Corporate career? What? How?

Discussion Open Forum
1

I’m teaching in corporate environments now. Mostly multinationals. Enjoying the teaching, as always, but thinking that in a couple of years’ time I’d like a career change; something with regular hours, paid holiday, a pension, and all that.

I think I could handle a 9 to 6 mostly office-based job. I was an administrative assistant for industrial tribunals for a year when I was 18, and quite enjoyed that. And I no longer feel that I have to try and save the world by being a social worker or some such.

Ideally I’d like to get started here then have the option to transfer to another country (The U.S.? The U.K.?) But it might be more realistic to do some further study here then look to a job change after leaving Taiwan.

I like the idea of the HR field though I believe there’s a lot of competition. Any thoughts? I also like the sound of legal-related stuff though I guess doing specific legal qualifications would limit me to working in one country only. I’m not brilliant with numbers though basic stats-type stuff is alright. I’m not very good at selling things either. What’s a good area to go into these days, anyway?

Any ideas on useful things to study while here? There are scholarships for MBAs, though I don’t know how useful an MBA done here would actually be. There are also scholarships for China/Taiwan Studies Masters, which might be helpful though in an indirect way. Or I could do distance study towards a more specific qualification that might be a more direct route into a corporate career.

This is all very vague I know. Just thinking out loud really. I’d very much appreciate any ideas and tips that anyone could offer.

2

Hi joesax,

One possible option is to become a technical writer. I understand it is possible to get a legal, ARC-sponsoring technical writing job in Taiwan, and I’ve seen numerous ads for tech writing jobs on Forumosa.com. I have been a technical writer for a science and engineering firm here in Alabama since last October, and have really been enjoying it. I work flexible hours (typically 8a-4:30pm with a half hour lunch, but it’s my choice), make a decent salary, have job security, paid vacation, benefits, etc etc. The bulk of my experience prior to getting this job was teaching, specifically working as an English tutor at a community college for over three years. Also, I wrote a training manual for an accounting job I had once. That was a major selling point during the interview. If you have been doing corporate training, I am sure you have developed plenty of original training material as well that you could present to potential employers. Of course, there are some technical writing jobs that require specific technical knowledge, but most of the time employers are looking for excellent writing skills and an eagerness to learn new things. If you can get a few years of experience in Taiwan, it should not be too difficult to find a job back in the UK. You might also consider joining the Society for Technical Communications. It’s an international club for technical communicators (mainly writers, but includes editors, academics, etc.). The Taiwan branch is not active that I know of, but you can join the active Singapore branch, or a branch back in England (or the US or Canada, wherever it is you are interested in moving to). That would be a way to put you in touch with technical writers back in your home/destination country that could help you find a job whenever you are planning on leaving Taiwan.

If you are interested in the import/export business, you might consider taking online courses at The International Import and Export Institute. They offer a Bachelor of Science in International Trade Management, as well as various certifications that would take much less time to acquire. All of their degrees and certifications are recognized by the Certification Board of Governors. I met a lady in Houston who become a Certified US Export Compliance Officer through the IIEI, which led her into a sweet job at NASA. You would probably be more interested in the international certifications, though the US one would probably help get you a job at the multinationals or the US if you want to move there. Their complete list of certifications is here.

Best of luck,

Gao

3

Thanks very much for the information and suggestions. Technical writing is not something I’d thought of before but it would make sense. I’ll look into it, and also into the international trade certification, which is also interesting.

I’d welcome any other suggestions, too, especially as to the idea of getting a scholarship here. What do people think about getting a China Studies MA, improving my Chinese, and trying to get a job in the West based on that?

Any thoughts on MBAs?

Do I have to rename this thread “Sexy Corporate Capers” to get more responses? :wink: (It worked with my boring tax question a few months back).

4

Yes.

5

Any reason why you want to go the corporate route rather than an academic one? You seem to have plenty of what it takes to do a good post-grad degree in applied linguistics. If you do an MA and then find that you don’t want to teach full-time or stay in the grinder long enough to do a PhD, then you could go into ELT editing or publishing. Oxford and Cambridge frequently have ads in the SCMP looking for editors who are both native/native-like speakers of English and famililar with the East Asian market. They usually require a masters.

6

SCMP? sexy corporate mothaf… programme?

that’s Joesax all over.

academia is an easy lark (if you’re not a scientist: don’t go there) but the pay sux in comparison to private or public companies.

7

[quote=“joesax”]I’m teaching in corporate environments now. Mostly multinationals. Enjoying the teaching, as always, but thinking that in a couple of years’ time I’d like a career change; something with regular hours, paid holiday, a pension, and all that.

I think I could handle a 9 to 6 mostly office-based job. I was an administrative assistant for industrial tribunals for a year when I was 18, and quite enjoyed that. And I no longer feel that I have to try and save the world by being a social worker or some such.

Ideally I’d like to get started here then have the option to transfer to another country (The U.S.? The U.K.?) But it might be more realistic to do some further study here then look to a job change after leaving Taiwan.

I like the idea of the HR field though I believe there’s a lot of competition. Any thoughts? I also like the sound of legal-related stuff though I guess doing specific legal qualifications would limit me to working in one country only. I’m not brilliant with numbers though basic stats-type stuff is alright. I’m not very good at selling things either. What’s a good area to go into these days, anyway?

Any ideas on useful things to study while here? There are scholarships for MBAs, though I don’t know how useful an MBA done here would actually be. There are also scholarships for China/Taiwan Studies Masters, which might be helpful though in an indirect way. Or I could do distance study towards a more specific qualification that might be a more direct route into a corporate career.

This is all very vague I know. Just thinking out loud really. I’d very much appreciate any ideas and tips that anyone could offer.[/quote]

Don’t take any of theis as gospel, just my opinion based upon my experience…

The first question I’d ask you is what do you think you want to do?To work in a multi-national you need some kind of applicable skill be it Finance, Marketing…whatever… This can either come from your educational background or OJT (On the Job Training). Then I’d ask you how far away are you from having that particular skill in education and work? How much time and investment will it take to get there? I’ve known people who’ve come out of teaching in Taiwan, taken some on-line courses so that they meet the min. requirements for an M.S., gone home, gotten their MS, come back to Taiwan to get an entry level job, gotten experience, then converted that into a very nice job back in Canada in the profession of their choice. This process took a couple of years and it was some hard yards at the beginning, but well worth it in the end.

Don’t look for admin. job as: a) they are fewer by the year b) don’t plug you into the the system of internal transfers,training, benefits…etc…which is why you’d want to join an MNC in the 1st place.

What do you expect the job to be like? Most MNC jobs are not 9-5. They are, “responsibility based” which basically means work as long as it takes to finish the job. These hours can be very long, even at the entry level (usually longer).

Transfers within MNC are there, but they are generally reserved for a) people with certain skill sets b) hi-potential employees c) it just so happens you are returning to your home country and there is a job open in the same position (I’ve seen this happen several times).

MBAs are quite common now, so be wary of why, where and how you are getting it or you won’t get your ‘investment’ back. ,

8

What that fine and knowledgeable man said.

Be very prepared for a relative dip in wages while you pick up the experience you need; that would be my only offering.

Oh, and forget the study unless you are absolutely sure it will lead somewhere. Most people do more study to buy time because they don’t really know what they want. Experience can count for much more, if it is focused and you are given immediately recognised responsibilities.

HG

9

Thanks very much for all the helpful replies, guys. Lots to think about.

Academia is tempting, Jive Turkey, but the money’s not that great at any level, and there are loads and loads of people around with MAs and English teaching experience. I’d rather train up to do something for which I’d be paid better eventually, even if not so intellectually rewarding.

[quote=“Elegua”]The first question I’d ask you is what do you think you want to do?To work in a multi-national you need some kind of applicable skill be it Finance, Marketing…whatever… This can either come from your educational background or OJT (On the Job Training). Then I’d ask you how far away are you from having that particular skill in education and work? How much time and investment will it take to get there? I’ve known people who’ve come out of teaching in Taiwan, taken some on-line courses so that they meet the min. requirements for an M.S., gone home, gotten their MS, come back to Taiwan to get an entry level job, gotten experience, then converted that into a very nice job back in Canada in the profession of their choice. This process took a couple of years and it was some hard yards at the beginning, but well worth it in the end.[/quote]Right now I have writing skills and people skills and that’s about it. I quite like the sound of HR but it seems that it may be a bit of a fuzzy career for people who don’t know what else they want to do, and there’s lots of competition.

So maybe getting some kind of specific technical/professional qualification would be a good way into a solid career. Finance/accounting or law would seem to be good options. Law’s more interesting to me than accounting though, and I know a few accountants who say their jobs are really boring.

You mentioned some people getting M.S.'s and then decent jobs. What area was that in?