Finding Work as a Foreigner

[天空神]

Hi Everyone,

 

I was curious if anyone here knows a good place to look for work in China? My fiance is Chinese and she's always bringing up the subject of moving there someday. I don't necessarily have intentions of us moving there, but that's because I feel like I couldn't find work. I'm not interested in teaching English, not that there's anything wrong with it, but I just don't want to. The main reason I worry I couldn't find work is because my Mandarin is at about a level 4 HSK. I would assume that isn't good enough for most companies in China, which means my only option, at least at first, would be to find something in which it wouldn't be required to be highly advanced/fluent in Mandarin. I'd ask my fiance, but I don't want her to think I'm all ready to move or something. This is really just trying to kind of survey the work scene out there, specifically Shanghai where she is from

 

So is there any like Chinese equivalent to Indeed.Com or like Linkedin.com that I could look at? Or any suggestions on jobs out there?

 

My college degree was in Clinical Psychology and most of my work background is in Human Resources. So I'm not sure that does me a ton of good

[happy_hyaena]

Would there be any way for you to join a big company and have them transfer you to a China office or the likes?

[天空神]

Possibly. I thought about that, but the language is still a problem. Since I'm not fluent I'm worried a company would say they couldn't do it because of that 

[abcdefg]

23 hours ago, 天空神 said:

My college degree was in Clinical Psychology and most of my work background is in Human Resources. So I'm not sure that does me a ton of good

 

I have a friend here who is in Human Resources with a large (Chinese) company. So it seems that at least that occupational specialty exists.

[imron]

7 hours ago, 天空神 said:

Since I'm not fluent I'm worried a company would say they couldn't do it because of that

Let them be the ones to tell you that rather than just assuming it would be the case.

 

There are plenty of foreigners working in China with little/no Chinese language ability because their direct reports and employees all speak sufficient English and/or they have an English speaking assistant to act as a translator when necessary.

[889]

Indeed, when sending people to places like Japan and China, some companies will avoid those with a strong interest in local culture and language: they want you to be absorbed in your work, not distracted by language learning and making new friends.

[ZhangKaiRong]

On 2017. 06. 23. at 10:00 AM, 889 said:

Indeed, when sending people to places like Japan and China, some companies will avoid those with a strong interest in local culture and language: they want you to be absorbed in your work, not distracted by language learning and making new friends.

 

Quite an interesting way to handle expat issues, and I'm not sure why these would succeed compared to selecting people with ambition in the specific region. Being interested in learning the local language and culture does not mean that the employee will slack off and refuse to work, in most cases, it's the opposite, he/she will be energetic and extra motivated.

[ChTTay]

Best bet seems to be finding a job at home for a company with strong Chinese links! You could even find a Chinese company with offices in your home content these days.