Foreigners feel the pinch of nation's tough job market (China Daily) Updated: 2004-02-19 09:00
She is a polyglot, fluent in English and Chinese as well as her mother
tongue, Italian. She graduated in Chinese studies and just finished an intensive
post-graduate course on Chinese business management.
Angeca June from
Canada teaching English at a kindergarten in Fuzhou, Fujian Province. For
some foreigners wanting to work in China, teaching is a very good way to
start. [newsphoto]
Employers would be lining up to rope her in, right?
Wrong.
Susan Tami, a 29-year-old from Italy, has her own story to tell on how tough
the job market is in the world's most populous country.
"Just like other Chinese, I've found that finding a decent job in big cities
like Beijing has become increasingly challenging," says Tami, who used a
pseudonym in the interview with China Daily.
Her job-seeking experience has taught her a lesson: The reality in China is a
little different than what she learnt during her four years of Chinese studies
at Venice University.
Connections help
"Your capabilities do not necessarily allow you to move up the career ladder
in China," says Tami, who had taught in Kunming, capital of Southwest China's
Yunnan Province, for two years. Since September, she job-hunted through
networks, Internet surfing and employment agencies to get a job in Beijing,
where her boyfriend lives.
Before leaving Kunming, Tami had mailed nearly 20 resumes to Beijing-based
companies and during the past two months, she visited 10 companies and agencies,
but to no avail, at least for the moment.
"Although I failed, I'm finally moving closer to my loved one," she says with
some optimism.
Last week, she found a job as a business assistant in an Italian company
based in Tangshan, about 250 kilometres away from the Chinese capital, through a
close friend. Now, she can meet her boyfriend during weekends.
"Connections (guanxi) finally helped me find a job and that was not taught in
my text books," says Tami, whose undergraduate years were from 1992 to 1996.
"If you don't have the pull, it is definitely a problem. That is the reason I
emphasize these days that understanding China's unique culture is imperative to
find a better job in big cities."
Human resources managers say foreign companies prefer to employ Chinese who
have good command of foreign languages and as well as expertise in their fields.
Job scarcity
"Job scarcity poses another problem for foreigners," says Dai Xiaoling, human
resources officer of Aethra Telecom's Beijing office. Tami had tried her luck in
his company - a leading European producer of telecommunication products - but
Dai says the company turned Tami down because of her lack of understanding of
China's market and inexperience in the telecom field.
Li Qing, a renowned human resources expert with the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences, says requirements for foreign job hunters in China are getting
increasingly higher.
"No longer is it enough simply to be just a native speaker," says Li.
He says most administrative, technical, retail, food service and marketing
jobs are for locals who can speak foreign languages, are well-connected locally
and are willing to work for 700-4,000 yuan (US$84-482) per month, five days a
week.
He points out that "China's job market has been flooded with educated and
experienced Chinese returning from overseas and foreigners being attracted by
China's rapid economic growth."
Two years ago, Tami decided to find a job in Kunming after obtaining a
half-year training diploma on Chinese language at Yunnan Normal University.
But she found it difficult to find a job there because there was only one
Italian company in Kunming. For those from Britain and the United States, it was
quite easy because their countries had more joint ventures in the city. So she
had to earn a living as a teacher.
"Despite the fact that I love children, I didn't regard teaching a real job
because of my lack of training in the field," she says.
Tough labour market
Tami is among a large group of foreigners who are feeling the pinch of
China's tough labour market.
Her American friend Tom Convard, who works as a teacher in Kunming, says he
plans to quit teaching and find another job in Shanghai or Beijing.
"I'm just trying by mail and haven't visited big cities so far," says
Convard. He says his savings cannot support him if he becomes jobless for a
relatively long time.
"Spending one or two weeks in Beijing or Shanghai to hunt for jobs is OK, but
what if my situation is the same as that of Susan's previous two months?" But in
Kunming, I can live a comfortable life," says Convard who earns about 3,000 yuan
(US$360) per month by teaching.
Foreign teachers usually get on-the-campus apartments, support staff, a
round-trip plane tickets between their home countries and China, and teach up to
16 hours a week.
"Another benefit is that with regular teaching hours, you get a chance to
brush up your Chinese in your spare time," he says.
The English-learning fever nowadays offers teaching posts for foreigners and
competition is not so fierce in medium-sized cities such as Kunming.
"If you have a bachelor's degree, an open mind, and a soul thirsting for
living in China, the country is a great place," says Tami. "With a modest
salary, the job helps newcomers settle down."
Foreigners' concerns
Tami says visa and housing are the two great concerns for foreigners who want
to live and work in China. "With a teaching job, you get both nailed down."
"However, there are two other things that I think I need to mention. One is
improper assessment of job qualifications and the other is an underground labour
market.
"In some regions, people wrongly think that foreigners can do everything
better than Chinese," she says.
Take teaching, for example. Housewives and workers from English-speaking
countries can successfully land a job as teachers here. "Without professional
training, how can they deliver?" she asks. "But they are employed just because
they have big noses and white faces."
In addition, some employers secretly employ foreigners without registration.
"They just want to save expenses and do not care much about what kind of
documents and passports foreigners have," says Tami.
