Global Careers

The world continues to change. More and more Americans today are taking a leap that once would have seemed unimaginable: becoming employees of Chinese firms. Many jobs with Chinese companies are now advertised in English on international websites. Far more jobs are posted on the most popular Chinese-language job portals. Top among these (the Monster.com of China, for good and bad) is Zhaopin. Ifyou can read Chinese (or are willing to make some guesses based on Google Translate), Zhaopin is well-worth checking out. In many ways, applying to and working for a Chinese company is the same as applying to and working for a U.S. company. You still need your job search toolkit. You still need to tailor yourmaterials for each posting. And you still need to work hard and pay your dues.

Americans working for Chinese companies must also payspecial attention to cultural issues. And you’ll want to be sure that the jobyou are being offered is real, and not just a temp placement so that theChinese company has a foreigner to roll out for “face” reasons at this or thatevent. For a funny example of this, checkout this piece on Chinese firms “renting” white “employees.”

If you do have a real opportunity with a Chinese firm, itmay well be one of the best opportunities you could have.

If you’re interested in learning more about howto go about working for a Chinese firm — or simply how to get started on aChina career — check out my new book, Go Global! Launching an InternationalCareer Here or Abroad. It will be released on Amazon and iTunes within a fewweeks.