Global Village

The most valued expats

It seems engineers are the most wanted and worthy expats in China, according to recent online discussion. Allroadsleadtochina.com asked readers about the expats whom are still in demand, and Chris Devonshire-Ellis from Shanghai, ranked engineers on top. Many agreed. "Foreign businesses tend to send over high quality engineers here," he says. "They have to pick up a lot of the crap given to them by head office and are often just dumped into situations they have to fix and solve them. Many of them are better China smart guys than almost any other tier of expat."

Devonshire-Ellis ranked three other categories: business executives, service professional and chancers.

"There are many (business executives) who do not do their homework properly, and who try and cut corners in budgets, especially when it comes to dealing with time pressures to get an operation venture started and to carry out the required due diligence," he says. "The latter is often sacrificed to fit into their corporate timeframe and budget; the results can be disasterous."

He says professional service expats, such accounants and lawyers, are the third tier. "Their businesses are often underfunded, and they resort to cheap selling or unethical behavior to win business away from their competitors," he says.

Finally, and on the bottom of the list are the "chancers". "They think the streets of Shanghai are paved with gold. They all sit around talking to each other in bars but are they adding anything to the China business culture? Not really, and only one in 100 make it."

Romain Guerel, a French national in Beijing, says a successful expat must not be afraid of failure.

"A successful expat needs to be entrepreneuship minded, open to new culture, able to think out of the box (very important!), have a good command of Chinese, know your job, have failed a few times," he says.

"The one who says he has never failed in China doesn't know China. Probably, he is the one in his ivory tower and spends the evening in bars, spends only 50 percent of his time outside his office or expat compound. "The real people I admire are the foreign guy who came without expat package but a lot of guts. Started his business from scratch and enjoys some entrepreneurial success," he says.

Who do you think are the best performing expats? E-mail us on the link below.

AND ANOTHER THING

Ayis are regarded as a new industry in some cities. The Qianjiang Evening News reported on ayis working for foreigners in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province and said the cleaning job is still considered an unusual occupation for locals.

(China Daily 08/24/2007 page19)