Archives 2006

HR Market Growing Fast in China

By Frank Mulligan, Talent Software

The recruiting of staff is the greatest challenge that HR practitioners in China face.

But turn the turtle on its back and we see that recruiting is big business. There is a lot going on underneath. A mulititude of players offer everything from executive search to Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).

These international players are currently targeting China.

The graphs below tell an interesting story. They are based on a large scale study of international companies who offer some form of solution for recruiting. They illustrate well how the investments in the recruiting space have shifted from Hong Kong to Mainland China, and specifically to Shanghai. China is taking off, with Hong Kong flat. The study was done by a London-based MandA specialist called The1, and if you want to know more go here and click on ¡¯Research¡¯.

So the good news is that the kinds of recruiting support services that are avalilable in most countries around the world will soon be available in China. This would include Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), online hiring services, background checking based on call centers, online skills testing, outsourced payroll and benefits, Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and so on. The 1 tracks them all.

These additional support services will make life a little easier for HR professionals in China. They won¡¯t solve the biggest problem, which is the shortage of skilled, experience staff.

For that we still have to get our hands dirty.

Comments to: frank.mulligan@recruit-china.com

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When It Comes to Job Offers,It Pays to Ask for More Money

CareerBuilder.com’s survey of 875 hiring managers revealed that about 60% leave room in the first offer for salary negotiations, 30% say their first offer is final, and 10% say it depends on the candidate.

Meanwhile, four out of five corporate recruiters said they are willing to negotiate compensation, according to a study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management.

Yet few job-seekers actually ask for more, says Randall Hansen, a career advice writer for Quintessential Careers.

Clearly, it pays to negotiate, though actually doing so can be difficult. To be successful, arm yourself with information. Research the company’s pay scale, the job’s fair market value, the industry average and the region you’ll be working in.

Salary comparison information is easy to find–try employment surveys, libraries, professional organizations and peers. Numerous Web sites offer comparison information–try Salary.com, CareerInfoNet.org or Jobstar.org.

Delay salary and benefit discussions until you actually have an offer. You will have more negotiating power once you know you’re the desired candidate. And let the employer talk first; otherwise, you risk asking for less than what the employer is prepared to offer. If you must provide salary requirements during the application process, offer a bracketed range or say that you expect a salary that’s competitive with the market.

Prove what you’re worth. Employers are more likely to honor your requests for higher compensation if you can demonstrate why you deserve it. Highlight your unique skills, specific accomplishments or the revenue you’ll generate. Make sure your references give you good reviews–employers rely on past peers and bosses when deciding on a higher salary.

Other benefits count. If a salary isn’t negotiable, you may be able to get other perks such as increased vacation days, tuition reimbursement, moving expenses, stock options or profit sharing. Consider requesting an earlier performance review so your next salary discussion is sooner rather than later.

Always get your final compensation offer in writing. You can ask the employer for a day or two to review it before making a final decision, but once you sign on the dotted line, don’t go back for more.

China encourages hiring top-notch foreign scientists

At the 2006 Biological Economy Summit held in Beijing last Saturday, Wu Zhongze, a senior official from the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that in order to build China into a nation with advanced biological technologies and a large biological industry, China encourages companies and research institutes to directly hire top-notch scientists and engineers from overseas. In this way, China can gradually build up a world first-class research team and upgrade researchers¡¯ general strength in biotechnological field.

He said that to this end China needs to take a series of important measures. Among them, personnel strategy would stand out as the most important one. This strategy covers three aspects: first, to directly hire high-grade scientific researchers from overseas and attract senior Chinese scientific personnel to come back to make their contributions; second, to apply an open recruiting system to some key work posts, such as laboratory directors, heads of key research institutes, and other senior posts in scientific field; third, through the national 863 program (the National High Technology Research and Development Program), and the national 973 program (the Major State Basic Research Development Program), to train some excellent scientific personnel and some internationally recognized team researchers.

China¡¯s general biological strength is at the forefront among developing countries. China now has over 200 biotechnological research institutes and over 30,000 researchers working in biological field. In recent years, while traditional biological industry is still in the leading position, modern biological industry is emerging rapidly and new biological technologies are mushrooming. According to a rough calculation, China has over 7,300 companies working in biotechnological field. Among them, 3,000 have grown to become the key companies in modern biological field, generating 60 billion yuan worth of output every year.

How to Create a Resume For Foreign Markets

By Myriam-Rose Kohn

If you’re applying for an overseas job with an international company, you might consider translating your resume as a courtesy to hiring managers. But unless you’re fluent in the company’s primary language, translating education, work experience and other details of your life can be tricky.

The streamlined resume format that’s popular in the U.S. these days may not work abroad. For instance, recruiters in Europe, Asia and the Middle East typically look for requirements you wouldn’t normally include on a concise American resume, such as citizenship and passport data, your date and place of birth and your marital status.

Curricula Vitae (what resumes are called in most countries) that are created for a foreign market should be understated to the point of being self-effacing, and should contain substantive rather than active verbs. Using the same word more than once on a page is considered poor form, since repeating a word is a sign that you don’t know the language well. Good language skills are weighed heavily by hiring managers and are a prerequisite for just about any managerial job overseas.

Another difference between resumes created for the U.S. and foreign markets is that your experience should be listed chronologically, starting with your first job and ending with your most recent position. This is exactly the opposite approach used by most U.S. candidates.

European employers often request that your resume be written in your own handwriting. This allows them to judge you for neatness and proper use of language (assuming that you wrote it yourself). The letter also can be submitted for handwriting analysis, which supposedly would reveal the type of person you are, thus eliminating the need for you to send a profile of your personal attributes.

Candidates sending their credentials to staffing agencies via e-mail are urged to keep their documents as short as possible: Include only where you’ve worked, for how long and just a few lines describing what you did. Personal information is still required.

Higher-level candidates should adhere to the traditional format described above. Executive recruiters still want to see as much information as possible.

Educational Achievements

In Asia, the schools you’ve attended are critically important, so if you’re applying for a job there, list your alma maters under the “education” heading, starting with kindergarten and elementary school. The thinking is that if you’re fortunate enough to have been born into a wealthy family, you would have attended more prestigious schools than those with lesser means. This attitude perpetuates the region’s caste system. Competition is so fierce that children often are enrolled prior to their birth to ensure a place on the roster of a “prestigious” nursery school and kindergarten.

Schools typically provide letters of reference, as do former employers, and you should include those that you feel would be most relevant with your curriculum vitae.

Translation Help

If you decide to seek help translating your resume, be sure the work is handled by an accredited translator. Remember, a simple word such as president can be translated as president (French) or presidente (Spanish) to indicate the president of a country, but in a European company, that title indicates an executive two ranks lower on the corporate ladder than the U.S. equivalent.

Since you’re providing a translation to be courteous and create goodwill, image is everything, and a reputable translation agency can become a powerful ally. Make sure your translator uses a three-check system — a translator, editor and proofreader — and employs accredited translators. This approach assures quality control, since a translated text could have variations. If the translator and editor don’t agree on your intent, then the meaning of your text isn’t clear and could be misinterpreted. Once your resume is completed, the proofreader will verify proper spelling, grammar and punctuation, which eliminates misunderstandings and minimizes errors.

Translators are accredited only after passing a rigorous three-hour exam administered by the American Translators Association in Alexandria, Va. (703-683-6100). The test is so exacting that only 20% to 30% of all candidates have passed in the last five years, ATA reports.

Equally important is that your work be translated by someone who works in the same discipline or industry as you, especially if you’re in a scientific field. To stay current, most translators have a niche in which they become expert. Thus, an excellent legal translator will know the laws of the country your resume is going to and from.

If you would like to work overseas, the same rules apply as for a foreigner wishing to work in the U.S. First you must find an employer willing to sponsor you. The U.S. demands just as much appropriate documentation as Europe does. Workers and employees can move around freely from one European nation country to another and obtain employment, but someone from the U.S. would have to find an employer who would be willing to fill out all the required paperwork prior to the employee or executive arriving over there. Once all documents are completed, the recruited person must first of all check in with the municipality where he or she will be settling in before actual employment can begin.

Get It Right

You should determine exactly where your resume will be sent before enlisting a translator’s help. If you request a Spanish translation, do you want Castilian Spanish or another variation? Your answer depends on whether you’re mailing your resume to Spain, Mexico, El Salvador or Argentina, to name a few countries where Spanish vocabularies differ.

The same applies to French: Canadian and Guyanese French differ in many ways from standard French. Good translators don’t translate just words, but their meaning and intent, so they must know the cultural (and sometimes even historical) context of the area where your translated resume will be sent.

An illustration of this point can be found in “A Consumer’s Guide to Good Translation” published by the ATA: “L’ingresso e vietato ai non addetti ai lavori.” If you focus on the words in this Italian sentence, you might produce this baffling translation: “The entry is forbidden to those not associated with the works.” An experienced translator understands that the task isn’t to change words, but to offer the right meaning. How would this sentence be expressed best in an American context? “Unauthorized entry prohibited.”

Now visualize this process in reverse and you’ll have an idea of what’s involved when trying to create a resume that makes sense and sells your skills effectively in another language. Three years of foreign-language instruction in high school might help you order in a foreign restaurant, but it probably isn’t enough background for you to translate your resume successfully.

A Good Career Move Means a Job in Asia

By Erin White

From The Wall Street Journal Online

During the dot-com boom, ambitious U.S. business-school students looked West to Silicon Valley for opportunities. Now some are looking East to Asia for full-time jobs as well as summer internships.

China, where there has been rapid economic growth in the past few years, has the most allure. But other markets, including India and Singapore, also are drawing M.B.A. job candidates.

They’re attracted by the adventure of working in Asia as well as the chance to gain experience in a region that is increasingly important to U.S. companies. Knowledge of Asia, especially China, could help propel their careers, they believe. Another draw, especially for entrepreneurial types, is the chance to get in on the ground floor of new businesses and potentially earn big sums or quickly move up the ranks.

A February career fair for international jobs held by seven top U.S. business schools attracted 337 applications for 48 jobs in Asia, says Bilal Ojjeh, chief executive of MBA-Exchange.com, the service that helped organize the fair, which included Harvard, Stanford and Columbia universities, the University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Last year, a similar career fair had 26 Asian job postings, and drew only 212 applications.

“There’s just this tremendous interest,” says Joseph Kauffman, a 27-year-old first year student at Harvard Business School who is co-president of its Asia Business Club. With 160 members, it’s one of the biggest clubs there. Mr. Kauffman figures he’s gotten about 20 emails from classmates he doesn’t know who want to talk with him about working in Asia. Mr. Kauffman himself is headed to Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong this summer.

Risha Bond, a 26-year-old first-year student at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, has her sights on India. A native Midwesterner, she isn’t ethnically Indian, is fluent only in English and has never even visited India. But this summer, she wants to land an internship doing biotech work at a big energy company there.

She could find similar work in the U.S., but she’s more excited by India. “The growth in India is so hot,” she says. She likes the business challenges, and thinks that ultimately, it could pay off financially. “It could be a very lucrative play,” she says. “You establish yourself early and in a young industry…that’s potentially big business.”

The companies that are hiring U.S.-educated M.B.A.s for posts in Asia are often the same ones recruiting lots of M.B.A.s for American jobs: investment banks, consulting firms, and big multinational corporations in areas such as consumer products, technology and health care. But although many of these companies are expanding their Asian operations, these jobs aren’t always easy for Americans to get.

For many Asian posts, language skills are a must, which knocks most Americans out of the running. What’s more, American M.B.A.s face growing competition from Asian M.B.A.s, either ones who are educated at Asian business schools, or U.S.-educated Asians returning home. Since Sept. 11, 2001, it’s gotten harder for these international students to find jobs in the U.S., so even though many would prefer to land jobs here, they often return home, says Phil Han, a career counselor at the University of California at Los Angeles’s Anderson School of Management. Harvard’s Mr. Kauffman encountered tough competition for his Hong Kong summer internship, despite impressive credentials. He grew up in rural Pennsylvania, but is a fluent Mandarin speaker after studying it in college and working at Coca-Cola Co. in China for four and a half years after graduation.

Many of his English-only classmates wouldn’t have passed an early-round interview: a half-hour phone conversation conducted entirely in Mandarin with two employees in Hong Kong. In further interviews, he had to push hard to demonstrate his serious interest in Asia. “Competition was extremely stiff,” he says.

Lower salaries deter some American students. It’s not a big issue with investment banks and top consulting firms, which generally pay M.B.A.s comparable or just somewhat lower salaries for Asian posts. “There is a differential but it’s not a show-stopper,” says Christopher Morris, director of M.B.A. career management at Wharton.

But for other jobs, the pay difference can be significant. A consumer-products or pharmaceutical company, for instance, might pay roughly half the U.S. salary of $85,000 to $95,000 to a “local hire,” says Mr. Morris. Students can negotiate to get closer to the U.S. salary, but their pre-M.B.A. experience makes a big difference. That’s why many M.B.A.s hope to work in the U.S. for a few years, pay off their loans, and get some experience in Asia later on in a cushier expat assignment.

Still, despite the hurdles, the numbers of Asia-bound students are growing at some campuses. At Wharton, Mr. Morris estimates that at least 7.5% of second-year students will take jobs in Asia on graduation, up from 6.3% last year. At Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, it looks like at least 20 first-year students will take internships in Asia, about double the number from last year, estimates Richard McNulty, director of the career development office at Tuck.

Kevin Widlansky, a 30-year-old Detroit native, took a job with McKinsey & Co. in Singapore after graduating from Wharton in December. He found salaries in the region to be somewhat less than similar jobs in the U.S. But with the lower cost of living and lower taxes, “I would say we’re at least even,” if not saving more in Singapore, he says. Plus, he loves the challenge of working in such a dynamic place. He already speaks fluent Mandarin and has started studying Burmese. “Excellent teak,” he says of the wood the country is known for. And who knows, he jokes: In 10 to 15 years, Myanmar could be the next big thing.