How to Find a Non-Teaching Job?

[Doug from Canada]

Haha, they're not really goals. I'm just curious to see what to expect.

[Icon]

Average salary starts at 40K TWD. Long hours, travel involved. As it has been said before, teh best deals are found by looking at a multinational company that wants to send you here.

[Doug from Canada]

Good to hear. Just curious...how long are long? Is 40k for domestic jobs? If so, what's a rough range for a position when an MNC sends you to Taiwan? Thanks so much!

[danbinggui]

Hi all, this is my first post in what seems to be an extremely active forum for Taiwan expats. I'm not sure if this is the right forum (please move if necessary) but I am hoping to get your tips/advice/insights on locating a business related (i.e. non-english teaching related) job in Taiwan. In particular, I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on how to best locate such jobs, the requirement for Chinese literacy, pay, suggestions on types of jobs that would suit me, etc. I've done a search through the threads in the forum and have already found some great stuff and was hoping to get even more personalized advice here.

I guess you should also know a little bit about me. I'm a Canadian national age 24 with an undergrad in business management. I have 2+ years of experience in strategy consulting within the financial services and new technologies sectors for a large multinational consulting firm (realistically though I have the equivalent of 4+ years of experience). Fluent in english of course with conversational chinese under my belt, having worked in Taiwan before. I'm interested in basically anything business-related but am open to anything that pays decent and does not involve teaching english. Obviously I have nothing against english teaching, just that I'm looking to live in Taiwan permanently and am looking to build a career outside of the teaching world. In terms of pay, I'm hoping for 100k+ NT/month but am flexible. I'm currently making $70k USD/yr so I'm willing to take a very significant pay cut but would like to maintain an ok life style if possible.

Thank you for your help, particularly given that almost all the info I've found elsewhere online so far has been english teaching related. Please let me know if I should add or clarify on anything.

Yeah I'd look into a foreign company here. From what I hear from a long-termer I know in the tech field, they have to pay waiguoren a semi-comparable wage to what they would make back home. Makes me wanna polish up my resume

Good luck to yah. What brings you to Taiwan?

[Doug from Canada]

Ah, gotcha. Any suggestions on foreign companies that are prominent in Taiwan? I know only of Citigroup so far.

I'm looking to move there as my wife is Taiwanese.

[citizen k]

HSBC, Standard Chartered, UBS, Prudential, Manulife, BNP, ANZ...they're all here.

[Naughtius]

I'm pretty sure that Taiwanese companies are required to pay foreign professionals a minimum of 50k TWD per month. Also, if you’re looking into Taiwanese companies, they would most likely hire you because they want an English speaker of staff. So essentially, you’d be the English go-to guy. As others already said, you’d get paid mush more by getting sent here by a western company.

[Icon]

Ah, gotcha. Any suggestions on foreign companies that are prominent in Taiwan? I know only of Citigroup so far.

I'm looking to move there as my wife is Taiwanese.

Citibank here is not really Citibank US.

Minimun wage for foreigner is minimun wage for local times two, at least, per law. First year taxes are 20%.

Long hours include 12 to 16, depending on teh industry. Normal is 10.

[citizen k]

As others already said, you’d get paid mush more by getting sent here by a western company.

True that. I'd look at getting in touch with some headhunters with ties to the financial ,or whatever other industry you are interested, in South East Asia and make it clear to them that you are specifically interested in being posted in TW. I know many people who are "overseas hires" here and the lowest I've heard of is maybe 2 million per year salary supplemented by housing allowance, car, and education allowances in the case where they are bringing children. Pretty sweet. Most are engineers though. Not so familiar with what's common in finance.

[Doug from Canada]

Great. Thanks for all the info. What do you think the requirements are for chinese proficiency? I'm only conversationally proficient. Will this be a major issue?