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How to build a long and successful career in Taiwan as a foreigner - Part 2
If you have an expat package in Taiwan and wish to stay here for work even though your company want to send you to Japan, finding a similar job and package is going to be incredibly difficult, almost impossible (although I have seen examples of this happening). Expat packages are for people who were sent here, they are almost never for locally hired candidates.
Part one article : How to build a long and successful career in Taiwan as a foreigner - Part 1
7) Improving Chinese level over time
I know a few Mandarin teachers who are going to love this point (shout out to Jamie Rufe and Tiffany Huang). If you scroll down to the quotes at the end of this article, you will notice that most of the successful foreign professionals I’ve spoken to rate improving Mandarin as a key factor in long term success. I agree with them. Continually putting effort into your Chinese language ability will help your life and career in Taiwan in several ways. You will be more accepted into the society, regarded more favorably by colleagues, make locals less nervous when speaking with you, show respect and commitment to your new home, make Taiwanese friends easier, understand cultural nuances better, be less confused and angry, encounter culture-shock less often and understand more of what is being discussed in meetings, etc. I probably could have made that list extend another thousand words or so, but you get my point.
If someone wanted to argue that learning Mandarin is not essential to success in Taiwan, they could point to the majority of highly paid C-Level expats based here. Often, the people who are sent to run the Taiwan office from overseas don’t have even a basic grasp of Mandarin. This is a random guess, but I’d estimate 80% of this group of professionals don’t get beyond restaurant and taxi Chinese before leaving. I would however respond that this is irrelevant to the plight of the “local hire foreigner”, the employment game we are playing is not the same. It wouldn’t be advisable for foreigners working their way up in Taiwan to compare their salaries and careers to the expat talent sent to work here, it will only depress you.
I have always felt that there is something inherently colonialist about sending a 15 million NTD a year expat to Taiwan to run the market, especially when that person speaks no Chinese and has no understanding of the local culture. I will concede that these expats often do successfully run the Taiwan office for their respective companies; they drive sales, they instill a positive working culture, they manage effectively and impressively. Maybe this group of people nine times out of ten are worth the money. But is it really an ideal situation? If these expats don’t speak or understand any of the local language, how good a job are they really doing? How many things happen in their office that they have no understanding or knowledge of? I can tell you; it is probably quite a lot. In essence, these professionals are here to “watch the books” and uphold the wishes and values of the headquarters. I personally have a bit of an issue with this, not sure if you would agree? Ashamedly, I will admit it is very possible the issue I have with these expat roles is an indication of my own jealousy.
Top Tip: Pay a private Chinese teacher to do lessons with you once or twice a week according to your schedule. Practice as much as you can. Focus on slow and steady progress with your Mandarin, man man lai.
8) Learning how to manage Taiwanese subordinates
Most long and successful careers will eventually encounter the management conundrum. This is an unavoidable step on the career ladder, namely that title and salary promotions often come hand-in-hand with increased management responsibility. The higher-up you go in a company, the more likely it is that you will have larger groups of company employees report to you directly. The reason I call this a conundrum is because being a good manager is not necessarily directly correlated to skill-level at your specific function.
Let me give you an example from my own observations working in a sales-driven industry like headhunting. Often the best salespeople in a company will be quite low on the Big Five Personality spectrum category of agreeableness. This means that they are generally quite difficult people to get along with, they are not soft or weak and often not particularly empathetic. These types of people generally make quite poor people managers, but because of their excellent sales ability, the higher they rise in a company, the more direct subordinates they will have. This is sometimes true in sales positions but can also be abundantly obvious in IT and technical job functions as well. Do you think the best software engineers in the world are necessarily good with people, excellent mentors and patient trainers? I think often this is not the case but nonetheless, in most companies, you cannot get promoted several times and avoid management responsibility.
So how is this relevant to foreign talent wishing to improve their careers in Taiwan? The short answer is that you will have to become adept at managing teams if you are going to succeed as a professional within a large or small company. This means that you should not only be focused on improving your capability within your job function e.g. becoming an expert in international supply chain, but also learning management techniques and skills. If people-management doesn’t come naturally to you, and you have encountered several struggles in the past with direct reports, then this is something you need to focus on above all.
I’ll be honest and open about my own personal experience with management. Over my past four jobs, I have probably directly managed around 30 people. I would guess that out of those people, 20 examples were very positive and 10 were quite negative to varying degrees. I found myself lacking in several areas when it came to being a boss. I was trying too hard to be a nice guy, to be the cool and understanding boss, and it backfired several times. In the worst example to date, a woman who was supposed to be directly reporting to me basically didn’t speak to me for a year, and I made no effort to repair the relationship because personally I did not like her. These failures led to a bit of soul searching and I eventually came to the conclusion that management wasn’t something I excelled at, and I should probably try to focus on a job where my role was more of an individual or peer-based endeavor. In my current job I don’t manage anyone directly, although I co-work with lots of excellent teammates who are at the same seniority level as me, and I am much happier as a result.
Unfortunately, this won’t be an option for most, and anyway, lots of you will be much better managers than I was. If you can learn how to manage teams of Taiwanese well, then this will be an advantage for your long-term career growth. The best advice I have heard about managing Taiwanese staff comes from a woman who I think is the most impressive person I have ever met through my job (Wharton MBA, Stanford and Harvard, McKinsey, several regional GM roles). She told me that her trick to managing 500+ subordinates in the Taiwan office was to invite a group of 6-8 of them to breakfast every Friday morning. She explicitly told them that this was their chance to speak to her directly, and if they miss this opportunity, they will regret it. This produced an incredibly healthy feedback loop where she was getting important information from her colleagues in an open and honest way, something that Taiwanese can sometimes struggle with.
I would encourage foreign managers to do something similar, find a way to get honest feedback from the Taiwanese staff, even when they are reluctant to give it. Maybe avoid tying them to a chair with duct tape and screaming at them to tell you why they are unhappy with your marketing strategy proposal, but figure something out. Feedback is essential to performance and growth, if it is lacking in your company, you need to try and sort that out as soon as possible. This works both ways, don’t be uncomfortable about criticizing aspects of your employees’ performance, but try to work out how to do it in a way that inspires and produces corrective behavior rather than upsetting or angering your staff.
Top Tip: Try to learn from the good managers you encounter throughout your career. Ask advice from successful friends and colleagues, or search YouTube for helpful content from experts.
9) Networking
I’m going to start point number 9 with a quote from Anthony van Dyck, “networking gets so much mockery and derision, I guess because a lot of it is done so badly. But people don’t take it seriously enough.” I completely agree with his point of view and would go as far as saying, if you are not a good networker, your career opportunities decrease exponentially. This is simply because as a foreigner, a lot of the opportunities you encounter over your decades long career will be through other foreigners and people you meet. Networking is probably 80% of my job although I personally have always enjoyed meeting new people. To go back to the Big Five personality spectrum, being high in extraversion and openness makes you more accomplished at building new relationships with people you meet.
Let me explain in more detail with an example from my own industry. In headhunting, we conduct interviews and meetings with candidates and clients on a daily basis. This often involves a one hour sit down discussion over a coffee. During this one hour, you have to do your best to establish a bond of trust, respect and mutual benefit. The better you do this, the more successful you will be as a headhunter. This is true in everyday life as well as in a career, although are professional and social networking the same thing?
Basically yes, professional and social networking are incredibly similar in terms of action and outcome. Meeting a new person and having them become a friend, business partner, contact, client, or ally, is much the same mission with the same process involved. You have to be likeable and ensure people who meet you come away with a positive impression. It is through this networking that opportunities arise, people will look out for you and do you favors, like recommending new jobs and opportunities.
Where you choose to network isn’t too important. If you enjoy going to the Chamber of Commerce events, or All Hands events, or just simply the wide variety of bars Taiwan has to offer, it is quite possible to meet high-potential contacts that can help you with your career in Taiwan. The quote at the start from Anthony van Dyck is made even more suitable because he recently got a job through a foreign acquaintance. I’ll just start and finish the point with a direct quote from Anthony, because I think he sums it up superbly, “I feel kind of proud of my current situation. When I think of all the people I reached out to, all the coffees and lunches and short messages…It’s easy to think that one just falls into an opportunity, but actually one puts oneself in the path of MANY opportunities, and hope one hits.”
Top Tip: Join clubs and teams, make an effort to meet friends and go to networking events. Online can also be incredibly useful, there are many Facebook groups catering to foreigners in business here in Taiwan, a personal favorite being Taipei Impact Entrepreneurs.
10) LinkedIn
When I speak to people who are knee-deep in job hunting or asking me for advice about career building in Taiwan, I will always ask them how much effort they are putting into LinkedIn. I will be honest and tell you that if they don’t even have a LinkedIn profile (or an incredibly weak one), it makes me judge their potential as a high-value talent in the first place. Put simply, LinkedIn is the best tool available for any professional. A simplistic view of the platform would be thinking it was there to search for open jobs and apply for them. This is an amateur-level perspective. LinkedIn is not Facebook. You can literally add anyone in the world without ever having met them and message for a chat.
Learning how to build rapport over early LinkedIn messages (like dating APPs, it is important not to come in too hot or too cold), is an incredibly useful skill. I’m going to show off a bit because this is my article and I can do whatever I want. I currently have 23,508 LinkedIn connections and I’ve messaged most of them. These connections are not random people from random places, they are a collection of Taiwan’s most accomplished professionals. For my job in headhunting, I focus on hiring senior level sales, marketing, e-commerce, PR and C-Level professionals. If you are reading this article and regard yourself as accomplished in one of these areas, I would be surprised if we are not already connected. These connections have been my proverbial pot of gold for the past eight years, the foundation of my whole business is grounded in this group of people.
I realize that this article is long, and I wouldn’t be surprised if many readers haven’t made it this far, so as a concession I’m going to make this next part as simple and concise as possible.
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Make a list of the companies you want to work for
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Go to these company’s LinkedIn page
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Click on the hyper-link to “(number of) employees”
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Change “Locations” to “Taiwan”
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Add everyone who works at that company
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Send them a LinkedIn message with something like this:
“Hey _____,
Nice to connect, hope you are doing well! I’m currently based in Taipei and looking for jobs, I have a really strong desire to work for (their company) and so I hope you don’t mind that I added you. I would love to join your (sales) team and have (number of) years of experience in this field with (company) and (company). I’ve heard really good things about your company from contacts in the industry and would love any advice you could share about applying for roles or getting in touch with your talent acquisition. Thanks very much, have a great week!
Best Regards,
(your name)”
Top Tip: That was my top tip.
11) Finding your line: Learning what to tolerate from the local working culture and what not to. Learning how to endure frustration
When I meet foreigners who have a collection of sob stories about their Taiwan work experience, I do feel sympathy. I understand that some of the worst aspects of traditional Taiwanese working culture can be far from optimal. I’m not going to go into details, but some Taiwanese bosses, colleagues, communication styles, expected overtime, incidents of verbal abuse and general working cultures can be awful. Often I will simply say, “It sounds like a good thing you got out of that environment.” On the other hand, as a headhunter I spend hours a day listening to people complain about their jobs. You begin to realize very early on in my profession that most people have justified criticisms of their current and previous jobs. You start to take every criticism you hear with a massive pinch of salt. It is abundantly obvious that all companies have both positive and negative aspects. Therefore, it is fundamental to understand when you push back against something you disagree with, and when you tow the party line.
There is a middle ground somewhere in between angrily challenging every issue you see in your company and blindly accepting every order given to you. Don’t ask me where this line is because I am definitely still working it out myself. You will have to decide when it is best to gently push back and when it is best to obediently follow orders. As a warning, if you work in an office environment in Taiwan and you massively overreact to a problem, this might spell the end of your career here. If you find yourself angrily yelling at your boss in-front of several colleagues, it is probably already too late. Taiwan is a small market and reputation is everything.
Top Tip: Learning how to endure frustration in a professional and calm way will be as important as anything else in your quest for success. This is only emphasized by your choice to work a country that was not the place you grew up in.
12) Becoming more Taiwanese, or at least fully acclimatizing to the Taiwanese office culture
This follows on from the previous point about learning what to tolerate and what not to tolerate. The most successful foreign professionals I know in Taiwan have very few issues with their Taiwanese colleagues. They understand the cultural differences and have adapted superbly. They can communicate effectively with little lost in translation and rarely have conflicts or angry arguments in the office. Usually this is also an indication of the amount of time they have lived in Taiwan, in most cases foreigners get more acclimatized and comfortable here the longer they stay.
This doesn’t however mean that you have no chance of adapting into a Taiwanese office if you have only lived here for two years. Let me give you an example; in a previous company I hired two interns from the UK at the same time. One of these interns spoke Mandarin and the other didn’t, although they were both white British males. The Chinese speaking intern got much more out of his experience because he acclimatized to the office environment so much better. He became highly valued by our colleagues even though he was only 22 years old and ended up being offered a full-time job at the end of his internship. In this example, the differentiating factor between the two foreign interns wasn’t necessarily intelligence, or potential, or even Chinese level. It was the successful adapting of one intern into the Taiwanese office culture much better than the other. I’m not going to mention the successful intern’s name, but he is now on a fast-track to overtaking me in his Taiwan career journey and I am more than ten years older than him.
For this upcoming paragraph, I was struggling internally whether to keep it in or cut it. I could understand why this next sentence is not ideal advice and might potentially create some blowback. But if you want me to be totally honest, marrying a Taiwanese person is probably your best way to get ahead in the market. You will be seen as “one of us” by the Taiwanese and life with a local spouse is just so much easier in so many ways. This is not even taking into account that foreigners automatically get an open-work permit and permanent visa after marrying a Taiwanese person.
Top Tip: Just be aware that the faster you acclimatize, the better you will do. To quote myself from a previous article, “ultimately you want to be considered an insider without losing the advantages of the outsider.”
13) Or avoid Taiwanese office jobs altogether
There are alternative options for your career in Taiwan other than a full-time office job. It is very possible to have a long and successful career in Taiwan by going off on your own adventure. I see the three major alternatives being 1) start your own company 2) freelance, creating several income streams or 3) work remotely for a foreign company but still live here.
These three options all have excellent possibilities attached to them and personally I think this might be the most sensible way to go forward. Let’s start with the entrepreneurial option first. Starting your own business here isn’t too difficult from a bureaucracy standpoint, especially if you pay an accountant or lawyer to do most of the paperwork (or buy Paolo Lising’s book). If you can find a niche in the market and create a business that caters to it, then all power to you. I think this article is long enough without me going on a long tangent about the pros and cons of starting your own business, although I will say that the main obstacles to success seem to be self-motivation, funding, natural business acumen and sales skill. If you are working for yourself, you’d better know how to self-motivate, because no one else is going to be driving you in the same way a large corporate structure is designed to do.
Freelancing is also a great option if you can make it work. My major piece of advice about this is one that I’ve given numerous times. A lot of freelancer and self-employed people think that their maximum focus should be on improving their skill level in their field. If they teach Chinese, they think they should put the majority of their effort into becoming a better teacher, if they train dogs, they think they should become the best dog trainer they can be. The point I’m making is that freelancers maybe think too much about honing their skill and becoming an expert in their field, when really, they should be spending equally as much time concentrating on revenue generation. That Chinese teacher and dog trainer should be endeavoring to find new clients, you know, the people who pay them money. I love music, so here is another example to illustrate my point. Which professional musician is going to make more money, the virtuoso who spends 10 hours a day practicing guitar in their bedroom alone, compared to the reasonably talented exhibitionist who spends 10 hours a day growing their social media presence, networking with industry figures, and playing shows to a growing fan base? Sales should be as much of a freelancers focus as their actual job, that’s what I’m saying.
The last option mentioned was to work remotely but still live in Taiwan. Of course, you would be choosing to live in Taiwan because this is where you want to be, I’m not suggesting that a “digital nomad” should necessarily choose life here over Bali, Thailand, Cebu, etc. Finding remote based jobs is easier in certain industries and fields. For example, software engineers wouldn’t struggle to find these types of roles (check out the Taiwanese company Arc if you are looking for something like this). Digital nomads can also be common in digital marketing, data, trading, e-commerce and journalism. I’m not really the best person to ask regarding how to get a remote job, but if you can, you probably should. The dream in Taiwan would be to be to have a US, Australian or German salary alongside the reasonable living costs. These remote workers often also don’t pay tax…
Top Tip: Entrepreneurial or remote work would be my personal preference having experienced Taiwanese office culture in its various forms. For me, I have been much happier being my own boss.
14) Go away then come back
In 2013 I decided that I had to get out of teaching and try something new. I had been teaching in Taiwan at that point for four years and had decided it really wasn’t the career I wanted. At the time I thought it would be very difficult to transition from ESL teacher to something else in Taipei, so I moved my entire life over to Shanghai. This decision was a big gamble. At the time, I had no friends, apartment, job opportunities, working visa or knowledge of the city. I was however willing to work hard to get a start on my new career journey. I applied for hundreds of jobs and would have accepted anything that was outside the education industry. Eventually I was given an interview opportunity at a headhunting company to be the personal assistant of the company’s General Manager.
This was the start I needed, and I made sure to make the most of every opportunity granted to me internally. In my first two years in this company, I went from personal assistant to overseeing marketing, internal recruitment, training, business development, the intern programs, all English language materials, and several very large consulting cases. Once given that entry-level opportunity, I was able to turn it into the start of a long and successful career in a job that I not only enjoyed, but was very good at. When I did eventually return to Taipei, my CV had taken a big step up, and it was because of my Shanghai experience that I was hired by my next employer back in Taipei. My story was actually featured in a BBC news article that is about this very point.
Top Tip: Maybe consider doing the same thing I did, in order to progress in Taiwan, move to Shanghai, Hong Kong or Singapore and then come back with experience that is highly regarded in the market here.
15) Hustle mentality
The final point on this list is in reference to the common denominator I see behind every successful foreign candidate in the market. That is, some form of hustle. I think every foreigner that I personally find impressive has huge amounts of hustle and grit, so much so that their personal career stories are often wildly different, but they were nonetheless able to get to a position of seniority and excellence in their own unique way. This is not just about working hard, it is also about working smart. They figure out who are the best people for them to know and they excel in their companies even against the odds or despite doubts from colleagues. They are also not afraid of finding solutions to their own problems. This group of people often don’t complain too much about horrendous experiences with traditional working culture because they don’t let these challenges get in their way, they figure out a way around them. Confidence plays a big part, and I’m not sure if that is just something natural or something that can be practiced or learned, but there is a lesson everyone can take in from this group: don’t let challenges stop you from achieving success, figure out your way around them.
Top Tip: Don’t think of hustle mentality as some kind of conniving or nefarious ambitiousness. See it as a combination of hard-work, grit, self-confidence, maturity and professionalism. Learn from the best examples and emulate in your own unique way!
As promised, here are some good quotes from fellow Aliens about what it takes to be successful as a foreigner in Taiwan:
Christine Orchard (Head of Marketing at Arc) - “Try to balance “fitting in” and “standing out” when it comes to your communication style. As a foreigner in Taiwan, you’re starting off as an “outsider” within existing cultural and management structures. You’ve got to be honest with yourself that you’re not going to be able to change these forces. So while you do bring in new ideas and perspectives as a foreigner, not everyone will be ready to receive them. It’s crucial to understand who you’re working with and how they operate. Do A LOT of listening. Figure out how you can share your ideas so that they are heard and appreciated.”
Anthony van Dyck (APAC Sales at ENERCON) - “Stay active, not just in the industry circles you want to be a part of, but in the larger international community. Very few people stay in the same job, or even the same industry for their whole career, and the best opportunities aren’t advertised, they’ll come to you through your network. Hard skills will always be in demand, but soft skills like agility, communication, and adaptability are important too.
Finally, it’s never too late to learn Chinese, and even basic Chinese will help open doors for you.”
Thomas Hayton (Regional VP Sales, Marketing and Services at World Family) - “I’m someone who has lived in several foreign countries and would generally remark that language skills are critical to building a career. It’s not that one needs to become fluent in Mandarin but rather that one can be a lot more effective in building rapport with colleagues and customers. Almost all business success is the result of teamwork so the language skills that promote better teamwork are worth investing in.
I also cofounded a technology company while in Taiwan. This island is a very good place to try some business ideas out for online. Developer talent is reasonably priced for the most part and there is an increasingly startup-friendly government and regulatory framework.
I found it a lot easier to take the risk of trying to build a company here than I would have done back home in the UK. I figured I had a low cost of living, fairly low opportunity cost (other available jobs didn’t pay a huge salary at the time) and an outsider mentality that provided some perspective.
Taiwan now has startup accelerators like MOX, where I am a mentor, that offer a fantastic chance to would-be entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is the hardest path to walk but also the best way to build extremely valuable skills that employers down the line will value greatly. Taiwan is a great place to do this.”
Trent Prestegar (Product Marketing Manager at Supermicro) – “Being adaptable and open minded is the best way to progress your career in Taiwan. Opportunities and challenges will probably arise from where you least expected, so capitalize when they do and you may well find yourself in a job, career, or lifestyle you'd never considered, and loving Taiwan even more.
Learning Mandarin will only benefit your career prospects in Taiwan. Taking the time to learn even at a basic level not only makes life easier, but also helps you stand out from the crowd in a competitive market.”
John Murn (Consultant at Transcend Admissions and Executive Director at All Hands Taiwan) – “The people you know and the communities you participate in are likely to play major roles in sustaining your career in Taiwan. It is critically important to build a network of people who know what you do and what you are looking for. More than many markets, Taiwan does offer the chance for you to make something happen or even create a job for yourself - if you know the right people and can demonstrate your unique value.”
Camila Sáenz (CEO and Co-Founder at TUTEEMI) – “Don’t see yourself as a foreigner. Speak, eat, negotiate, learn like a local… that’s the only way to deeply understand the culture and be accepted, trusted and liked in such a different environment. From day one I wanted to learn and speak the language so that Mandarin could never be a barrier between me and the new place I was going to be calling home. People might see us as an outsider because we look different, so it is our responsibility to let them know we understand their culture as much as they do. This way a lot of new doors will be opened because Taiwanese will no longer see us only as an outsider, but someone that respects their culture and wants to be part of it.”
Chris Cottorone (Vice President at TriOrient Investments) - “Success needs patience and politeness, but also persistence. I would add that understanding the local culture – particularly regarding food and family – can help a lot. Taiwan has a rich culture in terms of family and cuisine. Being able to understand and communicate with the local population about it builds important ties. Also, relationships definitely matter.”
Michael O’Neill (Director of Admissions at Taipei American School) – “It is important to shift your thinking from short-term to long-term. This may seem obvious, but I often found myself making decisions allowing me to easily pack up my life and leave as quickly as possible. I always had one foot out the door, and after ten years I realized this was no way to live. Once I shifted my thinking, my decisions reflected that perspective. Even practical ones. For example, I bought the nicer furniture for my apartment. More expensive, sure, but it turned my house into a home and a place I wanted to be long-term. The shift in thinking, obvious but difficult, has helped me physically, emotionally, and financially as I live long-term in Taiwan.”
Glenn Leibowitz (Head of Reputation and Communications at McKinsey Greater China)
- Search for your super power and develop it
It might take some time and work but you should try to identify what you’re really good at and hone that to a degree of mastery that makes you invincible.
- Never stop learning
Always push yourself to learn new things, experiment with new approaches, be willing to fail, and learn from your mistakes.
- Believe in yourself
Self doubt and imposter syndrome are normal parts of being human. But you need to tap into yourself and realize how special and unique you are and the many contributions you can make to the world. So believe in yourself.”
Matthew Davis (Director of Sales and Business Development at Tern Bicycles)
“Two keys: 1. Healthy Respect 2. Know the source of your value.
Healthy Respect - for people, high and low, and you end up with good relationships that can smooth you through all sorts of unforeseen/seeable issues. The person cleaning up probably knows nearby facilities better than your most knowledgable coworker. The most pig-headed business owner owns the business and wouldn't be hiring you if they hadn't achieved certain success and funds. Start out "looking up" goes a lot further than "looking down".
For the culture, it's ingrained, it's deep. Be curious, open, learn it and then learn your reactions to it so you can dance your way through the minefield and hack reactions to achieve your goals.
For the language, if you weren't born here, you're not a native speaker, not in the way a local would be. No matter how long or hard you studied, or even if you grew up in a family that speaks one of the local languages, you won't be native and you will forever run into others who can deftly manage situations with a few words that you can't even with an entire dictionary and unlimited time. So respect those that do, and make your best effort because it will make things easier for you. But it won't ever be the only thing. So therefore "know the source of your value”.
Most likely it is going to come from your perspective, your ability to link things. Different, broader, deeper, varied, experiences, other cultures, other languages, and your ability to synthesize that perspective into something that cannot be easily replicated, or maybe even simply located. Then do it again, and figure out how to let people know you're good at it.
And bonus warning for expats anywhere: Bitterness is always a tempting path, but it is only a temporary comfort. It has no value and is not marketable, edgy, or unique. It will not pay the bills, make friends, or feed you. So take the comfort, but make sure it's temporary and always seek out some sun. Lots of other lessons, but those are the ones that I learned very early on and have stuck with me over the past 15 years.”
Jenna Lynn Cody (Self-employed writer and educator) – “For me, the greatest measure of success is being able to create your own set-up. My job is a bit unusual, more of a freelancer than an entrepreneur, and what's kept me happy and stable in Taiwan is the ability to make enough money to afford the lifestyle I want (I'm not flashy, so we're not talking life in a luxury high-rise here) but without having to enslave myself to a traditional office job. It comes with some downsides: I can take as much vacation as I want and have been known to take up to two months off for personal reasons, but I don't get paid leave. This kind of hustle isn't for everyone, as it can be stressful if you want an assured, steady paycheck. But building up my own career with various income streams has worked for me, and allows me to engage with Taiwanese culture in other ways, because I have the free time to do so.
Taiwan is almost uniquely great for making this kind of life work, and my local friends have said they wouldn't mind a similar set-up: not everyone wants to be an office drone. Rent and the cost of living are low, and wealth equality is surprisingly good for such an advanced economy. Economies on the same level of Taiwan are often far more unequal. So even though they have more purchasing power, it seems to all go to the rich. In Taiwan you can get by with less, and still have a good life. It doesn't have to be a constant grind for very little benefit or mobility, which is what I felt the US was like.
But, you have to get used to some things: understanding on a cultural level when someone is trying to communicate a message in a way that would be different where you are from. Accepting that a low cost of living also means lower pay.
I think the happiest foreigners here carve their own path, and frankly I see a lot of Taiwanese doing it too. If you're observant, you'll find them.”
The original article: How to build a long and successful career in Taiwan as a foreigner
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