Over the last two decades, the number of foreigners working in Beijing has increased significantly. That’s why! Many foreign citizens are taking advantage of China’s massive market as multinational corporations migrate to the country. What to anticipate while working in Beijing:
Beijing’s Job Market for Foreign Nationals
Employees from Outside China
Numerous of the many embassies and international press bureaus in Beijing employ a large number of foreign diplomats and reporters. Others are assigned to the capital for regular corporate duties at their local branch in the capital city. Both Chinese and foreign corporations commonly maintain a presence in Beijing, regardless of where their headquarters or manufacturing facilities are located in China. As a result, they are in constant communication with the capital’s government bureaucracy.
However, so-called “flexpats” are increasingly putting pressure on traditional expatriate companies to reduce the cost of their overseas assignments. Rather of migrating their whole families and lifestyles to China, foreign personnel are recruited for short-term assignments and fly in and out; they are known as “China hires” or “frequent flyer assignments.” Some advice for job seeking in Beijing if you aren’t going to be deployed anytime soon as a flexpatriate or expatriate.
Visas, Work Permits, and Opportunities for Employment
An formal invitation to China is required in order to get a visa and work permit (the so-called Z visa, from the Chinese term zhyuán meaning ’employee’). A work permit issued by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Labor and Social Security is required in order to get the visa. If you want to work as a foreign expert in education, you must first get formal recognition from the State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs (SAFEA).
In order to get an employment permit, you must have a job offer from a firm in China that is legally allowed to hire foreign workers: a multinational branch office, a foreign-invested company, or a Chinese company located in China itself. Even if you’re a fluent Mandarin speaker, it’s improbable that you’ll be able to do so.
Candidates with hard talents and professional expertise have an edge in Beijing right now because of the economy’s current growth. Engineering, medical technology, environmental technology, the chemical industry, pharmaceuticals, information and communications technology (ICT), research and development (R&D), intellectual property law, international patent issues, and finance are some of these fields. Of course, expertise in management consulting and project management is in great demand.
Individual companies and job descriptions dictate whether or not you are required to speak Mandarin at work. Having a working grasp of business Mandarin can help you stand out from the crowd of highly educated Chinese university graduates who are also proficient in English.
Finding Work
If you’re looking for work in Beijing, you’ll find it offered on commercial websites such as the Chinese version of Monster and ChinaJob, which classifies employment as either educational or professional. The Chamber of Commerce of your own nation should also be checked out. Job marketplaces for foreign nationals interested in working in China may be found on a number of these websites.
Last but not least, if you want to get work in Beijing, you’ll need to have a long-term perspective. Doing business in China relies heavily on gunx (Chinese for “contacts, connections, and relations”) to some extent. If you want to get a job in Beijing, you’ll need to create a personal network of individuals in the city who can assist you. It might be done via online forums, business trips to China, a language vacation, etc. These are all wonderful options for developing a network.