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Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

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Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#61

Post by ndnxhs »

yourbandsucks wrote: post #38
ilamont wrote: post #29

I am glad to see Taiwan getting this type of attention from a major tech company. Taiwan's economy really needs an economic lift, after decades of brain drain and economic dominance by the People's Republic of China, the United States, and Japan. I am concerned, though, that this is Google's way of getting around issues of not being able to operate with a free hand in China, i.e. it will serve as a platform for devel…

Why is developing Chinese language services a bad thing?

Because Google is developing unethical censorship tools for the Chinese government.

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#62

Post by jimrhods23 »

komali2 wrote: post #52
jimrhods23 wrote: post #18

I lived in Taiwan for a couple of years. The cost of living is also extremely low, which will benefit Google and many other companies that open offices there. A nice apartment in a great part of town was only around $350/month USD. I also had the benefit of making US wages contracting at the time.

> I also had the benefit of making US wages contracting at the time. Ohhh, do tell more. This is my plan sometime over the next 5 years. Lived there as a broke English teacher in my early 20s, can't wait to go back as a working engineer.

I quit my job before I left with enough to last me about 6 months, in savings, just in case I needed it for expenses, etc.

While I was there, I started consulting and found a remote gig that didn't really care where I was located. The only downside is that you are now 12 hours off from the EST timezone in the US.

Morning meetings are now your night-time, which can be inconvenient, and you just won't be able to communicate during part of the day, but I was able to make it work.

If you want to stay longer than 3 months, you will either need to study Mandarin (which I did) and get a student visa (you will need to find a university/school that will allow you to do this..which is pretty affordable) or do a visa run where you leave and come back (I think you can do this up to 2 years).

I studied Mandarin for about a year and then traveled around Asia every few months for another year. It was a great experience.

I wanted to do this since I was 19..but couldn't make it happen until I was 30. The only issue I had was that making friends with other expats was difficult.

Most expats are in their early 20s and only interested in partying and drinking every night and teaching English during the day. If that sounds like a disaster, it is.

Many of the English schools also aren't really picky about the teachers they hire, so you will get some people that shouldn't be anywhere near a classroom..especially with elementary aged kids.

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#63

Post by pard68 »

csomar wrote: post #19
komali2 wrote: post #3

>Last year, the project trained about 5,000 students in AI technology and 50,000 digital marketers. I feel like Taiwan represents a talent opportunity like no other. I dream of starting an engineering company there that is literally a clone of some upcoming business model, and doing nothing but capping the work week at 40 hours and guaranteeing 4 weeks vacation. I could snipe the best talent on hand in the country, w…

Tech companies are the ones to blame. There is insane numbers of untapped talent willing to work remote and to adapt to the bay area time zone if needed. They'll also work for less than 1/10th of their US based ones. There are two possible explanations: 1- Tech companies didn't try to expand overseas; didn't care and just tried to limit salaries inland (I just remembered their fiasco). 2- Tech companies failed to exp…

They don't even need to look abroad. Plenty of the flyover country and the south eastern USA would work Cali hours and accept probably half or less the pay for a better qol than can be had in the Bay area.

Central VA has UVA and VTech, half the people I work with went to one, the other, it both. A lot of them pull maybe $100,000/year. Around my area that's a pretty comfortable pay, few acres and 3000sqft would cost maybe 150k all in.

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#64

Post by MrMorden »

pard68 wrote: post #63
csomar wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tech companies are the ones to blame. There is insane numbers of untapped talent willing to work remote and to adapt to the bay area time zone if needed. They'll also work for less than 1/10th of their US based ones. There are two possible explanations: 1- Tech companies didn't try to expand overseas; didn't care and just tried to limit salaries inland (I just remembered their fiasco). 2- Tech companies failed to exp…

They don't even need to look abroad. Plenty of the flyover country and the south eastern USA would work Cali hours and accept probably half or less the pay for a better qol than can be had in the Bay area. Central VA has UVA and VTech, half the people I work with went to one, the other, it both. A lot of them pull maybe $100,000/year. Around my area that's a pretty comfortable pay, few acres and 3000sqft would cost m…

And Charlottesville has Ting FTTH. The fiber in Silly Valley is AFAIK in SF and to the north.

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#66

Post by yourbandsucks »

ndnxhs wrote: post #61
yourbandsucks wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is developing Chinese language services a bad thing?

Because Google is developing unethical censorship tools for the Chinese government.

OP strongly implied that working with or serving the Chinese at all was a bad thing.

They're 1/5 of the world.

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#68

Post by theblackcat1002 »

komali2 wrote: post #3

>Last year, the project trained about 5,000 students in AI technology and 50,000 digital marketers. I feel like Taiwan represents a talent opportunity like no other. I dream of starting an engineering company there that is literally a clone of some upcoming business model, and doing nothing but capping the work week at 40 hours and guaranteeing 4 weeks vacation. I could snipe the best talent on hand in the country, w…

> Overworked, underpaid, extremely competent was my experience of Taiwanese engineering

As an undergrad student studying both Electrical Engineering and CS in Taiwan, this is what I heard from my seniors. For most of the tech job, you are held "responsible" for the progress, so overtime is very common.

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#69

Post by jacob_rezi »

komali2 wrote: post #3

>Last year, the project trained about 5,000 students in AI technology and 50,000 digital marketers. I feel like Taiwan represents a talent opportunity like no other. I dream of starting an engineering company there that is literally a clone of some upcoming business model, and doing nothing but capping the work week at 40 hours and guaranteeing 4 weeks vacation. I could snipe the best talent on hand in the country, w…

This is similar to what I am doing in Seoul with a side project called Current - http://currentdev.com

Re: Google will open a new office complex and add hundreds of jobs in Taiwan

#70

Post by komali2 »

theblackcat1002 wrote: post #68
komali2 wrote: post #3

>Last year, the project trained about 5,000 students in AI technology and 50,000 digital marketers. I feel like Taiwan represents a talent opportunity like no other. I dream of starting an engineering company there that is literally a clone of some upcoming business model, and doing nothing but capping the work week at 40 hours and guaranteeing 4 weeks vacation. I could snipe the best talent on hand in the country, w…

> Overworked, underpaid, extremely competent was my experience of Taiwanese engineering As an undergrad student studying both Electrical Engineering and CS in Taiwan, this is what I heard from my seniors. For most of the tech job, you are held "responsible" for the progress, so overtime is very common.

We're held responsible for our work in San Francisco as well.

My take is that the overwork aspect is raw culture - arbitrarily needing to stay as late as your boss while you fiddle with your phone, lacking any actual work to do.

Underpay is because of market forces - the average salary is 30k because the average salary is 30k because the average salary is 30k.

My advice to you is learn to pull solo contract work off US companies early.

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