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Q: How hard is it for foriegners to get a mid / senior IT job in Beijing if they can't speak Mandarin?
I am seeking to move to Beijing shortly, after my Chinese partner has secured a job there. I am a senior IT consultant working for many Australian government organizations with over 5 years experience. What are my chances of securing I job with a local state or government owned organization in Beijing? or am I better off targeting foreign owned companies? I have University level qualifications and IT certifications too.
10 years 38 weeks ago in Business & Jobs - Beijing
You would be better off focusing on foreign owned companies. Local or government owned companies would probably not consider you as an employee.
GuilinRaf:
I would also add that in China, if the job can be done by a Chinese national it will go to the Chinese national. Same as most other places.
Foreign nationals are limited mostly to jobs that only they can do (for example, language instruction). If on top of that he does not speak Mandarin, then your chances are even smaller of landing a non-teaching job especially for a Chinese company.
His b best option would probably be to work for a foreign owned company, but in that case, they usually hire from their headquarters, not locally.
There's an EA office in Beijing that is about half staffed by foreigners. However I think that they are sent to the office via their branches at home. None of them speak Mandarin, they are there to train and to help out with work on game designing.
I am in IT myself and I find it rather hard to get a job in IT in China.
The easiest is probably to get some online job. I am currently doing some freelance which doesn't require my physical presence, but I am actively looking for a job in China.
The foreign companies here will for sure be the easiest to get a job in.
I spoke to the boss in a Chinese company and he asked me directly "Why should we hire a foreigner?". It will be very hard to convince them that foreigners actually work more independently and more efficient. At least foreigners from Europe, since I don't know where you're from 
happywanderer:
Yeaaah exactly - local companies tend to see foreigners as a problem - you speak up at meetings, have ideas, think for yourself. No, no, no. You're supposed to be a meek automaton without personality. Pick a major city e.g. beijing, shanghai, hongkong. Then find some international companies there that are hiring and apply directly. Probably ya best bet - involves a lot of legwork though. There are posts about finding jobs in major cities on this site, and my recommendation for finding out which companies are hiring is to look on zhaopin.
