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Q: Opportunities in China for expat programmers
Hi All,
I am a Sri Lankan programmer who is currently based in Singapore. I've been to China(GZ) a couple of time for work related matters. And i find it quite fascinating (Singapore is a grate place to live and work for expats. But sometimes i long for a bit of adventure 
). So i was wondering about the possibility to work in China.
I have about >5 years of experience in my field (web/mobile/ruby on rails/android development with startups and services companies) and a degree in software engineering. I know there are decent job opportunities for expat programmers (in my field) in HK who are not so good with the local languages. But i wonder what its like in the mainland?
I am willing to learn some mandarin and take a pay cut (i don't expect the same pay i get in Singapore in China). Do you think this is realistic? Any guidance/advice/comments on this would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
10 years 42 weeks ago in Business & Jobs - China
In the field of coding, as far as I know you will have to work on local salary. This will depend on what city you are in, but it can be quite low. There are plenty of good freshly educated people in China that can write code.
To hire someone who isn't fluent in Mandarin will not be any benefit to most software companies. You would need to look for international companies, there should be plenty of those, but you are still competing with a big pool of locals.
Good luck.
My advice: stick with Singapore.
Hulk:
This is the best advice in the thread.
Seriously. We aren't just saying that to be mean. Stick with Singapore...
Scandinavian:
MissA, Hulk. Have you guys ever been to S'pore? I mean, it's a nice enough place. But man is it boring, unless you like shopping womens shoes all the time
Scandinavian, i can't co ment using this tablet, so my reply's for you. Yes, I've spent about a month in Singapore. Honestly, I'd prefer Bangkok or Hanoi to Singapore for the reasons you mentioned.
But, for a professional person I'd definitely recommend staying in Singapore - the quality of life and long term career prospect are higher.
Yes s'pore had a f*ckload of malls, but it also has good restaurants, bars, clean safe food, high qualiyy buildings, saneish traffic and the rule of law. Singaporeans are pretty much universally lovely people. And for shenanigans, all the delights of Thailand and Indonesia are a very short plane ride away.
Scandinavian:
It is often called the most livable city in Asia. Personally I would go for Hong Kong as it has part Chinese craziness and part food safety and law and order.
Yeah, Hk sounds pretty awesome. I'm gutted I never got there.
Sounds about right, I wouldn't take a holiday in Singapore, but i would live there.
Unless you speak fluent Mandarin, there really aren't any.
Most IT workers in China have very very poor english.
