How to use Chinese to benefit my career?

[redditer01]

Hi all,

I'm currently a data analyst at a very large bank. My Chinese is on par with HSK 5.

I'm looking for ways to use Chinese to benefit my career (i.e. make more money). I wouldn't mind living in China, but would prefer living in the states. In what ways could I use Chinese to my advantage? Would I make a ton more working in China? Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks.

[ZhangKaiRong]

Unfortunately, Chinese language skills are not easy to monetarize well nowadays. There are a lot of native speakers studying/living in Western countries attending the best universities, so if a firm needs someone specifically because of Chinese language related tasks, they can hire them with little effort, and they also don't need to pay extra over the market price for language skills.

You might earn more in China, but don't expect anything groundbreaking, the really good packages paid to foreigners/expats are over, and you need to fit to a very nieche position or have 15+ years of competitive leadership experience to earn significantly more than in the US - as I mentioned above, the skillset of a young Chinese professional graduated in Europe/US is getting very close to a Western-born and educated foreigner, so companies operating in China are less likely to pay more for a less experienced foreigner with the same skillset but dubious language capabilities. And don't forget that in China, Chinese language skills are not an extra if you're out of the expat world.

 

You said that your Chinese is around HSK5 level - but how good are your actual skills (mainly speaking and writing that matters)? Would you be fully confident in giving a presentation in Chinese, writing a report on technical and professional matters or participating a meeting without any English? The problem with HSK levels is that everyone understands them differently. I'm working in the field of strategy and investment advisory at a top tier professional firm, and I'm also helping the HR department when they're recruiting Chinese-speaking candidates. I have had several interviews with fresh grads and experienced professionals said to be working with Chinese language and having good Chinese skills and certificates in their CV, and mostly the people with the upper HSK levels (5/6) were the most disappointing for me in terms of actual language capabilities. So it depends a lot on the situation. My experience is that even though I had absolutely no problem with everyday life in Chinese, the first two years of using Chinese professionally was a challenge. Some months ago I found the first draft of the first report I ever wrote in Chinese, and I feel the huge skill gap. Same goes for business-related presentations.

 

What your best bets are:

- If your company is present in China, try to get yourself relocated to an office in China. In most cases, the packages are a little bit better for intrafirm relocations compared to local hires, but far from classic expat perks. Depending on the structure of your firm, you have a safe spot to get back to if you realize that the new location is not your cup of coffee.

- Try to get hired by a Chinese firm in the US, you will have tons of Chinese colleagues and it might help your professional Chinese development.

 

In terms of payment - I don't know what is the market average for people in the data analytics field in the US, however I expect that in terms of dollars you would earn less than in the US, but on purchase power parity basis you might earn a little bit more depending on your lifestyle and the city you're living in. And you might have the dilemma whether a one digit percent growth of your savings worth the compromises you possibly need to make living in China (pollution issues, food safety, being far from family/friends, etc.).

[Kherith]

Im sure ZhangRaiKong has much more experience than me and you should listen to his advices, however, I would like to add something. What he says is certainly completely true in cities like Beijing, Shanghai... I am living in Wuhan and I feel there are still a LOT of opportunities for foreigners, maybe I'm wrong but if you look in big cities that are still not very developed, you might have more opportunities and more money to make.
I also want to insist that if you can relocate to China through your own company, that would be the best deal (in terms of "safety" for your job)