US Vs Taiwan Job Hunting - New Job - New City

I've done my fair share of job hunting, now inside and outside of the US. I mean I pretty much started searching for an engineering job at the start of last year. Sending out application and updating my resume. I had a phone interview last Fall, and that was about it. A phone call here or there. Let me take this moment to familiarize you with my background: BSME from Boston University, Class of 2009, 3.04 GPA and an impressive list of work experiences for any college student including: IT support at Harvard Business School, a summer internship at Quantum Engineering (HVAC), one full year (part/ full time) at Fraunhofer CMI - an international R&D company where I worked as an Engineering assistant on some impressive design projects. This can look pretty good for someone who is about to graduate.... and only one phone interview - are you joking?

Sure we're in a recession. In fact, every hiring manager knows we are in a recession. This keeps us in a recession. Their motivation towards work, their jobs, and hiring is lacking. I continued to job hunt while in Taiwan, after deciding I needed to not teach English (several months ago) and I interviewed with both US and Taiwanese companies. The biggest difference is in attitude. In Taiwan I was interviewed by people with motivation - and in the US by people who seemed less sure of what they needed and relatively dull and unmotivated. How do you expect these people to pull us out of the recession?

Taipei 101 as seen from company apartment with "Taiwan UP" written near the top.

Not everyone in the US is like this, but it's a general feeling. What I think the US needs is this younger generation. Sorry to you older guys, but you've messed up. You've accomplished a lot, but you're old now and you're not as sharp as you used to be. It's time for the younger generation to take over, but we can't take over - we aren't being offered jobs. Boston University is a fantastic school - it's college of engineering is respectable to say the least - mechanical engineering is a broad and versatile field. How can I, not only a well educated and experienced engineering graduate, but also a well spoken candidate, have so much trouble finding even a low paying job? Boston University, according to more than once source, is one of the top 100 schools in the world - not the US, the world. The most recent time I checked, it was 77th.

I'm sure if I stayed at home in the US and job hunted for six months straight (like many of my former classmates did) I would be thrown a bone. But why? To be stuck in what I'm assuming will be a stale work environment. Meanwhile people on this side of the world (Taiwan), are not only alive and motivated, but prepared to make an impressive offer for a fresh graduate.

I'm bitter about the job hunting experience, to say the least. But I'll use that motivation to succeed in my new job. I'm working now as a technical writer in Taipei. This new job opens a lot of doors for me to explore the culture as well. For starters Taipei has a greater concentration of more recent Chinese immigrants into Taiwan, where in the South people have been in Taiwan for a much longer time. Their cultures and attitudes are distinctly different. I'm also now living and working in the heart of a major international city. The new job, at an international company, give me the chance to learn about Taiwanese professional business practices and study how they differ from their customers - in Japan, mainland China and the US.

Henceforth my cultural experiences will focus around Taipei, as opposed to previously living in the small city of Fengyuan, outside of Taichung. It should be fun.