I am seeing an increasing number of young asians & overseas returnees working in Shanghai to add to the relatively large population of young expats from Europe/North America. The people I talked to expressed very different views towards living in Shanghai and the job opportunities they take up. I am just curious about how people like me are doing in Shanghai and what kind of jobs are they involved in. Do you plan to stay here for long? Would the experience in China be an attractive selling point to your resume you return back to your home country or other places? What do you think are the prospects of career progression here?

Myself: Born in Southeast Asia and grew up in 2 different countries in the region before moving to China permanently with my family years ago and attending international schools in 3 different cities in China. I am currently doing marketing & sales for a Singaporean company in Shanghai.

I was surprised when I received resume of overseas returnees expecting RMB 5000 for a position even though they graduated from reputable universities in the UK with a bachelor's or masters.

First of all, interesting thread.

I get a lot of CV's from overseas Chinese applying for jobs as a headhunter myself. Salary expectations differ greatly, from 5K RMB to 20K RMB. You would say those who expect less have a more realistich expectation and view on the opportunities in the Chinese market. On the other hand, those who expect 20K + have based this amount on their educational background and their 'worth' in the labor market.
Both are right in my opinion. The labor market has been developing and imho expectations do not meet reality anymore, from both employee and employer's perspective. Employees expect 20K + without having any working experience, only a 'good' overseas degree, employers try to pay less and less because of the choice of young and cheap people they can choose from. So what is wisdom?

Having a 20+ year old son myself, and knowing how much he earns here in Shanghai (see my vote), I would say that it is a matter of time before those educated overseas will take over the labour market. There is a great lack of talented people, but be assured, an overseas degree does not stand for quality. Au contraire, I have met some terribly bad young overseas returnees, who highly overrate themselves and thus outpricing themselves in the Chinese market.

Finally, it is also a matter of negotiations and how much a company depends on hiring such a person. I know some people who are aged around 25-27, some of them earn 20K net per month purely because of their negotiation skills, lacking working experience, and some of them earn 15K net per month because they have not pushed their boss any further during negotiations. In the end, these two groups will balance and come to the same level.

Thanks for the insight LaVecchiaSignora.

After going through a dragging negotiation process myself, I fully understand what you were referring to above. Negotiation skills DO make a difference in the compensation package you ultimately receive. I had doubts prior to the discussion as I was already making considerably more than my local colleagues who were more experienced. But the final result made me understand that you can be an "exception" if you have more to offer than your overseas background. I agree with LaVecchiaSignora, by combining some work experience and real life skills with valuable overseas background, the educated overseas can play a bigger role in the market.

Glad to hear that your son is at the top end!

We shall soon find out. For an architecture graduate with a strong portfolio and some decent internship experience, i would expect 10k-15k. Given that architecture is a 6 year degree and we all have atleast one year work experience under our belts.

Young architects are not in China for the money because it isnt there. But the projects and responsibilities given to young graduates are much more challenging.

I plan to work in China for a few years, save up some money then head off to Europe for Masters. Would love to work for one of the dutch studios while im there as well. But the goal is to eventually set up some kind of multidisciplinary design studio of my own and hopefully contribute my part to the growth of contemporary Chinese design culture.

Just saw the Poll!. Heck i thought 15k was decent money............... The voters must be in the Finance industry. Its the same story in australia. A good solid architecture graduate with 3 year international work experience being offered 36k(AUD) while a fresh commerce grad gets offered 45k..........


but u can buy the sex appeal of architects.......or atleast thats what we tell ourselves.

I'm curious as to what sort of offers i will eventually end up with.


Its so hard to adjust your mindset to the Chinese 'market'. On the one hand you have millions of people living happily off gross family incomes of 20k a year while young university graduates with a dodgy oversea masters are earning 125k+.

When i was interning here i lived well with 4k a month. to be making a reasonable salary of 15k a months would afford me luxuries i wouldnt dream off in australia, even though to some 15k is still not much.

there are also the intangibles such as being able to work on projects that truly affects thousands of lives and being a part of this design boom. Working on projects that allow you to have real input is priceless for a young architect.


so what is the price of a young 'returnee' in the architecture/design industry? Thats a real question, if anyone have solid answers please tell me. but personally i would be happy with 10k if the work was amazing and it allowed me to build an impressive portfolio of projects............however i would definitely ask for a raise within the first 3 months.

i love this city very much. the air is fresh and the people are nice, they are doing everything in a very good order. i am trying my best to fit in the life here and make everything in order.by now everything is going smoothly , i have to make a million thanks to my annie sharon who help me a lot bf i found a place to live in.
this weekend , i will move into my new house , i hope everything keep going smoothly and i am looking forward my new start!! wish me good luck my dear friends!! i miss u very much o !!

That's disturbing.