I have been getting a lot of requests for info on work in Shanghai. I wish I had more to say about it. The situation is pretty simple though. There are more people from other countries who want to come live and work in Shanghai, than there are jobs at expat salaries. In the past year, the job market has been flooded with educated and experienced overseas Chinese or overseas educated mainland Chinese being attracted to the same thing other expats are attracted to -- the lure of riding the boom. Shanghai is getting a lot of play on the world stage right as the frontier for entrepreneurs and possibly the only place on the entire planet where things are booming as the rest of the world suffers in the doldrums of economic downturn, rumors of war, terrorist threats, and major lay-offs. Of course I am exaggerating, but not by much (you might include several other East-coast China cities in there. This is the perception to many who are in search of THE place in the world where life is good and the economy is vibrant.
Your options for non-teaching work as foreigner in Shanghai depend largely on your skills, education, language ability (specifically Chinese language ability,) contacts and, most importantly, expectations. I say non-teaching because English teaching and training is a beast of its own. Most of the people who are getting expat salaries now are in senior management. Directors, project managers, and technical specialties are also being hired. Many, if not most, if the managers hired into these positions get hired in their home country and relocated here. Expats who are here and looking depend a lot on their contacts and their networking for the next piece of work, or they are entrepreneurs trying to carve out a niche and take advantage of the boom.
Even English teaching in Shanghai, the staple work for many native English speakers, is feeling the competitive environment. No longer is it enough to be just a native speaker. Count on being asked to produce a degree, some work experience, a TESL certification, and then you might be considered. English teaching jobs run from 15-20 USD per classroom hour at private companies and as little as 3000 RMB plus room at regular universities. As more and more expats arrive here wanting find a way to stay, I think the English teaching will always be in demand, but it may be more competitive.
If you do not have the education, experience, language skills, contacts, etc to have someone look at your resume and go WOW, your options are a little more limited. Most administrative, technician, retail, food service, and general mass market jobs are for locals who speak the language, who have the contacts (guanxi), and who are willing to work for 700-3000 RMB per month -- full time, six days a week. If you can act, sing, perform, or model, there may be a place for you.. particularly if you have some credits. So, you either decide to work for local salary, perhaps a little above local salary, OR you somehow create your own work with the skills you have. In any case, you had better come with some cash saved up.
If you are like most of us, have some skills, experience, and a few successes in life, here are a few places you can start to put out your skills:
BUT this is only a start and a stroke of luck if you get anything. You will have to do the legwork yourself and submit your resume to specific job openings you find on the boards. You should come to Shanghai and check with the Chamber of Commerce for your country or any business organizations that might get you started networking. Don't be shy about telling people what you do. If you have not started yet, start getting language skills. I think the days of being able to find something even if you don't know Chinese, is slipping away -- there are too many other people here who are qualified, educated, and multi-lingual. My wife got her job on Monster.com, but that was 3 years ago before the dot-com crash.
Most of all, you should probably lower your expectations in terms of salary, unless you are being asked to relocate here from outside the country. You can live adequately on 5000 RMB a month.. but you just won't be eating at Xintiandi very often. It would be a foot in the door.
I urge you to read through this article, Who had the edge?, by Larry Wang of Wang and Li. It is very enlightening. In addition, there are a couple of clips tacked on the end of this article from the news on the job market in Shanghai. Please feel free to add comments at the bottom or start a forum discussion if you have more info or a good idea.
More Foreigners Work in Shanghai Xinhuanet 2002-05-23
A total of 6,733 foreigners obtained work permits in Shanghai, the leading business and industrial center in China, during the first quarter of this year, up 30 percent over the same period last year.
Sun Hande, an official with Shanghai Municipal Employment and Social Security Department, said the number of overseas people working in Shanghai totalled about 16,000 from 119 countries. There are about 60,000 people from overseas working in the city, he added.
Shanghai has become the first choice of foreigners who wish to work in China, which experienced double-digit economic growth over the past two decades and absorbed billions of dollars in overseas investment, said Sun.
Japanese citizens account for one third of the city's foreigners, while United States citizens come second with 11 percent. The numbers from the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Germany are about 6 percent each.
A growing number of Malaysian citizens chose to work in Shanghai, overtaking Germans, in recent months, said the official. Sun said 95 percent of the foreign citizens employed in Shanghai have received a college education, and the remaining are mostly chefs employed in hotels.
He said 81.9 percent of foreigners are employed by overseas funded firms and offices while those working for China's state- owned or private firms account for 5 percent.
Eight out of 10 foreigners working in Shanghai are senior managerial personnel and senior technical experts serving as chief managers, CEOs, accountants, engineers and IT technicians. Chinese companies are beginning to employ foreigners.
In order to improve their services and face-to-face communications with overseas passengers, Shanghai Eastern Airlines Co has employed 90 stewards from Japan, France, Germany, the United States, Spain and the Republic of Korea.
With a growing number of foreigners working in the city, restaurants serving Japanese food, Argentina-style roast meat and French food, bars and beauty salons have mushroomed. Foreign clothes and cosmetics are also readily available in Shanghai.
More Returned Students Work in Shanghai
From the Peoples Daily
Rapid economic development in Shanghai, China's leading industrial and commercial city, is attracting more and more Chinese people studying abroad to come back and display their prowess.
The latest statistics show that to date, 25,000 returned students are working in this East China metropolis. In the past 20 years, more than 100,000 people have left Shanghai to study abroad. Among the students who have returned, many now work in Shanghai.
There are 73 academics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, more than 1,100 of whom are tutors of doctoral students and 80% of the presidents of the city's 39 universities are students who have come back from studying abroad.
Almost 50% of the returned students are working at state-owned enterprises or foreign-funded enterprises. Many of them have become the backbones of their respective work units. In addition, returned students have established more than 1,100 enterprises in Shanghai, involving a total investment of 250 million US dollars.
Shanghai has issued a series of documents encouraging returned students to participate in the city's economic construction and social development since 1992. It is learned that the number of returned students working in Shanghai accounts for one-fifth of the national total.
