My fiance is planning to stay in Taiwan for a year or more to practice the language because she wants to be a translator, and she wants me to come with her. How hard will it be for me to find a job in the Technology field without knowing any Chinese whatsoever? I am 20, and currently majoring in Network Security and dabbling in IT Administration, but I have yet to receive any certifications. I plan on getting at least my CompTIA Security+ before I go, but I’m working on my getting a Cisco cert on the side. Any tips on finding a job for about a year to three?
TO get a work visa in Taiwan, you must perform a job function a Taiwanese worker is unable to perform. I’m pretty sure there are plenty of Taiwanese people with those qualifications. English teaching, with a bachelor’s degree AND two years of work experience, yes. And you need two years of full-time documentable work experience no matter what job you’re applying for.
Your fiancé should also network with people in the translation field today, and find out whether this is truly a career field she believes will be viable for the long term. Hint: I’ve been in it for 30 years and do not believe it will be. As sad as that makes me.
Hello ironlady, thanks for the reply.
I am the aforementioned fiance! Why would you say that you don’t believe it would be a viable long term career?
Declining rates, more and more work going to China. I’ve been a translator for a long time, and the market is worse than ever before and only getting worse. I truly cannot see anyone making a good living as a translator in 10 years, let alone for an entire career starting now. If you do, you will be doing a lot more “editing” or “fixing” of bad English than translating from Chinese.
Yes, you need work experience. Anyways, they have niches for capable Linux guys in some big IT firms, because the local equivalent for a Linux expert is a guy who photo-shopped a Novell Admin certificate and thinks the “cat” command makes an animal sound and knows how to push a mouse on a desktop.
The locals are not interested in IT-Security, I did that in Germany way back when and found no interest about it here at least when I came in 2004. Do not think that has changed much. However some hardware makers may employ some hardware encryption or stuff like that, but those are few jobs and usually the tech has been designed by a non-Taiwan company and nobody cares that much about the details.
Not speaking Chinese might get you one-project jobs with you getting gently pushed out of the company afterwards. Or after a while when colleagues have claimed your achievements for themselves behind your back.
Having in local connection in the company can be vital for long term career. Then it can be pleasant work…
I think it’s generally hard to impossible to find a job in Taiwan other than teaching English, unless you’re spouse/friend/family has a connection, or unless your company sends you here from home.
Ah yes, translation stuff. I did that a while back, German-English and edited English manuals and stuff. Customers tend to have similar manuals for their similar products and sooner or later they edit them all by themselves and even in the German version they think they can guess the wording out of the context. That leads to the beloved unreadable manual and websites. However quality standards are low, there are a lot of people in translation forums not really writing the language well but doing it nevertheless.
Oppress Power button and the strength is on!
You make it sound like every other person holds the key to getting out of teaching. YOU can also have a connection. You left that part out. As in any industry, teaching or otherwise, hooking into the right network does a lot for one’s career. I certainly wouldn’t rest on my laurels waiting for a spouse, friend, or family member to open doors for me.
Really?
Neither of those is true for me or pretty much anyone I know, and none of us teaches English.
OP, your biggest problem(s) with local IT positions will probably not be your lack of Chinese, but rather:
- settling for a whole crapload less dough than you might be used to
- doing any meaningful work, every foreign EE I know who went to work for an IT company sooner or later just ended up doing documentation; manual, marketing, or both (there are exceptions, but they’re rare)
Remember, this town has almost as many frigging EEs as taxi drivers (and any quality deficits are pretty much meaningless).
I got an advanced degree in translation in Taiwan, but I work in news now because I couldn’t realistically support myself on it. (And also because media is fun.)
Like most Taiwanese industries, the translation/interpretation sector puts “cost-down” ahead of all else.
Let’s pretend a native speaker of English offers NT$3 per word for a Chinese-to-English project, and a first-year Taiwanese college student in the English department offers NT$.8 per word. Who do you think gets the bid?
…Oh. All of this makes sense. Thanks everyone.
I don’t know, I just love Chinese. All the little things about it, like 拍馬屁, make me giggle like a fangirl. Perhaps my best bet for a Chinese-related career is to become a professor?
[quote=“leishenki”]…Oh. All of this makes sense. Thanks everyone.
I don’t know, I just love Chinese. All the little things about it, like 拍馬屁, make me giggle like a fangirl. Perhaps my best bet for a Chinese-related career is to become a professor?[/quote]
As I’m sure to which the most erudite ironlady would attest, these days, functional translation capability is most marketable when combined with a secondary expertise. 
[quote=“Rocket”]
As I’m sure to which the most erudite ironlady would attest, these days, functional translation capability is most marketable when combined with a secondary expertise. [/quote]
Well, any secondary expertise in particular? I’m going to be honest and say I have hardly any marketable skills right now…
You make it sound like every other person holds the key to getting out of teaching. YOU can also have a connection. You left that part out. As in any industry, teaching or otherwise, hooking into the right network does a lot for one’s career. I certainly wouldn’t rest on my laurels waiting for a spouse, friend, or family member to open doors for me.[/quote]
You don’t even need a network, seriously. You just go onto 104 and put up your résumé and start applying for jobs you could get started. In ? Technical writing and sales and marketing being some good options. Do 20 interviews, get two offers, get started, get experience and there’s no looking back. You can get an MBA fully paid by scholarship and living expenses too here, lots of options.
Requirements for work permits are pretty minimal. It’s actually an easy place to get a job and start working!