Need some idea of family costs in Taiwan

That’s very rare. When I was at school (which was more than 12 years ago) it was already banned. I don’t remember teachers hitting kids on their hands at school.

I don’t think hitting kids will fly if the parents find out. Parents share info on what happens on LINE groups.

She might be telling stories.

It seems to depend on the school. When asking students, I always got a fair (but decreasing) number who said they’d seen it

I believe private schools are able to have corporal punishment if they wanted.

They were still slapping palms when I went to grade school here. I never got hit, though…whew.

Am I the only one who got hit…and basically everyday :disappointed_relieved:

You probably had it coming. :grin:

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I didn’t start getting into trouble in school until middle school when hormones hit and I was getting bored and back talking teachers I didn’t respect.

But that was in America. Taiwanese teachers put the fear in my ass. I wouldn’t have dared. I’m STILL afraid of my mom.

I was usually a teacher’s pet so none of those happened to me.

On a side note @Gain , your going from Friends icon to Cries and Whispers icon is a real trip. I was so used to visualizing you as Phoebe.

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I always saw him as more of a Monica.

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I realize this is a discussion primarily about costs, so I hope you don’t mind that I comment on one of the other things you mentioned.

If I understand correctly, you are looking for a senior BD position - senior manager level, Regional/Area/Associate director or higher - in a Taiwan pharma that will value your experience over Mandarin abilities.

SFE/SFA

You have delivered sales trainings, maybe SFE/SFA. Someone else mentioned Big Pharma: let me discount this off the bat - Western MNCs usually have internal consultants at HQ who justify their existence by delivering this stuff to LOCs. It would be surprising for a Pfizer or AstraZeneca to hire someone in-country for rollouts that are usually handled by global or regional offices. None of these have regional offices in Taiwan, although sometimes, there might be a split function where part of the regional team is based in Taiwan - and I imagine this only happens because the person sitting in that role came up in Taiwan and is on a Taiwan pay scale. This would be an extremely unlikely situation to come into cold - you would have to have schmoozed your way over from the Canadian organization to get such a role. Nothing is impossible, but it is unlikely.

That said, you are right to try to parlay some specialization to get you over here - but not in SFE/SFA. Hopefully, you have a therapeutic background that could be very relevant to your organization’s TW office or something popular in Taiwan today: like liver diseases; CV is always popular but like other chronic lifestyle diseases, there’s plenty of talent locally and supported by regional office to make a foreign hire based in Taiwan an exceptional one.

BD

You are targeting Taiwan biopharmas for a position in Business Development that would ask you to travel overseas to seek partnering and licensing deals at events like BIO, JPM, etc. This group would include Taiwan biotechs, generic drug manufacturers, and medical device companies. I believe most of them rely on the personal networks of their founders and C-levels to source deals - which is highly inefficient. A lot of these guys were high-flyers in big pharma themselves once upon a time before striking out on their own “back home” - while they do have good networks, they try to fill in the gaps by talking to BD “shops” and freelancers (i.e., consultants) in the US and EU. Some also establish offices in the US and EU and hire there, because bringing someone over to Taiwan with the right experience is a challenge in this industry (“Why would I want to leave San Diego for Taiwan? I don’t even like Pad Thai!!”). Somehow, you need to get on their radars as someone who already has the experience they need and who wants to come Taiwan despite having no personal/family ties already.

Someone mentioned JHL, which is currently in the midst of a corporate espionage fight with Roche. This is a good example of a Taiwan biotech that was founded by a senior level people from Big Pharma – http://www.jhlbiotech.com/about-jhl/leadership-team/

So looking for a high-level full-time position based in Taiwan is - again - statistically possible, but unlikely, especially for someone without an established personal network, i.e., personal guanxi matters a lot here, like hopefully you know someone in the industry back in Canada who can refer you to a former classmate or colleague back in Taiwan and you run with that on your own.

Or, aim for a Taiwan biotech that is newly listed or planning to list on the stock exchange in the next 2 or 3 years. As a biotech, they need to constantly raise money and there is an appetite for biotech stocks here (although the sector took a beating the past 2 years). While you make a salary less than what you were making in Canada, like tech companies in the US, stock options and preferential pricing plans are a major part of your pay package as a senior executive. To learn more about this you will need to talk to different people in the industry to figure out which companies to target - find them in industry groups like the TRPMA, which hosts regular workshops in Chinese, but can have a meeting in English once in blue moon. Check out this list of TRPMA members and connect with anyone in these companies on LinkedIn http://www.trpma.org.tw/index.php/en/members-en

Industry Meetings

Did you catch the Taiwan Healthcare+ meeting last month?

Meetings like this and BIO Taiwan (https://bio-taiwan.com) usually have booths for the larger Taiwan biopharmas introducing themselves to the general public. BIO Taiwan is supposed to be like BIO in the US, but the focus isn’t only about partnering, there is plenty of investor relations, sample giving, and sales, too, happening there. For you, you might network with the bigwigs who host the events (like this guy: https://bio-taiwan.com/en/about/detail/5) and try to get them to refer you to companies here that might engage you as a consultant or, hopefully, even try to recruit you.

Non-pharma companies in healthcare

Btw, are you a First-line Sales Manager or a Second-line Sales Manager? I do not know salaries for those positions in North America so I cannot tell.

There are plenty of CROs here - multinational and local. You could try to angle for a senior manager or associate director position in BD for them and try to capture business from clients looking to do clinical trials here, which I understand Taiwan is highly regarded. Consider a 1 or 2 year detour as a service provider, where you build your regional and Taiwan personal network and then segue to industry. Would they give you an expat package that includes education for your kids? I don’t know, and I don’t think so. But as you go about your job search, hopefully they will refer you to the kind of situation where that might be possible. Stranger things have happened.

Executive Search

While I have never been a headhunter, my wife used to be and I have engaged regional ones when my company was looking to hire C-level and director-level talent. I have the impression it isn’t worthwhile for hunters to take on searches that are for lower positions. In the past, I have been approached for less senior roles, but those were in China when I was based in China and working for Big Pharma (an ex-boss from when I was in Taiwan referred the hunter to me). I expect searches for positions below director-level to be rare for Taiwan.

The very largest global headhunters might have one or 2 people in an office here that is managed out of HK, Singapore, or Shanghai. Maybe. They typically specialize by type: biopharma, devices, manufacturing, clinical. You should also target regional executive search and freelancers (people who left or retired from corporates that are doing this on the side). So, search LinkedIn for both current and former VP-level or above in the large global and regional executive search firms and tell them you are building your network here and are happy to help refer them to people you know in industry at home.

In Taiwan, the large regional hunters I know for healthcare are typically based in Singapore and usually have an office or person on the ground in Taiwan: HRnet One (aka PeopleSearch), Lighthouse Global, Barrington James, and Human Future in Japan. They are more willing to work on contingency, so are generally much cheaper than the global MNC hunters.

Good luck

Like others have asked many times, given your background, why Taiwan? In healthcare, you certainly should be looking at Mainland China and Korea. China is pretty wild (like it is in most industries), but there is simply more of everything there, especially investment money that funds all that craziness. There are a lot of ex-pharma people in private equity there - Chinese and non-Chinese. Korea is known for biosimilars, kinda like how Taiwan is best known for branded generics and API manufacturing. You basically run the same job searches there but make some adjustments to your story.

Btw, here is the leadership team at another Taiwan biotech that has hired expat talent into their top management: Leadership Team | Crown Bioscience So, at the risk of raising your hopes too high, there are certainly people in industry here who have somehow carved out some deal that let’s them work in healthcare in your target salary range. They are very much exceptional, often stumbling into the opportunity with the right professional relationship at the right time, and were savvy enough to roll with it (or they were hunted from a senior role in their home country). I sincerely hope you find a way, too. Best of luck!

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Does anybody know any headhunters specializing in the Hsinchu science park?

You can send me a private msg if so.

Thanks,

Well it’s a new year so new avatar.

I posted a BD Director position at a local pharma in this post a couple months ago

I think the local school for your oldest would be possible. That would be third grade, right? I think it would be possible, especially with your wife being able to help out. Your kids will be completely bilingual and with good math skills when it’s all done. I know some people who would design it this way.

The international schools would not be possible unless you get on an expat package. Just be very vigilant about keeping with the English.

There are rich folks in Korea who send they’re kids to an international school until around 3rd grade, then pull them out to go to local schools. Then ultimately to the US for college. Completely bilingual and culturally fine in most any setting.

Edit: I read only the first 20 posts or so. I hope I’m not repeating what someone else recommended.

23 posts were split to a new topic: Corporal punishment in schools

Hello all,

I appreciate the down to earth and grounding feedback.

I don’t mind coming over and working in a buxiban for the first year or so. I can float this from savings (less than what the canadian dollar has depreciated compared to the US dollar in the past year). The more I learn about Taiwan, the more I am appreciative of it’s progressive style. I have spent time in the mainland and I cannot conscience raising my kids there (never mind the recent arrests). I will try things out, and hopefully make my mark.

Thank you all for the feedback, have a great 2019!!

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The system in Canada isn’t a joke, it’s ahead in some areas and behind in others. My kids grew up in Taiwan and one of the reasons we left was the deficiencies we found in the education system, especially in the upper grades.

The problem I have found with the Canadian system is the difficulty in transitioning from a teacher centred approach to child or parent driven. In Taiwan our kids lives were largely scripted; loads of repetitive homework, long class hours (my daughter was at school from 6am till 9pm), and daily tests were the main means to keep children engaged with academics. The teachers were really at the centre of it all and our kids really didn’t want to disappoint them. Now they must motivate themselves. Or in my kids case, I must push them. I find the transition very difficult, the kids think school is great.

But academic math is about 2-3 years behind Taiwan but the outcomes in the end are somehow roughly the same.