Go East Young Man

As part of the Big Bad Recruiting Blog Swap, today's post is brought to you by Frank  Mulligan: http://www.talent-software.com/private/online_hiring_china

Of all the markets in the world where Guerilla Marketing could be applied, China might seem to be the least applicable. This is because in China the candidate is King. Employers spend most of their time, no make that all of their time, chasing the good, the bad and the average.

Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that China is perfectly fluid in connecting good candidates with good jobs, and average candidates with average jobs. Often, the best jobs in China are lost in the chaos of

job boards, company hiring portals, newspaper advertisements and internal/external referrals. Companies screen and interview countless unsuitable people in the search for that elusive 'perfect candidate'. It's hard to stick out when the person reading your Resume has gone through hundreds of other Resumes. Recruiters tire, and all Resumes begin to look the same. This is especially true in China where many Recruiters in multinational companies hold their position by virtue of their ability to speak English, and little else.

Even when you have identified the right job you still have to get through a hiring process that can seem to be designed to prevent you from achieving a good match with your chosen future employer in China.  So although jobs are aplenty, you still have a ways to go.

If you do decide that China is the next big thing, which it already is, and that you have to be a part of it, you have to think out of the box. Just like you do back home.

The process is broadly similar so there is little to worry about here. Despite the cultural differences between US and the China, all the same hiring rules apply. You still have to present yourself in a professional manner. You still have to sell yourself at interview. And you still need to spend time thinking how to get yourself in front of the HR department or line manager. There are lots of qualified people in China and they all have the same goal. Most of them have the advantage of playing on the home turf. Competition is intense.

I am tempted to suggest that with all the additional complexities in China maybe 50 ways of getting a new job are not enough  But that would be a little disheartening, and most importantly, not true. China does offer many, many opportunities for non-Chinese professionals, in both multinationals and local Chinese companies.

If there is one rule for getting a job in China on the terms of your choosing, it would be to be to make your application from overseas. Even if you have already arrived in China, for whatever reason, continue to use your home address on all job applications. If this is not practical make your application to the Hong Kong office of your target company or the Hong Kong office of your favorite headhunter.

The logic of this is that if you appear to be making your application from within China you have lost all possibility of getting expatriate status, annd all the perks that this entails. At most you will get Local Plus, and you might even be offered local status, which means local salary.

Happy hunting!