Finding Jobs In China - Relatively Easy or Difficult?

[CookieFactory]

How easy (or hard) is it for a college graduate to find a job in China? Specifically a job in the field of Computer Engineering? I was born in China but have lived in the US since I was three, so I am a native speaker of English as well as being fluent in Mandarin. I'm currently still attending university but have been toying with the idea of moving back to China to live, but am unsure of my job prospects. Any insight in this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Tsunku]

Finding teaching jobs is tremendously easy ... other jobs, not so easy.

Keep in mind, that if you're not in an industry where your dual language skills will be an asset (that is teaching, translating, business), you've got to weigh the advantages to the Chinese of hiring a foreigner when a Chinese could do the job. Foreigners command higher salaries than Chinese, so a company will be reluctant to hire foreigners if they aren't essential. Even many translation jobs will hire Chinese people, resulting in some of the great Chinglish you can find on signs, ads, hell, even in magazines and newspapers at times.

Play your cards right and you might be able to convince a company that you bring some kind of western know-how to the job. You could call yourself a foreign consultant and charge lots of money to show Chinese companies how to do things the foreign way.

Also, if you are overseas Chinese, expect to have some fun convincing your prospective employers that you're a genuine foreigner. A lot of them just go for the white face, regardless of the skills.

Anyhow, good luck. I suggest starting off teaching, building up contacts, and going from there. Few people seem able to jump right into a "proper" job upon first arrival here, and teaching is usually an ok stepping stone.

[studentyoung]

Dear Cookiefactory

I think I am a native Chinese and have been living in China mainland for 24 years, maybe I can share some of my opinions with you.我认为我是一个中国人，在中国大陆活了24年了，兴许我可以与你分享一些我的看法。

You see, since you can speak both English and Manadrin fluently, I am sure you can find a job in China relatively easy. But you must keep the following things in your mind before you come back and live in China.你既然可以说流利的中英文，那么你在中国找工作还是相对容易的。但你要在回国定居之前把下面的事情牢记在心：

1.There are so many differences between Chinese enterprices and the American counterparts. You should understand first that from business adminstrative methods to business culture, differences between China and US are here and there. For example, maybe in US, creativity is good and highly appreciated, but in China, may not. There is still some quite strong bureaucratism in some Chinese state-owned enterprices.Have you ever thought of it?I highly recommend you carefully search all these aspects on web before you choose a company in China.中国企业与美国企业有很多差异。首先你应该理解从企业管理手段到商业文化，差异是无处不在的。举例来说，在美国，员工有创造性可能不错，老板也蛮赏识的，可在中国，这事可不敢打包票了。在中国的一些国有企业，官僚主义还是很严重的。不知你是否考虑过这个问题?我十分强烈的建议你先上网了解一下这些问题，然后在选择你想工作的中国公司。

2There is really a lot of differences between American culture and Chinese Culture. I suppose you must have been living in American all the time. I wonder if you have considered any thing about cultural shock. It is really hard to explain in a word to you. But I am sure as soon as you land in China, you can feel it directly. 中美之间的文化确实存在不少差异。我猜你一定长期生活在美国。我不知道你是否考虑过文化冲击。这事真是一言难尽，但我肯定一旦你踏上了中国的土地，你马上就能够感受到它的存在。

3The competition in IT field is very intensive China mainland and the salary is so low that I am not sure wether you are willing to work in China. For example, I know one software designer, he tells me that his salary is only 3000RMB/month. Of course there will be some bonus if he finishes his project, yet he has to burn midnight oil 6days a week. And his salary is not included any social insurance (I mean his boss does buy any kind of social insurance for him). To be frank with you, the soical security system is still not well established, and the current one is not as good as the American one. IT这一行在中国大陆竞争相当激烈，而且薪水很低，我不敢肯定你会愿意来这里干。例如，我认识的一位软件工程师，他告诉我他的月薪是3000元人民币。当然，在他完成了他的项目后会有奖金，不过一周里他要熬6天的夜。还有，他的工资还不包括社会保险（我的意思是说他的老板不帮他买任何社会保险。）实话跟你说吧，我们这里的社会保险制度还不怎么完善，现有的又不及美国的好。

4 Some other problems such as nautral environmental pollution and water shortage are something quite hard but you have to face up to. All big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have severe air pollution and water pollution. Now many northern and western cities, sometimes even Beijing, face up to water shortage. 其他的一些问题诸如环境污染和缺水是挺困难但你又不得不面对的。所有的大城市，像北京、上海、广州和深圳都有严重的空气污染和水污染问题。现在许多西北的城市，有时甚至北京，都面临缺少的问题。

Finally, I think there are still a lot of problems I haven't menton to you, but I wish you could consider all the problems above before you take your trip to China.最后，我想还有很多问题我没有向你提及，但我希望你在前往中国之前，能够考虑上述问题。

Good luck! 祝你好运！

[wiz_oz]

There goes my hope of going to China to work for a couple of years.