.
  3. Is the quality of life in the country getting better. As I’ve probably been online too much lately all I see about Taiwan is its many issues and I’m wondering how true most of these are or if they’re overblown.

Thanks!

2
  1. Yes
  2. No
  3. No, mostly true
3

Yeah, you could. Not sure about CivEng, but in my experience, engineering jobs have a lower standard for Chinese language skill than other jobs do.

Best is to find a European or US company to work for in Taiwan. Taiwanese companies do suck, but the amount of suck differs.

But in general: Unpaid overtime, overbearing/micromanaging managers, little PTO/sick days. Not sure how it’d compare to working in the US.

The real estate market is fucked, so don’t hold any hope that you’d be able to buy a house unless you’re loaded. Quality of life is still good, but there definitely are issues.

4

same as high paying jobs ($300k+) in the US

5

Sure, but salaries in Taiwan are generally low. So while this is holds true for most high-paying jobs in TW (For example TSMC), it also applies to most low-paying jobs.

There are exceptions, but this is sadly the truth for the vast majority of jobs here.

1 Like
6

original poster asked to compare with US, which I did

US blue collar jobs have better work conditions than taiwanese blue collar jobs

but top US any-collar jobs have same work conditions as top taiwanese any-collar jobs

whether someone prefers a top US job vs a top taiwanese job; that’s a different question

7

Civil engineerings jobs for non-locals are more rare than they used to me. Previously (15-25 yrs ago) there were lots because of the high speed rail, metro builds. However there is now a lot of local expertise meaning less work for non-locals.

Working in a Taiwan company is not too bad provided you understand you are not working for a western company with a decent package.

Quality of life in Taiwan is good

8

Taiwan definitely needs to import civil engineers, though I wonder how much they would listen to such people

Anyways, lots of good examples of Taiwanese civil engineering over here

They build solid bridges though