Different HSK tests

[Flickserve]

http://www.chinesetest.cn/index.do

 

I saw on this website various tests.

 

Does that mean there is a separate hsk test for youths, business and medicine?

[大块头]

I've never heard of anybody taking the "BCT" or the "MCT".

 

Searching the forums yields one person who took the BCT, and no results for the MCT.

[roddy]

The MCT is new, never seen that before. BCT and the YCT have been around a while, but not sure how much take up they get. 

[ZhangKaiRong]

BCT has definitely been around for a while, I took it in 2012 (it was heavily encouraged to take it). I don’t know whether it became harder than it used to be, but the test I took was a joke - as per the test, applying your language skills for buying apples at the market can be considered a Chinese business situation

[thechamp]

ZhangKaiRong did you ever use your Chinese much professionally? Have you gone back as an experienced foreign hire?

[ZhangKaiRong]

On 11/17/2019 at 3:35 PM, thechamp said:

ZhangKaiRong did you ever use your Chinese much professionally? Have you gone back as an experienced foreign hire?

 

I actually do use Chinese a lot in professional situations - I'm working in the field of M&A, and my client portfolio includes Chinese companies as well that are present locally. They prefer meetings to be held in Chinese and also require analysis in Chinese - if you can demonstrate to them that you're knowledgeable in your field and you can speak good business Chinese, as well as you have the right seniority, they become very loyal to you.

 

I did not go back to China to work - considered it in the past three years many times, as firmwise there are mild initiatives to relocate foreign talents to Chinese cities, especially once you hit the VP level. I also got an offer from our Beijing office in the past 18 months, but did not go in the end, as the overall package (salary, housing allowance, bonus, career path, quality of life) was not attractive enough compared to where I was. Also headhunters from the region often contact me, but haven't seen really tempting positions yet. However, I travel quite a lot to China due to project / client work, and that is an alternative that makes me much happier than working in China on a permanent basis.

 

In my view, the really good foreigner packages are gone from the market, at least in finance, unless you're working for a big US / Western European corporation that still invests heavily in their Chinese subsidiaries and really needs someone "reliable" from the HQ to be onsite and be happy to pay for the Chinese cost of living. The competition is quite fierce in all business fields, as the Swiss, UK, German and US business schools are full of Chinese students who are actually performing quite well, and they are willing to go back to China and seize opportunities for salaries that Westerners do not find attractive at all. There are still quite good opportunities available if you're working in the field of engineering or IT, even better if you're inclining towards R&D and innovative ideas, but I can imagine that "in the good old times to be an expat", at the end of the 00's and the beginning of the 10's it was even better.

[thechamp]

This is really interesting ZKR thanks for answering in such detail.

 

Yeah I'm thinking along the same lines. I don't think that market is like it was...I lived with a guy who was at Swire and I don't think his position would really exist anymore, on the mainland. (He's been back for ages though).

 

Yeah that's the kind of industry I'm in (I'm a software engineer but I work with, and have worked with 'real' engineers who actually build stuff!).

 

I may look into a move in a few years