Software development related roles in China

[feihong]

I’m almost certain that game development will continue to be absolutely huge. I mean people need a way to relieve the stress of always being at work. But getting into game development might be a terrible idea, supposedly the tight deadlines make the work culture even worse than average.

 

I don’t remember anyone mentioning this yet, but I think computer science education will be a big growth field. Someone who can clearly communicate computer knowledge in English could be a great asset at a top tier primary or secondary education provider. The work culture in the education sector is also much more relaxed, although the likelihood of working on Saturday seems higher.

[BlackMamba]

1 hour ago, feihong said:

I don’t remember anyone mentioning this yet, but I think computer science education will be a big growth field. Someone who can clearly communicate computer knowledge in English could be a great asset at a top tier primary or secondary education provider. The work culture in the education sector is also much more relaxed, although the likelihood of working on Saturday seems higher.

I've seen foreigners offering boot camps in China with extremly high prices and the guy even just had a unrelated major and not much experience in it when checking his Linkedin. I also think this is a good opportunity.

Media and Games also because the people always play even when the times are bad like now. It is easier to spend a little money on that than on an expensive car.

@889 of course the experience. One can't be an expert in all these fields and the demand for workforce in each field is different.

[杰.克]

5 hours ago, mungouk said:

Although worth remembering that as well as the stated annual leave, you should also get a week off in October (national day/golden week) and at least a week around Spring Festival.

 

Plus a day here and there for Qing Ming, Dragon Boat festival etc.

 

Also worth remembering, which came as a HUGE SHOCK to me the first time i experienced it. If you get a week day public holiday, you will often be expected to work/take class on Sunday to make up for it!

 

The first time I had to go to class on a Sunday, myself and western classmates were all pretty bemused(and a little pissed off tbh)!

[imron]

10 hours ago, mungouk said:

A compsci degree is a compsci degree.

I don't know that I'd agree with this.

 

There are some that will go deep in to underlying CS principles, others will only touch the surface.

 

Anyway, assuming the course is teaching you the underlying concepts, rather than just teaching you to use a publicly available gaming engine,  BSc Computer Science (Games Development) - will likely give you the deepest understanding of CS, because games need to touch everything and they need to run with a degree of performance that most other software doesn't even need to care about.  A good course on game development will also touch on aspects of all those other degrees (because games use everything).

 

Other than that, I'd go for Machine Learning and AI, or Data Science.

 

[Weyland]

 

1 minute ago, imron said:

Other than that, I'd go for Machine Learning and AI, or Data Science.

Yah. If you go for that @Tarin you won't even need to be able to speak Chinese. Old-schoolmate of mine just finished his Physics degree and got scouted to work in Hefei with almost everything provided for.

[imron]

9 hours ago, feihong said:

I’m almost certain that game development will continue to be absolutely huge. I mean people need a way to relieve the stress of always being at work. But getting into game development might be a terrible idea, supposedly the tight deadlines make the work culture even worse than average.

As mentioned above, do games because it will likely give you the best technical knowledge out of all the degrees (as long as you aren't just being taught to use an existing engine).

 

You don't need to then go and work in games.  I got in to CS because of games.  Back then, there were no dedicated game development courses, but that was always my focus and during my CS degree, I did a year-long paid internship with a games company.  I haven't really done any game related stuff since (20+ years now), but the stuff I learned was highly relevant and applicable everywhere.

[BlackMamba]

6 hours ago, Weyland said:

Yah. If you go for that @Tarin you won't even need to be able to speak Chinese. Old-schoolmate of mine just finished his Physics degree and got scouted to work in Hefei with almost everything provided for

Normally there is the rule that work experience of 2 years after graduation is required. Or did he study at a top university with summa cum laude?

[大块头]

On 7/26/2020 at 11:39 AM, 889 said:

Nobody's instituted a 99652 rule?

 

That'll go into effect once the annual GDP growth rate dips below 5%.

[Tarin]

Thanks for all the replies

 

I have 2 years of experience in the industry as a web developer. I will most likely pursue any web related roles or will try to get into software dev / AI related or game dev

 

The thing that I worry about lately is that even though I have 2 years experience and I consider myself a strong enough web dev to get a job in there I worry if I wanted to switch and start developing something different e.g. games I would not be able to find something. However I think this is mostly the confidence.

 

I like learning stuff outside of work and I develop things sometimes on my own just to learn but is that going to be enough to get employed?  

 

Speaking of LUA, and any other technology really I don't mind tailoring my skillset to a company's needs although im not sure that's a good thing, would be better to pick a thing and get really good at it so I'll get picked instead of other people

[mungouk]

1 hour ago, Tarin said:

I like learning stuff outside of work [...]

would be better to pick a thing and get really good at it so I'll get picked instead of other people

 

Being able to learn new stuff quickly and independently is a very good transferable skill.  Think about how you want to evidence that.

[mungouk]

19 hours ago, imron said:

On 7/26/2020 at 4:21 PM, mungouk said:

A compsci degree is a compsci degree.

 

I don't know that I'd agree with this.

 

OK, what I really meant was: from a recruiter's point of view... a compsci degree is a compsci degree. 

 

If you have any level of experience since graduation then nobody's going to pick apart 2-3 specialised modules you did in your final year of an undergraduate degree, when what really counts is what you've been doing in the workplace since then.