For employability, what's more useful - Chinese proficiency or a technical qualification?

I used to work as a technical writer in Taiwan, but I basically stumbled onto that job by accident and, therefore, I don’t know anything about job-hunting in Taiwan. However, I’ve regretted leaving Taiwan since the day I came back to the UK and I’m determined to return, provided I can find another technical writing job or something similar.

Although I’m a career technical writer, my academic background and previous work history is in writing/editing and linguistics, and I lack a solid technical grounding. I have been accepted onto an Information Technology master’s degree, which should make me a more employable technical writer in any country. But, as my goal is to eventually find a job in Taiwan, it occurred to me that it might make more sense for me to study Chinese full time for a year instead. However, the technical writing job I had in Taiwan didn’t require any Chinese, and all such vacancies I’ve seen advertised online either don’t require Chinese or list it as a “bonus”. This leads me to think that the IT master’s might make me more employable in Taiwan after all, but I really have no idea (I haven’t actually seen many vacancies advertised online and all the vacancies I saw were in English, so they might not be reflective of the wider situation).

For the record, I would probably rate my current level of Chinese at upper-beginner. I know that becoming proficient in Chinese would be more beneficial to my life in Taiwan than getting an IT master’s but, at this point, I’m only concerned about employability.

Does anybody have any thoughts on my conundrum?

A year of FT Chinese study will probably not bring you up to the level where it would make much difference to your employability. With an IT job, though, you could learn Chinese on the side over a multi-year period, and if you couldn’t find a local job for some reason you could always work online. (Or such is my impression as a non-IT person.)

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Just curious, how old you are?
Since you did have technical writing experience, have you thought of contacting your old company again, or ex-colleagues (even if Taiwanese, who can speak English) to start firing up the guanxi again?

I would think that there is still demand for technical writers in Hsinchu Science Park or Tainan Science Park or any technology firm for that matter. Can wriggle your way into that job and then try to see if they’d train you into international marketing for their products. Many a people have started out as technical writers and then switched into the marketing side by first attending overseas tech exhibitions, like those in the U.S. and Germany.

Start perusing the job banks like 104 or have some of your old Taiwanese friends search some Chinese sites.

Get the ball rolling and just do it.

Then, when you are in Taiwan, you can get the company to maybe pay for Chinese language lessons or partially pay for them. Long term, you should get to Chinese newspaper reading ability and then you’ll be much much more marketable, whether for local firms or foreign firms.

Do both.

Technical skill is much, much, much more important. Everyone here speaks Chinese, but not everyone has in-demand technical skills.

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^What he said. I find most companies are actually more interested with my work background and technical skills instead of my Mandarin-speaking ability, which is beginner level.

Thanks for the replies, guys! It seems that the consensus is that an IT master’s is more valuable than developing some proficiency at Mandarin for employability in my field. However, studying Mandarin full-time has the benefits of a) providing me with the legal right to stay and look for work after graduating, and b) being considerably cheaper than studying a master’s in the UK (although this point isn’t related to employability).

The company I used to work for had an English “official language” politicy in the office. Is that normal for IT companies in Taiwan?

if you couldn’t find a local job for some reason you could always work online.

True, but while I know that plenty of foreign workers in Taiwan leave and re-enter the country every three months for this reason, I think it would be rather inconvenient and I don’t want the uncertainty and hassle it would bring.

Thanks for your insightful reply. I agree with everything you said and it seems like the best course of action, but it’ll require hassling old friends and colleagues for help. To answer your question, I’m 32. I no longer have the advantage of being a fresh-faced young graduate straight out of university, like when I landed my last job in Taiwan without even trying. :frowning:

Wish I could afford to do both…

Thanks again for all the replies!

Generally yes. The extent of this can vary. Slide decks and materials will always be in English, but meetings will be a mixture of Chinese and English. If it’s an MNC with other offices around the world it will be English all the way. Think about it: what language is going to be understood by the branch offices around the world?

a) do you want to look for a job for 1 year after graduating?

b) proficiency of mandarin achieved by full time study for a year would do little for your employability.

Thanks for the replies! Looks like the best course of action would be for me to be patient and study that IT master’s instead of going to Taiwan to study Chinese and hope for the best afterwards, as much as I’d like to return to Taiwan sooner rather than later.