Getting an eMarketing Job in Taiwan

Hi Jeremy, this one’s for you!

I am planning to head back to Taiwan in June and will be looking for an IT/marketing job. Your job looks great, so would you mind giving it to me?

No, seriously… I need to find a job similar to yours, so I’m after some advice on how to get jobs like it. I had the impression that if you didn’t know Chinese, you either had to work illegally or teach English.

Did you know Chinese when you applied for the job in Ulead?

I got a Bachelor degree in Multimedia/Business Marketing, speak pretty terrible Chinese and write even worse. Non-native English speaker, but took my degree at an Australian Uni. Got 2 years work experience doing mostly Internet Marketing. Should I even bother setting my foot in Taiwanese soil in the hope of getting a full-time job?

Cheers

John

Hi John,

You should give it a shot working in the IT sector. I just called tech writing “brain-dead” in another thread, but that is my personal opinion. If your background is marketing and you’d like to do that, I’d say there is at least one opportunity always available at any time, and may of them are posted in the jobs section of this Web stie.

To answer a question or two of yours. Knowing Chinese is a good thing, but not required for many companies, I’d say almost “most” companies. Tech companies have great English ability and some prefer that they can practice with you. Don’t worry too much about the Chinese ability. There is almost no one here at Ulead that I have to speak Chinese with. And in my previous two IT jobs I didn’t need it either … However, in my case I knew Chinese when I applied with Ulead, so that wasn’t really an issue anyway.

If you have a Bachelor’s degree and two years of semi-relevant work expereince after the graduation date in your own country, then you qualify with the Taiwan governement to get a work permit for certain kinds of work for certain companies that qualify.

Those companies that list on this site for positions like “marketing specialist” are generally looking for someone with not a whole lot of experience, but enough to get the job done. They want full time employees and are already qualified to apply on your behalf. Companies pay a starting salay between 45K and 60K per month on average. You need to interview in person on a two month visitor visa. Once the company applies for you through the Ministry of Economic Affairs and it goes through, you can switch your visitor visa to a resident visa with a multiple reentry permit without having to leave the country. You will get an Alien Resident Certificate. You may know about this procedure if you taught English before. The only difference in that case being that approval for the work permit comes from the Ministry of Education.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

If you visit Taiwan, you can get an interview with most companies even without a confirmed appointment given that you came from another country for this purpose. Check out these links for Taiwan’s top companies. Top companies are more likely to need (and be able to afford) foreigners.

http://www.corporateinformation.com/twcorp.html
http://www.digitimes.com/finance/showchart.asp?reg=list

Make a list of these companies, visit their web sites for corporate information, addresses, emails, and job vacancies. You can email your resume with a cover letter saying that you will visit Taiwan between xx and xx and will visit them. I doubt they will send you a “no” reply.

Well, that certainly made me more optimistic!

BUT!

quote:
Originally posted by jeremy: Hi John, If you have a Bachelor's degree and two years of semi-relevant work expereince after the graduation date in your own country, then you qualify with the Taiwan governement to get a work permit for certain kinds of work for certain companies that qualify.

Does the job experience have to be from your own country?

I got 6 months from my own country (Norway), 6 months from Singapore, 6 months from Taiwan and 1 year from Australia. (Those 6 months in Taiwan are probably best left off any official documents )

JBL,

What IS your native language, if you don’t mind my asking? Could be a selling point in marketing… some companies care about more than the English speakers of the world!

My native language is Norwegian. I can also understand Swedish and Danish since it’s almost the same language.

Not exactly languages in high demand, so I don’t expect those languages to help me much. Companies exporting to these countries might consider it, but most people from these countries are quite fluent in English. Maybe I can be some kind of cultural adaptation guide.

Hold da kaeft!

Jeg taler faktisk en smule dansk, da jeg har vaeret udvekslinksstudent i Danmark.

Jeg aner ikke hvorfor du har lyst til at flytte til Taiwan, her er so uforenet og “crowded”. Men hvis du mener at komme her i alvor, kender jeg mindst et firma der soeger en som dig (maaske).

Send mig en privat besked og vi kan snakke mere om det.

Skidegodt…

Hva’ Fanden?

Olaf, jeg troede du var tysker…?

Hvor mange dansker/svensker/normaend kan der vaere paa Taiwan? Ikke saa mange, hva’?

quote:
Originally posted by Dave Mao: Hvor mange dansker/svensker/normaend kan der vaere paa Taiwan?

No idea, but probably there are not too many. And sorry, although my name comes from Sweden I’m a German…

Olaf