I have a quick question for you Formosans’. I’m getting sick of the cold in Canada and would like to return to Taiwan sometime in the future. I am a Canadian guy married to a Taiwanese so that takes care of needing an ARC ect. A little about myself, I speak decent Mandarin, it used to be near fluent but has dropped off in the few years I have been back home. I believe in a year of study I could be close to fluent again. I have sales experience in a small start-up as well as a big MNC in engineering services and have excellent numbers to back these jobs up.
I fully realize salaries in Taipei are crap but by the time I plan on returning say in ten years or so this won’t really matter too much as I’m doing quite well here at saving and investing. I just want to get out of the hellish winters and be able to travel, not want to kill myself for 5 months of the year ect. What kind of salary, let’s say in today’s money would someone like myself be looking at say in an international sales and marketing role? I would guess NT 60,000-80,000 to start? With a resident visa how difficult would such a job be to obtain?
And yes I know all about the awful working environment ect but there’s not much we can do about that other than to work for ourselves which is what I’d like to do eventually. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
years of sales experience with numbers to back it up
family arc so no need for your future company to apply a working visa
With all that you should get a job easily. A starting salary of 60-80knt$ for an experienced sales is also correct (but you could negotiate above 100k).
Your only weaknesses might be your age (how old will you be in 10years) and your lack of professional network in Taiwan.
At worst you will definitely get a 50knt$ job in no time.
I am 35 now so yes I wont be young then and will spend my prime earning years here in Canada while the going is good. Hopefully when the time comes i wont be considred too old. Two of the senior sales in my company are 60 plus and Taiwan has an older population than Canada as they dont have immigration so maybe by then it wont be a big deal. Thanks for the input.
Taiwan is an ageist society so be weaned, there are not many older workers here doing well (tend to get laid off in 40s and 50s and managers are not keen to manage older employees than themselves). you can still get a job of course here if you have skills and ability and foreign background. I don’t see the attraction of moving to work here in Taiwan due to working conditions and low pay, doesn’t make a lot of sense from my perspective. But yeah, you can get something to tick over no problem. I worked in sales and marketing for years with local companies, refuse to work for them now unless I was desperate.
The reason to return would be to live in Taiwan as my wife and i enjoyed life there. At this point if all continues to go well our retirement will be taken care of so id just need some income to cover expenses and keep myself busy. Im sure that after a few years i would end up working for myself as im fully aware of Taiwanese work culture. I would make one prediction though, Taiwan will undergo a huge demographic change and wont be able to be so picky about hiring people in thier 40’s and 50’s because as we know the society is aging and people arent having kids. This will happen in canada and we still have mass immigration that wont even be able to make up for all the seniors leaving the workforce.
Was your reason for leaving the local companies the working culture, can you elaborate a little? Thanks for the imput.
I don’t intend to work for local companies again for many reasons, mainly the pay, but also the lack of diversity and internationalization, and of course the long working hours. There are millions of Taiwanese who also agree and have emigrated to China and other countries. It wouldn’t make sense to come to Taiwan and work for shit pay and 50+ hours a week with hardly any vacation, IMHO. It’s not easy to enjoy life if the job is a grind for low pay. Part-time would be great, but Taiwanese companies don’t like to use consultants or part-timers either…in general. They want to suck the life out of you. They generally don’t understand concepts like remote working, flexitime, negotiation, sticking to contracts, career development. You’d be better off saving a bit more in Canada in your premium earning years and then doing a bit of teaching or this and that on your own time when you do make it over here.
If OP is planning to open his own trading office, I still recommend him to work several years in a local conpany to understand the local business culture and expand his network. He seems pretty well-off so I’m sure he can swallow the financial hit and make it a positive experience.
You live in Canada and your thinking of returning? Aside from the snow why the hell would you want to return to this place to retire ? What a horrible prospect
I think it would be a great place to retire. I can live very comfortably on 60,000 nt a month which would come from investments. The mountains and ocean are all close by, access to services is great as is healthcare and its very convenient. Add to that traveling to other places in asia is cheap and convenient from Taiwan. I swore once that I would die before going back to teach but you are making a case for it when you describe the working conditions.
I agree with your assessment of Taiwan as a place to live and retire in general.
FWIW, my sales people make a very healthy income that is as high or higher than the numbers you quote, once they fill their pipelines (and we have a very active marketing program to help fill those pipelines).
If you’re bilingual, smart, honest, confident, and humble, drop me a line when you’re ready to make the move and we’ll see if there is a fit. You’d be working with a wide variety of MNCs, large local enterprises, and SMEs in one of the consulting disciplines.
There are many, many places in the world where you can retire on that kind of income and lead a much more comfortable, stress-free and pleasant existence (and with better weather) than you would in Taiwan. The coastal areas of Eastern or Southern Spain spring to mind, as that’s the country I live in now. Healthwise you can get decent an inexpensive private insurance cover here. There you have the mountains and the beaches (nice clean beaches which you will not find in Taiwan). It’s just an example of one country, of course. There are many others.
Sorry, Tomas. PGdaddy, Im sure Spain is great and you are correct about many countries being affordable but fact is Taiwan is my wife’s country and i owe her after subjecting her to minus thirty weather. Also call me crazy but i quite enjoyed the lifestyle in Taipei and find that when i went back to visit last year its getting better.
Understood re: your wife. However there are countries closer to Taiwan (e.g. so she can visit home more easily) such as Thailand and Malaysia which offer viable retirement residence options and can give you a much more comfortable retirement lifestyle. Try to have a few extended visits to Taiwan and these other countries and then you will be in a better position to decide.
Eh I think Taiwan is just fine if you have the visa sorted already and in a comfortable position. Those places mentioned may have their own issues too. In the end the working as a sales guy part was the crucial question.
OP is asking about jobs’ opportunities not if he should retired in TW or somewhere else!
I personally wouldn’t mind living long term in taipei with extended vacations around Asia. If he can pocket 60k nt$ every month from his personal investment it should already cover his daily expenses, having a job on side will be extra!
I treat employees like I treat posters on this site. Behave like a mature, decent person and I’m very supportive. Behave like a small-minded dolt, and I’m not quite as nice .
They generally don’t understand concepts like remote working, flexitime, negotiation, sticking to contracts, career development. You’d be better off saving a bit more in Canada in your premium earning years and then doing a bit of teaching or this and that on your own time when you do make it over here.
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