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Q: Would you work for a Chinese company if it was your only opportunity to stay here?
I started teaching one Chinese CEO English last summer and now I’m doing an internship at his association (government-supported). It’s more like a 听力 class for me and a great chance to improve my Chinese. The CEO keeps telling me he would like me to stay (although he has never employed foreigners before) and how great (优秀) I am. As I have no work experience this seems like my only chance to stay here after I finish my studies. Would you consider this a real job opportunity? Or should I go back to my home country (where I might forget Chinese completely) to gain the 2 years work experience? I’m really confused...
12 years 9 weeks ago in Business & Jobs - China
1. Learn as much as possible about the organization, which you would not normally do when you were just teaching one person from the organization. Find if it is a "ok" firm to work for or start your career with.
2. Evaluate your own "market value", ask about your duties and negotiate the employment package, are you gonna make enough to sustain a good standard of living
3. Ask yourself if you have better opportunity at home, it might be your best chance at hand to get into the biz side of China. (Hired by the boss directly will give you many benefits oppose to the typical job hunting situation)
4. Mentally be right for "changes", office politics, part-time free English teachers for your colleagues (dont take this the wrong way, to give is to take, people would appreciate your help and want to help you more when you are their laoshi and colleague at the same time)
5. Do worry too much about the visa thing, just make sure you accompany the boss when he gives the order to the HR guy, then it will get done.
6. Sign a "open term" contract (not sure what it called exactly), where the employee is not tied to contract and can always quit with like 1-3 months written notice, if anything that you feel unacceptable after you start, you can always back out and quit.
Sasya, to be able to give you sound advise, I would have to know more details. For example, what this CEO is offering as an employment packge to you, and for how long?. On the other hand, you talk also of gaining to years of work experience if returning home. Do you have a sound offer of employment there, or is it arriving home and seeking job
opportrunities?. Which country is home?. Can you practice your field of studies with a degree from a foreign university or will you have to pass an exam to be able to practice (or work) in your field ?
And above that, how do you feel about China? Do you enjoy being here?. Feel happy? Used by now to food, customs and culture?
Only you know all of these answers, apply them to make the proper decision.
Sounds like he wants something more than he is telling you. Can't you just find something else. Besides that, if he has never hired a a foreigner, he has no right to hire foreigners, no telling how many times my firm has worked with this type of situation
1) Sounds sleazy. Maybe not though. In my experience you don't need to go too far up the higherarchy in any Chinese company before you hit a layer of nothing but drunken sociopaths, so I can't imagine what a CEO would be like.
2) I've worked for Chinese companies, and I will never again. Until you reach middle management the conditions are Dickensian, even for the more highly-paid employees. If he wants you to be an administrative assistant, for example, that means he wants you to run everything so prepare for 16 hour shifts without a day off ever, plus a huge amount of verbal abuse from everyone. Then to have all the credit for your work taken by the drunk guy who shows up to work one hour a month (only to give his beloved inspiring motiviational speeches) and spends most of his time in a brothel.
3) If he's never hired a foreigner before, he probably doesn't have the right licence to get you the visa you need, and it takes a long time to get that licence. Even if he his guanxi is over 9000, it would still take some time to get what it takes to make you legal
1. Learn as much as possible about the organization, which you would not normally do when you were just teaching one person from the organization. Find if it is a "ok" firm to work for or start your career with.
2. Evaluate your own "market value", ask about your duties and negotiate the employment package, are you gonna make enough to sustain a good standard of living
3. Ask yourself if you have better opportunity at home, it might be your best chance at hand to get into the biz side of China. (Hired by the boss directly will give you many benefits oppose to the typical job hunting situation)
4. Mentally be right for "changes", office politics, part-time free English teachers for your colleagues (dont take this the wrong way, to give is to take, people would appreciate your help and want to help you more when you are their laoshi and colleague at the same time)
5. Do worry too much about the visa thing, just make sure you accompany the boss when he gives the order to the HR guy, then it will get done.
6. Sign a "open term" contract (not sure what it called exactly), where the employee is not tied to contract and can always quit with like 1-3 months written notice, if anything that you feel unacceptable after you start, you can always back out and quit.
Thank you so much for the replies! It was a confusing situation for me but I ended up getting an official job at a foreign company. Back in 2012 they managed to provide a work visa for me which would be near impossible now...
And after working for that foreign company I understood that Chinese companies might not be such a bad choice...
Ha ha.
If I go back to the UK the chances are I would be working for a Chinese owned company
royceH:
If I go back to Australia I'd be happy to take whatever job I could find, but I don't think I'd be able to.
What do you think the real unemployment figures in the UK are....esp for those aged over 45?
ScotsAlan:
I think the UK job situation is not too bad. But need to go where the work is. My answer above was more to do with how many UK companies are being bought by Chinese.
Working for a Chinese company overseas should be ok!
I do work for a Chinese company. I work remotely, from home, in France. It works well, but I have to manage the whole taxes shenanigans on my own.
Wow you came back to your question 3 years later!
Hope you had good experience,
The day I will work for a chinese company the 4 seas would be boiling and the sky would turn in fire.
