Okay, so I have just finished a foreign exchange year here from my university back home. I studied Chinese at 政大 for the past year. Back home I am studying a double major of Chinese and International Business. I will be graduating next year and intend to move to Taiwan to be with my girlfriend. Now, I am currently trying to research the possibilities of scholarships for a master program but what I would really like to do is get a proper job that actually uses my degree. My Chinese is quite good and will be even better next year, I can also read and write and use traditional characters. I know I could teach english but I would really rather not go down that road, as I dont know where that is supposed to lead me. I would ideally like a job in the business or financial sector.
If it makes any difference, I am from Ireland. I would also like to earn a decent wage, otherwise maybe teaching english is a better option…
Currently you don’t have enough experience to meet the requirements for an office job. You are unlikely to find work paying more than around NT$50,000 per month and you will work very long hours. Others have done it and it has worked out though.
If you went to a ‘top 100 uni’ the CLA may make an exception for you on the two year requirement. Your prospective employer will probably not know about this and no one knows how the CLA decides what a top 100 school is. An Ivy league or major US state university like Cal, Michigan, or Illinois would probably count.
[quote=“Feiren”]
If you went to a ‘top 100 uni’ the CLA may make an exception for you on the two year requirement. Your prospective employer will probably not know about this and no one knows how the CLA decides what a top 100 school is. An Ivy league or major US state university like Cal, Michigan, or Illinois would probably count.[/quote]
Sorry if this has been asked before/listed elsewhere - but what does CLA stand for…?
I don’t know much about the finance scene here, but if I could do it all over, I wouldn’t have taken my job at a local company. I’m bored and frustrated. If there is an opportunity for you to get a real job where you’re from, you might want to consider that. These days I’ve been thinking a lot about how to transfer back to my home country and it’s not that easy after you’ve been in Taiwan for a few years - I really feel like I’m worse off now than when I first arrived here. I recommend keeping up the momentum after graduation if you can and not falling into stagnation.
Look at it from the Taiwanese perspective. You are not particularly valuable because you speak Chinese, even if you’re dead fluent. Everyone who walks in the door is fluent in Mandarin. What else do you bring to the table? As a new graduate, unless you’re coming from Harvard or something similarly prestigious in the Taiwanese mind, AND stand out in some way, you’re not special. You have no experience. Your value lies in your ability to make English-language phone calls and write English-language e-mails, for the most part.
Most Western grads are also not quite prepared for the culture of a genuine Taiwanese business (often family-owned). There is a much stricter hierarchy, longer hours, and far less productivity per unit time, than would be accepted in most Western companies (I’m generalizing here, but there are enough examples to support the idea, I think). And much lower salaries, though still okay by Taiwanese standards. Of course, most new Taiwanese uni grads are either living with their families or in a concrete box with a single bed on the fourth floor with no elevator and a shared bathroom (Taipei at least) which means rent isn’t such an issue.
If you want to get paid for knowing Chinese, Taiwan isn’t usually the place to try it. The exception can be translation, where if you build up a practice over time, you should be paid a premium for actually being native in English. Even that is less and less the case as there is more and more competition from non-native-speakers.
[quote=“ironlady”]Look at it from the Taiwanese perspective. You are not particularly valuable because you speak Chinese, even if you’re dead fluent. Everyone who walks in the door is fluent in Mandarin. What else do you bring to the table? As a new graduate, unless you’re coming from Harvard or something similarly prestigious in the Taiwanese mind, AND stand out in some way, you’re not special. You have no experience. Your value lies in your ability to make English-language phone calls and write English-language e-mails, for the most part.
Most Western grads are also not quite prepared for the culture of a genuine Taiwanese business (often family-owned). There is a much stricter hierarchy, longer hours, and far less productivity per unit time, than would be accepted in most Western companies (I’m generalizing here, but there are enough examples to support the idea, I think). And much lower salaries, though still okay by Taiwanese standards. Of course, most new Taiwanese uni grads are either living with their families or in a concrete box with a single bed on the fourth floor with no elevator and a shared bathroom (Taipei at least) which means rent isn’t such an issue.
If you want to get paid for knowing Chinese, Taiwan isn’t usually the place to try it. The exception can be translation, where if you build up a practice over time, you should be paid a premium for actually being native in English. Even that is less and less the case as there is more and more competition from non-native-speakers.[/quote]
All good points. Really, teaching English is the best gig here for unskilled native English speakers in my opinion: the pay is higher and the work is actually more interesting. I tried translation, but the pay was way too low. There are people who have found a way to get by with it, though.
[quote=“jah718”]Okay, so I have just finished a foreign exchange year here from my university back home. I studied Chinese at 政大 for the past year. Back home I am studying a double major of Chinese and International Business. I will be graduating next year and intend to move to Taiwan to be with my girlfriend. Now, I am currently trying to research the possibilities of scholarships for a master program but what I would really like to do is get a proper job that actually uses my degree. My Chinese is quite good and will be even better next year, I can also read and write and use traditional characters. I know I could teach english but I would really rather not go down that road, as I don’t know where that is supposed to lead me. I would ideally like a job in the business or financial sector.
If it makes any difference, I am from Ireland. I would also like to earn a decent wage, otherwise maybe teaching english is a better option…
Many thanks for your help and input!
John[/quote]
Welcome to the real world. You aren’t qualified to do anything other than teach English. Unless you have some experience outside of the ivy towers, you don’t have any real skills.
Thanks for everyones help on this. It is disappointing to here all of this, I know that Taiwan usually puts too high a value on the American education system and they love the idea of being educated in America and if you go to school anywhere else, it is worthless. I find this incredible since the American education system is literally a joke compared to many European countries, but unfortunately, we cannot change Taiwanese people.
As far as my options go, I pretty much have to come back to Taiwan as I am in a pretty serious relationship now. I feel it would be an incredible waste of 4 years to end up baby sitting a bunch of kids for no other reason other than it gives their parents peace of mind.
I probably will have the option to get a scholarship for a masters program here, will that make me any more marketable at the end of it?
[quote=“jah718”]Thanks for everyones help on this. It is disappointing to here all of this, I know that Taiwan usually puts too high a value on the American education system and they love the idea of being educated in America and if you go to school anywhere else, it is worthless. I find this incredible since the American education system is literally a joke compared to many European countries, but unfortunately, we cannot change Taiwanese people.
As far as my options go, I pretty much have to come back to Taiwan as I am in a pretty serious relationship now. I feel it would be an incredible waste of 4 years to end up baby sitting a bunch of kids for no other reason other than it gives their parents peace of mind.
I probably will have the option to get a scholarship for a masters program here, will that make me any more marketable at the end of it?[/quote]
If you get an MBA, you can probably get an office job that pays 70,000-80,000NT in Taiwan.
An MBA gives you a 70k to 80k office job? Good luck with that. Not saying it isn’t possible, but I think you are grossly misleading the guy by saying if he does a master’s here he can automatically expect that kind of pay.
You are too young and don’t have experience. If you have a filly here, fine. Snatch is found all over the world. But, if you want to earn some decent cash, you should get an MBA and focus on your Chinese. Then consider HK, Singapore or the Mainland. A lot of Western Multi Nats are shifting their operations to the mainland. They would like to stay at their base of operations, but they have realized there is absolutely no point of maintaining a focus on the US or Europe. It’s like taking a three legged dog for a run.
Yep. I’m Irish, I did as you describe although with a scientific background. Vacations days are few and pay is more like 60k/mth if you are lucky as you have no experience. Im doing okay now but it was pretty tough for a few years. Even on the mainland you are unlikely to get paid much at first. You could come here and improve your Chinese and work to get experience though and figure things out. You could do the MBA program too, it will help a bit I guess. Basically free MBA. The options aren’t that bad short term. Before you moan more things used to be a lot harder, visas, travel restrictions, scholarships, environment here etc.
You can also look at graduate programs with companies including Irish companies such as Kerry group which should have plans to expand in Asia. This would be an excellent option.
You need to build proven experience and achievements in a give area, that’s what employers really value, not so much the language or education background although they all help.
American graduate education can be excellent, silicon valley and NASA didn’t come from nowhere you know.
I’m seconding this. Unless your MBA is from a top school, you ain’t getting 70-80k. If your MBA is from a top school, you likely have great experience and 70-80k is extreme low-balling. Average first year salary out of even non-Ivies like Duke is 200-250k NT per month.
I do know a couple of people who have kickass high-paying business/finance jobs right out of college here, but they got them through guanxi.
They love British schools here (seen as more classy than American ones) and most people don’t know Ireland isn’t Britain. So that should work in your favour.
Top 100 universities in the world not in the US. If European schools are better than US ones, they will be ranked higher .
I’ve found I have my job for marketing reason - white face - and I’m often asked to lie about my back group – that is, engineer from a western company. (I hope I’ll have a new job for next month, but won’t know until next week )
Anyways, if I were you, I’d focus on becoming skilled. Then you can work anywhere. Girls can wait. You don’t want to end up like me, wasting 5 years in Taiwan doing nothing of any importance professionally. If you can find that skill-gaining experience in Taiwan, then great, but I don’t know where you can…
I’m seconding this. Unless your MBA is from a top school, you ain’t getting 70-80k. If your MBA is from a top school, you likely have great experience and 70-80k is extreme low-balling. Average first year salary out of even non-Ivies like Duke is 200-250k NT per month.
I do know a couple of people who have kickass high-paying business/finance jobs right out of college here, but they got them through guanxi.[/quote]
I was referring to MBA’s from Taida. The OP wasn’t talking about an MBA from the US. Nor could he probably get in to a top MBA program in the US without any work experience.
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