I’m really close to becoming a Ciscos Certified Network Associate, and will go on to get the CCNP. I don’t know chinese, so is it possible to get a job here in Taiwan where I could get some real world experience, like sys. and net admin., even if they really don’t pay me much, transport and 2 meals will do
Good question. I’d like to know the answer too! But could you in all honesty bring down and reconfigure a Windows NT server with all the menus in Chinese and get it back up and running again in the same amount of time you could do it in an English environment?
When a network is down, people want it up again and running as soon as possible so the company can get on with its business of making money. I don’t think in today’s corporate environment a “lame” network administrator would be tolerated. When I say “lame” I mean as in crippled by the language barrier.
Can you imagine the IT section head in a big company telling his sales and marketing peers: "The network will be up as soon as our foreigner sysadmin can look up the Chinese for “proxy server” …
My guess would be that it would take a HUGE amount of trust on the part of a potential employer to put a foreigner in charge of their computer system.
just my ruminations …
While there’s a real need for SysAdmins in Taiwan, most companies don’t recognize the need. In the Wanted ads I’ve seen, the “SysAdmin” job description almost always entails knowing SQL, VB, JAVA and a bunch of other languages…more like a programmer position.
Even if they did recognize the need, they probably wouldn’t be willing to pay you much. When I politely pointed out to a company I was interning at that their server had not been patched for 2 years, the IT Director said, “Why do we need to patch it? When something breaks, we just reformat it”
Yea, I see how not being able to just log out and then log back in in english or any other language under the sun could be a problem. But thats what we got Linux for.
oh, did I mention I’ll work for free?
From my experience in Taiwan, the reason that there is a lack of need for sys admin is due to the fact most people use MS for pretty much everything. MS offers tech support for their crap. Most web services in Taiwan uses ASP or JSP models because they get tech support from MS for their IIS server and sql servers. They only need the people with Java, VB, and Sql experience to keep the content. Of course trying to talk to anyone about changing from an unstable MS product to a stable Linux solution is very hard. Most of what mid to small size businesses know is MS. Unless you are certified in MCSE or other useless MS certifications, it will be tough getting work as a sys admin in Taiwan. Ms dominated the market so much that Sun was giving away servers to businesses to try to break into the market.
Mark
Many Taiwan ISPs need spam fighting professionals to get them off of
the blacklists. Maybe you could get a job at Hinet. You say you are
into “open source”? OK, conference Aug 2-4 2002:
http://twopensource.org/icos02/
Or you could join the … ahem … “IT staff” at CNA. Then you wouldn’t even need to know what a computer IS!
Q: Why does my computer keep crashing?
A: Its because you’re typing too hard/fast.
Ummmm… OK. Thanks for all your help.
I did actually consider becoming an MCSE. Got the study materials, software(z), Win2000, server, SQL, data center, all and some more. Pick up the book and read chapter 1, page 2 “…Microsoft wants your company to shut off its mainframes and do your firm’s work on big servers running Datacenter.” I never laughed that hard before. Back to Redhat it was.
No disrespect to any MCSEs out there, but everyone knows becoming one isn’t even worth the paper it’s written on.
Taiwan can’t be that different?
Sandman, that must have been the BOFH.
Dan, the conference sounds interesting, I’ll check it out. Thanks.
This was a while ago, so did you find the job? There are many places to look and many computer-industry related jobs. It would help if they are looking for an English-speaker or someone for American relations. Why don’t you inquire about the recent jobs/interns you held if they have any partners in Taiwan? A really perfect high-tech work environment is in the new district built in/near Nei-Hu, Taipei. I’m not sure if that place is completed, but there were quite a few high-rise buildings completed and certainly with that they should be recruiting many. It’s also a better site, might remind you of a more busier/crowded version of silicon valley. The rest of Taipei may be modern but even near the main railroad district looks kinda shabby. I guess it’s the climate though, it makes concrete buildings look gray.
I’m certain you’ll enjoy the change, at least for a while, it’s an island and like any island it’s common you’ll start complaining after a year. But do pickup the Chinese or even Taiwanese it’ll help ease the “culture-shock”, it’s not as “international” as a society as you may think and with probably a moped you might get used to bustling Taipei. And yeah I would advise Taipei over any other city, it’s pretty much the only major city, unless you include TaiChung, KaoHsuing and TaiNan, those places may be more fun and with less restrictions but harder to get around without the language, lesser job opportunities and I’m sure you want to keep troubling matters to a minimal while in a foreign country. Hope this helped.