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Ask HN: Is it difficult for non-Chinese to work in China?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it difficult for non-Chinese to work in China?

#11

Post by cleric »

Hello.

Im a Swedish Sofware engineer and I have been working in Beijing for the last ~4 years. As others have pointed out, China is huge, and I have no experience from working in Hongkong or Shanghai where the vibe is more international, or so they say.

So what to expect? Smooth sailing, as long as you can deliver. There is a lot of companies that value English speakers in general, so dont be surprised if you get pampered.

There is no xenophobia to speak of, just cute curiosity. Its easy to find work if you have the skills (coughwe are hiring: hr@p1.comcough). Visas are a hassle, and rules change regularly. But if you are working here for a serious company and have the proper age/education/pazazz its usually just a bunch of paper work.

Culturally, its all up to where you are. But for the big cities its a very modern, interesting living.

I would never recommend going for the big 3(Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu) unless you love going to a place with 15k employees. There is a lot of options.

Its a very hungry tech scene in general, for everything from classic websites to apps. Almost nothing works here made by Google and Facebook, and boy its easy to take that for granted, so alternatives needs to be build and localized versions of everything is spawned.

For me personally I choose to work in China rather than to seek higher education back in Sweden and I have been in on a startup that now have more users that Scandinavia combined. Some crazy things I feel would never have been possible outside of China. We are still considered a small startup in China.

I could elaborate on this, but I think my best tip is just: Go, its easy to fly home.

Re: Ask HN: Is it difficult for non-Chinese to work in China?

#12

Post by neverminder »

United857 wrote: post #9

I worked in Shanghai, China for 3 years for Ubisoft (game developer). Senior-level experienced talent is still hard to find, so it's relatively easy to get a job and work visa (which will be sponsored by your company once you accept a offer) compared to first-world countries. This is doubly true if you have a well known tech company on your resume (Google, FB, etc) I'd recommend working for a multinational company (o…

> Shanghai and Beijing are the most foreigner friendly cities in China; huge expat population, many western restaurants, signage in English, etc. Other cities not so much, but nothing a slight sense of adventure can't conquer.

I thought that would be Hong Kong?

Re: Ask HN: Is it difficult for non-Chinese to work in China?

#13

Post by xt00 »

I worked in China for an American company and know others who have done it. I was based in Shanghai. In that case it was pretty cool. Generally people from US people are very curious about. I have seen a bit of racism toward people from India, Malaysia, Japanese and Koreans. So if you are of that descent and look like you are from one of those countries then people may treat you a little differently.. Also if you don't know any Mandarin it may be pretty difficult to get a job there unless it's for a foreign company. The visa your best bet is to have a company support you to get it.. Basically you end up needing some kind of support letters to do it. You also have to pass a physical that you do in China if I remember correctly. Culturally in China varies a ton across the country. Beijing Shanghai Shenzhen are all different. I would say the simplest method to avoid issues is to just copy what you see the locals do. Business meeting etiquette you can look up online but generally it's not nearly as serious or formal in China compared to Japan. Probably one thing would be not to joke to people about their title.. Like "oh you are CEO? Ha!" That would probably be the most offensive thing..

Re: Ask HN: Is it difficult for non-Chinese to work in China?

#14

Post by are595 »

cleric wrote: post #11

Hello. Im a Swedish Sofware engineer and I have been working in Beijing for the last ~4 years. As others have pointed out, China is huge, and I have no experience from working in Hongkong or Shanghai where the vibe is more international, or so they say. So what to expect? Smooth sailing, as long as you can deliver. There is a lot of companies that value English speakers in general, so dont be surprised if you get pam…

Not OP, but I am also very interested in CS jobs in China (might apply too :3). (BTW, your site's job page seems to be down: http://jobs.p1.com/tech).

How do you find the cost of living is, given that Beijing is such a large city. Are you able to save money for retirement, etc?

Re: Ask HN: Is it difficult for non-Chinese to work in China?

#15

Post by United857 »

neverminder wrote: post #12
United857 wrote: post #9

I worked in Shanghai, China for 3 years for Ubisoft (game developer). Senior-level experienced talent is still hard to find, so it's relatively easy to get a job and work visa (which will be sponsored by your company once you accept a offer) compared to first-world countries. This is doubly true if you have a well known tech company on your resume (Google, FB, etc) I'd recommend working for a multinational company (o…

> Shanghai and Beijing are the most foreigner friendly cities in China; huge expat population, many western restaurants, signage in English, etc. Other cities not so much, but nothing a slight sense of adventure can't conquer. I thought that would be Hong Kong?

Yeah, technically Hong Kong is part of China but is distinct from the mainland and most HKers don't consider themselves Chinese.

It is indeed much more expat friendly than the mainland due to its British colonial heritage. However, there are far fewer tech jobs in Hong Kong (unless you want to work in the finance industry).

Re: Ask HN: Is it difficult for non-Chinese to work in China?

#16

Post by shultays »

be5invis wrote: post #3

First you have to remember that China itself's population is as large as the entire western world, so things are completely different here. For example, almost nobody in China use credit card for online payment: they use Alipay as an alternative. 1. Perhaps high salary? Non-local employees are rare here. 2. No in tech companies, but yes in small cities and countries. In tech companies and cities like Shanghai, forign…

I googled about the clock gift

>In Chinese, saying ‘giving a clock’ (送钟 sòng zhōng /song jong/) sounds exactly like the Chinese words for 'attending a funeral ritual' (送终 sòng zhōng) and thus it is bad luck to gift clocks or watches. On top of that, clocks and watches also symbolize the running out of time. This is especially true for seniors. Giving a clock or watch as a gift is the biggest no-no in Chinese culture.

http://www.chinahighlights.com/festivals/things-not-give-chi...

Re: Ask HN: Is it difficult for non-Chinese to work in China?

#17

Post by United857 »

hacker42 wrote: post #7

I would also be interested whether one takes notice of the oppressiveness of the Chinese government, e.g. the Great Firewall of China.

Pretty much every expat uses a VPN. They get blocked but it's a cat and mouse game. If you work for a multinational Western company, corporate VPNs are pretty much solid.

Other than that, nothing much day to day. It's not North Korea. Of course common sense applies (avoid overt political discussions).

Re: Ask HN: Is it difficult for non-Chinese to work in China?

#18

Post by [deleted] »

be5invis wrote: post #3

First you have to remember that China itself's population is as large as the entire western world, so things are completely different here. For example, almost nobody in China use credit card for online payment: they use Alipay as an alternative. 1. Perhaps high salary? Non-local employees are rare here. 2. No in tech companies, but yes in small cities and countries. In tech companies and cities like Shanghai, forign…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Is it difficult for non-Chinese to work in China?

#20

Post by fao_ »

cleric wrote: post #11

Hello. Im a Swedish Sofware engineer and I have been working in Beijing for the last ~4 years. As others have pointed out, China is huge, and I have no experience from working in Hongkong or Shanghai where the vibe is more international, or so they say. So what to expect? Smooth sailing, as long as you can deliver. There is a lot of companies that value English speakers in general, so dont be surprised if you get pam…

Hm, I'm curious: How much has the Chinese web blocking impacted on your usage of the web compared to Sweden?
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