Being situated between China and Taiwan for the last 5-6 years, experiencing the perspective as a manufacturer has broken down barriers, opened my eyes and of course proven and disproven a lot of the stereotypical statements of working overseas.
The opportunity presented itself back in 2010 when the labor market was starting to stall and large corporations because executing large lay-off initiatives on budget cuts. Having just graduated from college 2 years prior with ideas and curiosity of my career path, I had no intention of seeking opportunities to gain experience overseas. However, looking at the trend of job rates and slew of lay-offs about to take into effect domestically, I started to consider the potential growth I could experience overseas. I contemplated and spoke to all my peers and family for about 2 weeks, going back and forth in my mind of the pros and cons of being situated overseas. Mind you, this was only a 3 month internship as a market analyst. Given the abbreviated duration I would be overseas I took it as both an opportunity to travel and experience the culture of my family. I was your average kid, shy and introverted to those I was unfamiliar with and slightly conservative with friends and family. Hearing everything from the strenuous work hours, to the balance between social and work life, and of course the compensation rates. I kept telling myself, I was there to learn and grow and money at the moment wouldn’t be a concern
So there I was my first day at the office, in a completely new industry. Everything literally foreign to me. I had to teach myself new vocabulary (workplace vocabulary, completely different than conversational vocabulary). An email in Mandarin, introducing myself took almost half hour to write, only to find out my grammar and vocabulary had to essentially be rewritten to where it was more comprehensible (my Mandarin Chinese was limited, I spoke it with family and learned vocabulary up until high school). It didn’t take long for me to realize and question myself on what decision I had made, was it the wrong one? What would the remaining 1,094 days would be like, I already started counting the days until I would be back home.
I kept to myself for the first few weeks there, just trying to absorb all that I could to apply myself to the company as soon as I could. Like any other company, there were groups that always conversed and ate together, and I stepped over that introverted characteristic and started to befriend my fellow co-workers. If I wanted to dive into the culture and truly learn, this was the only way and not fighting it. The hours were the same as any 9-5 job, getting work done, meetings the usual. The second month I quickly applying myself and picking things up as I started acclimating myself into my role. The worries disappeared, the fear was gone I knew I had made the right choice.
As my last month came around, I had a discussing with the hiring manager and they noticed my bilingual capabilities and asked if I was interested in becoming a Junior Account Manager and overlooking OEM accounts in the United States. This to me was a no brainer, I could extenuate my growth for another year and also start networking. However, I was then informed this position would be in China and not in Taiwan. Once again, those stereotypes of strenuous hours, work and social life balance came back. But again, reminding myself that this is a learning experience and to be open to anything.
My 3-month term ended, I repacked everything and moved to China. This was a completely different environment. The text was different, simplified Chinese versus traditional Chinese in Taiwan. It was learning a language I just got used to using every day, again. The facility was much, much bigger than that in Taiwan, as this was the primary manufacturing facility, facilitating 2 to 3,000 employees. I immediately knew this was going to be a challenge, walking through the facility took almost 30-40minutes alone. In fact, I got lost the ensuing trips exploring by myself. As I acclimated myself to the new surroundings, I noticed that long work hours were a part of work life here and started to prepare myself mentally and physically. The first few weeks were smooth, as I had no main responsibilities except support my manager with ad hoc tasks at the time. Once I got into the routine, learn the SAP and ERP systems and the inner workings of the facility, I started to notice my days getting longer and longer. However, this was all voluntary, as I soon discovered myself to be a “workaholic.” I always hear that everyone works ridiculous amount of hours in Asia, to some extent this was true, but it was on an on-need basis. The additional hours worked, would be compensated or adjusted on your next day’s hours, allowing you to come in later or take a couple hours and accumulate them into paid holiday hours.
With more responsibilities came more pressure, a year passed, and I found the challenge exciting. I was promoted to an Account Manager and asked if I’d extent my contract another year. I was given the tasks of managing global accounts and worked and led a team of 4-6 colleagues. This was my first official managerial position and all new to me. Yes, hours were long and strenuous, but this was because of my adjustments to my new position. Also an on-need basis and communications with clients were more fluid with longer hours, it saved half day to a day’s work with the few extra hours put in. It was all about efficiency with the time allotted.
2 years turned into 4 and eventually the start of my 6th year. I never looked back on the decision I made on relocating to Asia. I learned a bit of everything: Supply Chain, Sourcing, and Engineering (industrial and design), project management, product development and Quality Assurance and Control etc. I gained the knowledge that while the hours were indeed strenuous, but this was not a company culture and not the culture of Asia. Yes, we hear it all the time, but even in the States, we have days where the day at the office does not seem to end. The knowledge I’ve gained because of those long days, I was exposed to so many facets of a manufacturer, this provide me the advantages career wise, in applying these skills to any field of work. Yes, culture and life took some time to adjust to, but isn’t it the same moving into somewhere new? We adapt, learn, grow and move on, except in Asia, at a much rapid pace. We all will experience these difficulties, but will we know it was difficult if we never experience it?
