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Q: Job market in China
Recently, well actually 2 months ago I lost my job as the factory I worked at went bankrupt. Since then I have been applying to schools to work as a teacher. I have 5 years experience teaching but got the factory job out of luck. The big problem is I have only had 2-3 interviews during that time and the job market seems dead, the schools I had interviews with have 2 rejected me with one saying that I had worked at a school that they don't like teachers to come from (I worked there almost 4 years ago) and the other one hasn't given me a reason at all, the one that did accept me was too far away to travel to and the salary sucked!
I am a native speaker and I can speak pretty good mandarin, for schools that don't want to/can't give me a visa it's no probelm as I have a spouse visa, in my and my friends opinions I'm a good catch for any school.
My question is: Are any other native speakers experiencing the same kind of situation such as lack of jobs or being fobbed off for some stupid reason?
10 years 31 weeks ago in Business & Jobs - China
Depends where you are
If you were up north you would have to beat them off with a stick. But they might not pay the highest wages
Hope it works out for you
hiddenjelly:
In Dongguan, Guangdong. 6 months ago it was easy to find something but now it's just dead!
i know 3 schools that need teachers in shandong right now but salaries are 6 to 8 thousand with apartment and utilities provided. these are training schools not public schools or universities.
I'll tell you something, I don't know where you're at in China, but in Shenzhen, we are booming with jobs, I get 7 calls a week for jobs, With these new Visa laws a handful of teachers, other types of workers and illegals have left china.
But I'll tell you this, the best is yet to come baby, the best is yet to come, Starting January it'll have been 6 months from July 2013, that means any 6 month visa's and the last of their kind will not be able to get renewed as easy as before.
So you'll be seeing a flood of jobs by Feb, 2014. Get those resumes ready or ask for raises baby. They need us a lot more then we need them.
limyaumee:
I am interested to know about the visa issue until January 2014 mentioned by you. Do you mean there is a official regulation that foreigner with spouse in China can granted for 1 year residency visa?
hiddenjelly:
Depends on where you are from, I am on my second 1 year residence permit through marriage, I have a friend from South Africa (white guy) and he only get's 6 months. I think there is no change on this issue, it's just related to business/tourist/work visas.
ironman510:
It depends, If you do use your marriage contract (red-books) outside of China, you''ll get a Q1 Visa for long term.
If you go to the PSB directly with your marriage contract, your wife sponsors you and you must show you have 60,000 RMB in the account. and sometimes they'll give you a 3 month resident permit, after that, 6 month and after that 1 year resident permit. In Shenzhen you must show that you have been married 3 years to get a resident permit directly from the PSB.
But, But, But, Going to the PSB directly with your wife and marriage contract (Red Books) I don't know if this was effected by the new visa laws or if you can still do it. PSB Police are not stupid, they know half of all foreigners work on a marriage resident permit.
10 years 31 weeks ago
ironman510:
@limyaumee: I'm referring to people currently on a F or L visa that was renewed after July 1st, their days are numbered. Again I don't know if marriage resident permits from the PSB were effected. We need updates from people that have done it recently.
I almost have the similar experience with "hiddenjelly" except I am not a native English speaker. I had apply for a teacher but turned down by the school because I am not a native English speaker. How can I overcome this obstacle? Currently I do the part time teaching Level 4 English for high school student. This only earn me a penny.
hiddenjelly:
You will never be accepted as a native speaker no matter how good your English is. The best you can do is try and do some private classes at home, this will earn the most. Ask your friends to tutor their children or to introduce their friends children, you can charge each person at least 60rmb per hour so get a class of 5 or 6 kids and you can make 300+ per hour.
If you want full-time work then visit training centers around your city, they usually pay 3000+ for full-time, not much I know but you can consider it paid training as you get to practice teaching and can also make friends with some parents or the students to teach privately in the future.
Good Luck!
manasyt:
'Never' is a bit harsh 
. I'm a non-native working at a public Uni, I get paid the same as everyone else. Starting my 3rd year now...and not many have stayed more than a year or 2.
I've concluded it is impossible to get a decent job in China, while you are in China. I've done a full year of hunting jobs. I've gotten an offer for 3 jobs, all where in Europe and all where people who found me on LinkedIn saying "you have an amazing profile, let us pay for moving you and your family"
I've applied for a lot of jobs in China and Hong Kong. The Hong Kongese do call for interviews, but the competition is fierce in Hong Kong and the closets I've ever gotten was after an interview being turned down with the "plausible" reason "it's required for us to hire a HK citizen to fill our quota"
hiddenjelly:
I know what you mean, getting a good job here is really tough. Most positions are senior level and I've been out of management for 5 years, it's also tough trying to get a non-teaching job when you've been teaching for so long as they look at you funny and don't take you seriously. For Chinese being a teaching is like being a god, but for me at least it's a stigma when it's not what you want to do for the rest of your like!
Scandinavian:
I'm in IT and have a kick ass CV with references from well known companies like IBM etc. My criteria for jobs is "has to be fun", but for my profile I need to apply for middle-management to seem to have a sensible career path, although I could easily want be a normal if I got to work with some fun technology.
dom87:
the usual problem in china, you cant get a "normal-middle" class job because therefor they have billions of chinese
for foreigners you only got the high class jobs, yes the bring you tons of money but you have to have the experience for that e.g. 20 years in automotive or something
Scandinavian:
I think possibly the problem is also that when you apply from China, you are damaged goods. The responsible person for hiring you (if its a Chinese company) will prefer someone fresh from abroad. The only way Chinese get jobs themselves is through guanxi, no one gets a job on their merits
