Some General Questions - first steps in looking for a job

Work Working in Taiwan
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Hello everyone,

I’m Uri from Israel, nice to meet you all! I’ve already been in Taiwan for 7 months studying Chinese at NCKU in Tainan (not on scholarship), and the time had come to start looking for a job…

A bit of background about myself - I’m 32, hold a Law degree and 2 years of work experience (commercial litigation and projects and infrastructure), can speak Hebrew, native level English (most of my work was conducted in English) and intermediate level Chinese.

So:

  1. I’ve seen plenty of English-teaching positions, but they all require native speakers (meaning, being the citizen of one of 8 specific countries). Is this a legal thing, or just a preference by employers?

  2. If English teaching is closed for me - where are good places to look for corporate jobs in Taiwan? Linkedin? 104?

  3. Realistically - do I really have to go to Taipei to improve my chances of getting a job? Of course anyone can work everywhere, but how international are the next biggest cities (Kaohsiung and Taichung)? My Mandarin is still far from working proficiency level.

Thnx a lot

Uri

1 Like
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Hi Uri,

I’m not a master at this stuff, but one thing’s for sure the days where English teaching was at its greatest are no more. However, that does not mean that there are no valuable positions available. Given the native speaker requirement, I suppose your best bet is to look for something within your field of study. I find that LinkedIn works pretty well; the positions for my field of study (Clinical Research) are far and wide in Taiwan. I know that I have no trouble finding them, and some don’t even have a Mandarin requirement. I think being in Taipei is most important for people trying to do English jobs (buxibans – cram schools – being the most popular reason) but I haven’t found that to be the case for my field. I would try networking with people online and getting a sense of how people go from Israel (in your case) to Taiwan, or try to meet people while you are in school there to boost your chances of finding something desirable afterwards.

This forum is filled with useful information, use the search tab and find what you’re looking for! People here are friendly too, so don’t be afraid to ask any further questions. Good luck!

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being a citizen of one of the specific 8 countries is just a preference, but being a citizen of one of countries where English is an official language is a legal requirement.