When there’s no job, make one
Early January, 2013.Beijing, China. Young and inexperienced, I arrived to start a new life.
Fresh out of university, with a completed degree, I was ready.
Thinking that the Chinese give a westerner more time than many of their own talented citizens, I was confident I could find conventional employment.
I soon had an interview with Burson-Marsteller – the fifth largest Public Relations firm in the world. When asked, “What can you bring to B-M?” I gave a response that tailored my skills to the capabilities page listed on their website. The marketing manager said that you only had to look around and see that there wasn’t much creativity in advertisements around Beijing. I realised then that it takes time to learn the local market enough in order to exploit it. A finely polished resume and a heap of company research wouldn’t get me over the line.
Instead of trying to fulfil what companies wanted, I endeavoured to find out what I could personally offer in the absence of job advertisements. I then directly emailed the managing director of a newly established PR firm. I received a prompt response, asking for a sit down after Chinese New Year. Meanwhile, returns for unpaid internships came back. With little cash saved, I couldn’t afford to work a minimum 6 month contract for free, especially with rent to be paid. Thus, I continued putting out countless applications.
To understand the people that had gone before, I hit up the Australian Chamber of Commerce Beijing Networking Drinks. Those in mid-20s had Master’s degrees, one was a PhD candidate and most were fluent in Chinese. Everyone else was over forty and well established in Beijing business. I had an Arts degree and a new shirt! With a bundle of business cards, the best thing I now held was a promising lead – Beijing Bar Camp at Microsoft Headquarters.
The event was at Zhongguancun – the upcoming Silicon Valley of Beijing. There were two full whiteboards of company details calling for programmers, coders, graphic designers and business developers. The event also held talks from start-up companies; a gold mine for entrepreneurial work experience. If only I had some savings to live on and invest.
Mid February – still unemployed and far from fluent in Chinese, I realised that to understand the Chinese market meant also understanding their social media platforms in order to forecast trends. This requires a good knowledge of Chinese character writing. It takes a minimum 900 characters to read a newspaper. I know about 100.
Lacking confidence, I walked the Beijing streets and began to look around me. I remembered reading that every year over six million new Chinese graduates are released into the workforce (Bardsley, D, 2010). Surviving in China meant that if there’s no job for you, make one. If a man has to sell women’s clothes or pink balloons on the street to make ends meet, he’ll be the best pink balloon salesperson he can be.
I thought of the independent real estate agents operating out of the Beijing English Classifieds. These agents had seen that Westerners needing an apartment couldn’t speak to Chinese landlords. They saw the opportunity and made it their own. Others were selling bicycles to these same Westerners. So I’d try the same. I bought a few bicycles, though I quickly noticed that the foreigners buying them were only just getting into PR jobs after a year of teaching English. Only now did they understand the market.
I finally accepted that there was only one field I excelled above millions in Beijing – speaking English. Pleased to finally have a job, I at least had a salary to work off. I also found that teaching kids how to sing ‘the wheels on the bus,’ was enough to make me smile.
I then made some contacts on the ‘activity partners’ section of the Beijing Classifieds. A Canadian filmmaker living in Beijing, who was also an English teacher, was assembling a film team. I had similar ideas so I developed a business plan for a production company to advertise English Schools. If they didn’t have websites, we’d also incorporate it in the proposals. I thought of the hundreds of English Schools now popping up around the city, all of which didn’t have a website or any decent marketing campaign. I’d found a niche in the market.
This now gives me options. Develop this idea and run hard with it. If it doesn’t go big, I take my portfolio of successful communications campaigns and return to the PR firms with hard proof that I’ve delivered in their own market.
What it takes: Be as specialised as you can in one particular field. Your expertise needs to surpass the locals around you or they’ll simply hire their cousin for half the price.
Essential: Make expatriate friends that know the market and then collaborate with the locals.
Young starters: For legal employment that is not English Teaching – best apply for the annual grad-sponsorship program with the Australia-China Alumni Association or other Government Sponsorship program. Applications close at least six months in advance the year before for a start in January.
My tip: You need two years’ work experience after graduation for a work visa in China. The grad-sponsorship program might provide an exemption to this – but don’t head overseas looking for a job without some type of experience!
Essential Links:
Australian Chamber of Commerce Beijing
http://www.austcham.org/
Australia China Alumni Association
http://www.austchinaalumni.org/
Australia-China Young Professionals Initiative
http://www.acypi.org.au/
Beijing Bar Camp
http://www.barcamp-beijing.com/pics-%E7%85%A7%E7%89%87/date-and-venue
The Beijing Classifieds
http://www.thebeijinger.com/classifieds
Good Luck!
1 Comment
Excellent excited synthetic vision just for details and may foresee
problems before these people happen.