How can I get a job in Shanghai?

Hey guys,

I would like to ask how easy/hard it is to get a job in Shanghai without connections or being sent by a company back home. Let’s say I could easily get a job in my field usually (online marketing), can I expect to be able to get a job in Shanghai just by applying for positions? What’s the demand like for young professionals without full college degrees but with a good track record?

A witty expat told me just last month that “young professional” is a polite way of saying “I have no experience but I’m willing to work for chump change in exchange for an office job”

No degree = forget about working legally. The country has millions of people with proper degrees and who speak the language. What do you bring to the table that they don’t?

It’s extremely easy to just show up and get a job here. Show up with your foreign face and head into the nearest ESL mill! You won’t be working legally, although you’ll probably earn more than you would working as a “young professional” for a spamm- I mean online marketing firm.

I’m going to help market for international firms / Chinese firms in Google – Search Marketing basically. Pretty sure there’s a huge market for Chinese firms selling to Euros and Americans. Then after a while once I learn some Chinese I could help Euros and Americans sell to Chinese through Baidu. I don’t doubt my own skills and if I get a foot in the door then I am sure that I can prove myself to be worth hiring.

But I understand you need a degree to get a work permit legally?

I think you have to have about 50 years of work experience for this route.. It’s not the employer who gets to choose, it’s the entry/exit bureau who decides if China already has enough skills in this field to not have to employ a foreigner

To get a work permit in 99.9999% of cases, you need a bachelors, you also need in 99.99 percent of cases, to prove 2 years of legal work outside of china.

Good Luck

Secondly, there are a billion and a half Chinese that will get the job in front of you. so i would advise studying really really hard for 6 years, learn Chinese fluently, have an advanced degree, and then, maybe, you will be able to compete here. however, you will still probably be paid like a local, since they can just replace you so easily if you don’t feel you are appreciated.

10 years work experience, econ bach, MBA econ analytical finance, CFA Charterholder, and moved here by my company. I try to look for equivalent work, for a possible bump up to a director position somewhere, and I don’t speak fluently so I get passed up alot.

Go teach English like the rest of the Shanghai laowai schlubs.