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 How did I get my US$185K/yr. expat job in China(zt) |
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jim
头衔: 海归中校
声望: 学员
加入时间: 2004/02/20
文章: 361
海归分: 40464
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作者：jim 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
How did I get my US$185K/yr. expat job in China
(Lao Zhong, July 11, 2001)
I went to US on Jan. 28, 1981 and I got my green card from a US consulate in Canada on Jun. 16, 1989. I then went back to US and got my permanent PG&E job back on Nov. 1, 1989, the date I thought I evetually survived.
I was fighting for the card for more than 8 years and it had become the goal of my life. Now that I got it and LOST MY GOAL OF LIFE.
With my green card, I visited HK and South Korea in 1990, Taiwan and Japan in 1991, and finally Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Chongqing in early 1992. China had changed SOOOOOO MUCH!!!
I FOUND MY GOAL: COMING BACK TO CHINA!
I started to pay attention to all the possibilities to find a job in China. I even wrote a personal letter to my company's #1 (PG&E was the world's 75th largest company and THE LARGEST utility company in US at that time.) to suggest PG&E to invest in China's power industry.
In early 1994, I took a 3-day vacation to attend a San Francisco forum on foreign investment to the power industry in China because I have been in power industry since 1968. To avoid the US$1500 registration fee, I recommended myself as an interpreter to the forum organizer (an American) from Texas.
In the forum, I met 7 top government officials from the power industry in China. I also met many US/Canada developers, Western bankers, lawyers, equipment vendors, EPC contractors as well as Chinese brokers who were trying to get everyone together to WIN power projects.
With my thick skin, I contacted all the possible leads I got from the forum. As a result, I got an interview from AES, which later became the Microsoft in the world's power industry.
I got the job, but I did not immediately accept it because I do not think I should simply quit my PG&E job, which was very secure due to the power industry being monopoly, and join a venture company with all the uncertainty.
I took a 2-week vacation (extendable to 4 weeks) in Beijing to test the water. AES agreed to pay me salary for the testing period because I said AES could also test me at the same time to avoid hiring a mistake.
I arrived at Beijing early May, 1994, my first time since 1981. However, I stayed in Landmark Hotel across from Sheraton Great Wall Hotel for the two weeks without going anywhere else. AES was in Landmark's penthouses at that time.
I got up 6:30am every morning and took my breakfast with my co-workers, then started my working day before 8am. While I was reviewing some projects' preliminary fesibility studies prepared by various Chinese entities, who were looking for foreign investment, it seemed to me most others were making phone calls trying to set up dinners with key Chinese officials.
We, 3 caucasians and 10 Chinese, had work lunch everyday in the same local restaurant, which was cheap, but you had to watch for flies.
We went back to work immediately after lunch. No nap.
In the evening, we mostly had formal dinners with all kinds of Chinese officials. No business was discussed. Straight eating.
We then went to Karaoke near Yansha Shopping Center (very expensive) for fun because "fun" was one of AES's four missions. During the two weeks, I did not see any Chinese official going with us. I did not see any of us asking for a female companion either.
I went to bed at midnight EVERY NIGHT. Next morning at 6:30, the rolling started AGAIN. IT RAN LIKE THIS EVERYDAY, SEVEN DAY A WEEK!!!
As a sit-back utility engineer since 1968, I simply could not take this grinding. I excused myself to AES and went back to PG&E.
Two minor reasons for my retreat:
1. AES pays me more, but my PG&E pay plus my consistent casino winning would be more than that.
2. My younger son was still in high school and I was a single parent.
Ironically, AES became one of the 10 world stocks recommended by TIME magazine at the beginning of the new century.
If I had stayed with AES, my 5000 share stock option would have made me US three quarter million!!!
Frankly, I did not regret much because my casino winning has made me financially independent anyway.
I went back to US, but I did not forget my China dream. I was keeping my eye on the foreign investment in China's power industry as well as communicating with the few Chinese expats in China's power industry.
On Jun. 30, 1996, I was permanently kicked out by all the Vegas casinos where I could win. While this is the 7th time since 1986, it was a fatal one because I never fell in love with anyone during my 10 years in Vegas until Spring 1996 (Please wait for my 40-page story on this 28-years old dancer from Dongfang Singing & Dancing Troupe.)
I then restarted my campaign for coming back to China.
At that time, China was starting to have surplus electricity and, therefore, no hope to find a job in the foreign power-related companies in China.
Nevertheless, I took a 3-day vacation again to attend a Las Vegas forum on foreign investment in China's power industry and made many new connections (This time, I became a forum consultant to have the US$1500 fee waived.)
Following up the leads, I e-mailed and faxed my resume to MANY foreign power-related companies in China (incl. HK) and received very few responses, which were all negative. I thought I had to be there knocking their doors. Otherwise, even you were the right person, how many employers would be willing to fly you from US to China for an interview?
One of my graduate school classmates was among the early owners of now-famous Datang Telecom, whose chairman promised on the Company's website that he would hire Chinese expats and pay them whatever they make in their US companies. I called him and paid all travel cost to have an interview with them in San Jose, which lead a site visit to their Xian factory next time I go back to China.
Shortly after, my father passed away and I called Datang after the funeral. I flew myself to Xian and was accommodated in a 5-star hotel. The GM there was a visiting scholar I met in US before. From talking to him, I realized the #1 guy hiring Chinese expats at the US rate was to get support for his war between Chinese and Western cultures because most factory management were from the state-owned enterprises. My impression of the factory was also quite in the style of typical state-owned enterprises (In contrast, I was interviewed by Mr. Ren, Zhengfei, Shenzhen HUAWEI's #1 and HUAWEI Telecom, maybe the largest private enterprise in China, looked very differently.)
I was then fully aware of what I would be getting into if I took a position there and the GM read my mind. He flew me to Dalian at my request.
Why Dalian?
When I was searching DESPERATELY by all possible means before I came back to China for the funeral, I found from internet a Canadian high school in Dalian. The school is owned by a fortysomething former Chinese MOFTEC official, who made enough money to move to Canada. He was gambling day and night there and asked himself: Would this be the rest of my life? He then came back to China to establish the school and his 17 (now 40) Canadian teachers are all paid by the Canadian rate plus free boarding and round-trip air tickets for the teachers' immediate family members (while 99% foreign English teachers in China are paid few thousand RMB per month).
The school is located in Golden Pebble Beach, China's first NATIONAL resort authorized by PRC National Travel Bureau, which is 50 miles from Dalian.
On the interview date, I was picturing the resort somewhat like the Caribbean resort I went in 1989 and planned to have my breakfast in one of the fastfood places there.
When I got there by taxi, I saw rural countryside with few fancy buildings scattered. I had my breakfast in a typical countryside "restaurant" and walked to the school.
The interview was good because the school owner and I shared the same mentality. When he asked me how much I would like to get paid, I said if I am giving up my US government job (I did work for Nevada State Government at that time.), why should I care?
I was given RMB$3000 per month plus the same living condition as those Canadian teachers, which means I have my own apartment in the best residential area in the Dalian New Economic Development Zone, which is 30 miles from Dalian.
So I became a Foreign Affairs Assistant to Chairman of Board. My co-workers are the following:
1. Canadian teachers
2. School management made mainly by the owner's former MOFTEC co-workers and, therefore, the management style was mostly in the fashion of the state-owned enterprises.
3. Chinese teachers recruited from all over China. Since ALL teachers had to pass an English interview, most of the teachers were young girls. I did dream of "February, Early Spring" (a 1960's famous Chinese movie) and I did have my target, but I left the school shortly (I called the girl a few days ago and she already has her baby. We made a dinner appointment for next week.)
I got the school job and applied for 6-mth leave-of-absence without pay from my Vegas employer. I struggled with the fax machine for LONG time and eventually got an approval for three months.
While I was OK with RMB3000/month, I was wondering whether I could do better. This was why I excused myself to sign a contract with the school to get my pay doubled. I did call/e-mail to find greener grass, however, nothing in near term.
I felt only the school owner understood why I gave up US$6000 and now make RMB3000. ALL others had their question marks on me but they do not want to ask because they do not consider I am one of them (My sister just said even she does not really understand why I decide to retire in China, let alone convincing others. THEREFORE, I HAVE GIVEN UP ON EXPLAINING WHY I CAME BACK.)
Let me give you one example on how my work in China tasted. There were MANY bilingual signs in the ten-building campus and most of them were ridiculous Chinglish. The security guard room at the school entrance was named Janitor's Room. And many more I could not remember.
I talked to the Canadian teachers that they would lose all their faces in front of foreign visitors because of these signs, especially the school was being accredited by Vancouver education board. They said they mentioned many times, no response.
It was because they could only communicate with the liaison lady, who was the translator of all the English signs in the school!
If I speak up, I would get this lady mad at me FOR THE REST OF MY WORK LIFE THERE.
If I do not speak up, as a Foreign Affairs Assistant, I would feel ashamed to take any foreign vistor to tour the campus.
I told the school owner how serious this could be since the accreditation delegation is coming.
All signs were fixed after being reviewed by Canadian teachers and I was told to share an apartment with another guy (This was under that lady's jurisdiction.)
Before my Chinese roommate arrives from Canada, I received the altimatum from my Vegas employer, which said my 3-mth leave was ending and it could not be extended because they have no quota to hire someone else to do my work. If I failed to show up in my office on September 15, 1997, I would be terminated. Period.
I departed from Dalian on Aug. 28, 1997 heading back to US in the hope of getting my leave without pay extended. On the way back, I stayed in Bejing for 11 days, Shenzhen and HK a few days each, a total of 18 days of job-junting!
I sent advance notices to the foreign power-related companies in Beijing by e-mails that I am coming and would like to stop by. I also bought a 2+ inch thick directory of the foreign enterprises in Beijing right after I arrived at Beijing (This kind of directories are now much easier to find and they cost about RMB400-500 each. The best one is well indexed with the name of the top person from each company listed plus their e-mail addresses. Another product has a CD version for which you pay no extra, but this one is made by someone w/o any Western mentality and, therefore, difficult to use.)
I did a manual blanket search with the directory and came up with an 8-page list of Beijing companies I might have some hope (The list also included all other job leads I collected over last several years and now I eventually had the chance to knock in!)
I called them one by one with the most likely ones on the top of my list (Of course, I faxed my resume with a cover letter the day before my calling.) Here is a trick: You have to e-mail/fax/call the top guy because nobody else would care or help (The hard truth is most Chinese do not welcome an American Chinese to weaken their own positions in the company.) If you do not know who is the top guy, try to ask whoever picks up the phone. If the Chinese girl does not even want to tell you that and says their top guy is not in his/her office, ask whether you can leave a message on his/her answering machine. If still not, you may ask her to connect you with any other caucasian in the office because they do not have much conflict of interest with us.
After hundreds of calls, I was able to make few walk-in brief interviews. I found I was in difficulties to convince them why I would like to quit my US government job and take such a risk (Fortunately, this is no longer a big question mark nowadays.) Another reason could be that no matter how good you are, you have to be a RIGHT PERSON showing up in RIGHT PLACE at RIGHT TIME because expat openings are rare - ONLY IF THEY CANNOT FILL THE POSITION WITH CHINESE LOCAL, which are roughly 90% cheaper!
I did pass at least one preliminary interview and got into the formal interview with a company affiated with a major US utility company. While my future boss and his boss are all from HK and, therefore, they did understand my reasons to come back to China (Especially this was 1997, HK just returned to China!), the US HR Director (a caucasian) found it was too hard for him to understand why I quit my US government job and come back to China for less money (I knew I should not tell them how much I want to be paid, but I was SQUEEZED to say "How about US$50K?", which sent the interview to hell.)
I also went to a job fair solely for Beijing foreign enterprises at Beijing Exhibition Center, which looked so much better that the job fairs for local companies (Do not go to the local ones, you would not be able to breath there and they are useless to you anyway.) I tried to chat with all caucasians there and I did get a chief rep of a major US oil company interested in me. I got his interview next day in 5-star Kunlun Hotel and he would send me to Tianjin to do marketing there because Tianjin University is very strong in petrochemical and I had good connections there due to my sponsoring a scholarship for my young alumni since 1995. Believe it or not, I asked for a local compensation package and I was given RMB15K per month. I was quickly sent to HR for hiring formalities, but I was kicked out there because their US HR said CHINESE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT ALLOW AMERICAN TO BE HIRED AS CHINESE LOCAL EMPLOYEE (4 years later, I believe there must be a way to get around it, but those big oil companies are arrogant and bureaucratic. They have no reason to go out of their ways to help you out. If you are really that worthwhile, how come you agreed to make RMB15K per month?)
In the job fairs, I also talked to China's "official" executive search firm - Zhong1 Zhi4, which had a 25-meter long panel there, looking great. To save your time reading, my conclusion is they do not serve people like us.
No wonder I e-mailed/faxed my resume to so many agencies I found from Chinese job-hunting newspapers and received ZERO RESPONSE from them.
I then hit the hot button.
I visited American Chamber of Commerce in Sheraton Great Wall Hotel (still there). They have a membership directory for US$395 (I do not remember the price exactly, but very expensive). I borrowed the directory and handcopied all executive search firms' phone numbers (about 20 of them, most are world class). I then bombed all of them.
I got 4 interviews next day and I went to only three because I already bought my ticket to Shenzhen.
It simply means we are the RIGHT CANDIDATES for these firms to sell to their clients.
They did get me a few interviews the nexy year or two, but none was better than the job I got in Fujian few months later.
How did I get the Fujian job? It is ridiculously simple.
I met a Chinese couple in the Las Vegas forum, who had been trying to marry foreign money with feasible Chinese projects. I met them in Beijing and they told me they knew someone in a US company's subsidiary in HK. I arrived at HK and called the guy. I then got interviewed by 11 people in HK, Boston and telephone (I did not go to Fujian for site interview because I had run out my vacation.) I then got the job offer.
It is true that if you are lucky, you can get your job easily without doing all the gymnastics above.
One important reason for me to get the job must be my asking for MORE MONEY. I learned the previous lesson and asked for an expat package, which means you would get your US pay doubled.
However, you do not get your base pay doubled. You usually get only 10% more then your previous pay. But you get a total of 60 % hardship (counting outside US, China and the site in the middle of nowhere), which is 66% raise from your base pay of your previous company.
Year-end bonus. I got 104% for my 37.5 months service, an average of 33% for each year.
10% pension (6% vested because I had only 3 years f service).
Free room and board (We lived in a 3.5-star apartment eating RMB200 per day per person meals) How much would this be worth before-tax? You figure it out.
Vacation pays. We were so busy to take our vacations, so that most of our 4 weeks per year vacation time was paid in cash (60% hardship applied to vacation time, too)
Medical insurance. It is international and my 9 weeks of hospitalization in special foreigner sections was 100% reimbursed while in US your cost is subject to "reasonability" and co-payment (The former is very troublesome.)
My expat co-workers do not like the hospitals in China. They fly with their wives to HK to see doctors and all expenses incl. travel paid by the company.
Travel. Transpacific flights would be all in business class (US$5000 HK-LAX round-trip) while you may still take Economy (US$500 for the same trip).
While I have no dependent, my expat co-workers can take their dependents (wives and kids) back to US 2-3 times per year, all in business class!
My expat co-workers also have their kids enrolled in the very expensive international schools with tuition running more than US$10K per year per kid.
These co-workers live in luxury single detached houses in Xiamen or HK with company paid rent from US$3000 - $10000 per month.
While I love China so much and I did not ask for my own car. These co-workers all have their own cars and their own drivers with all expenses paid.
Teambuilding. We had four. 2 in Shenzhen/Zhuhai, 1 in Xiamen and 1 at Wuyishan. All in 5-star hotels except for Wuyishan. All cost paid incl. an RMB600/person dinner with Mr. Hou, Yaohua in the Christmas Eve.
Aren't these more than doubling? I probably still miss something here.
With China getting into WTO, go ahead, guys!
I hope the above 100% true story would help you find a GOOD JOB in China. BEST WISHES!!!
作者：jim 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
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 How did I get my US$185K/yr. expat job in China(zt) -- jim - (19589 Byte) 2004-2-25 周三, 20:25 (2654 reads)
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