Possible to get an insurance job with no Chinese?

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1

In my home country, I have a licence to practice insurance, as well as almost completing my degree in insurance.

I went to a few insurance companies local in Kaohsiung, to see if they would hire a foreigner that has minimal chinese (read 3 months at Jhongshan)

The 2 companies said that they dont do any hiring from Kaohsiung, and that I need to go to Taipei and bang on doors there.

Has anyone successfully been able to apply to a field here in Taiwan, even without Chinese ability, based on their skills from back home?

Im hoping to hear either experiences, or even hearsay :laughing:

2

i would have thought it depended on which type of insurance.

Household type including car would almost certainly need Chinese, international eg power stations, ships that sort of thing are usually insured with much bigger companies based in New York or London. You may have some luck with them I would also think it depends on what you would be doing for these insurance companies ( underwriter, loss adjuster, actuary etc etc)

Good luck with the hunt

3

Actually, I was an underwriter in Canada, but my experience is in Auto, Home, Cottage, Motorcycle… etc

4

So what would you be doing? Selling insurance to members of the public? How would you be able to do that with no Chinese? Anyway, I’ll be seeing my life insurance lady in a day or two so I’ll ask her if she can provide any pointers.

5

Thanks, I appreciate that.

I have a friend whose mother is retired from an insurance company who said that they hire foreigners to service the policies of the English speaking community.

But he didn’t give me any more info than that.

My job back in Canada was to underwrite or service policies, not to sell them, but i’m not picky. :smiley:

6

I’m a member of the English-speaking community. My insurer is ING, and my insurance lady is local with fluent English. My feeling is that you’ll have a difficult time persuading a potential employer that you have a sound enough grasp of the local insurance business and a sound enough grasp of the local culture to make it worthwhile hiring you. Think about it – you’re offering only ONE thing. English speaking ability, offset against your complete ignorance of how the local industry operates. English speaking local insurance agents are maybe not 10-a-penny, but they’re not exactly uncommon!
My feeling is that you’ll not find it easy to land a job, other than maybe as an in-house editor for minimum wage-type job.

7

Thanks for being honest about it.
I didn’t really think the chance was very high. I guess the experience I have in Canada doesn’t translate to Taiwan.

It seems the only real job for us english speakers is teaching it, or an engineer of some sort that is needed.

8

Thats not strictly true, there are plenty of jobs as English editors and writers if you have a minimum of 2 years relevant work experience.

But at least with teaching you don’t need the experience

9

I deal with commercial insurance companies. They often work as brokers or partners of international insurance firms. You may not get a broker position (they speak English okay) but you may be able to help them with some things. Lack of Chinese is not beneficial though.
There is one foreigner that I have heard of that handles local accounts directly, but her Chinese is very good. There are also many shipping companies you could fire a resume off to. Lastly there are plenty of editor type/technical writing type jobs and there are still a few marketing jobs that come up every now that maybe don’t pay much but which could give you a bit of experience (check tealit).

10

I could put you onto a broker job in Hong Kong, or Shanghai, or maybe even Singapore but not Taiwan… especially without Chinese.

11

Hong Kong eh?
Theres an idea… Where would one start to look for a job like that?

I can’t see myself teaching english for the rest of my life (this is not a stab at those who do), but just because my real love was Insurance…
I am taking Chinese classes now and came to Taiwan just to learn Chinese, but after 1 year of study, I could always continue my study in Canada if there is no other option.

I don’t think I can learn enough Mandarin in 1 year to be able to do a broker job i think.