HONG KONG - Asia has long exerted a magnetism for mobile Westerners in search of jobs and adventures. Tens of thousands of Europeans and Americans live in cities like Singapore and Hong Kong, which are financial and trading hubs with a long history of ties to the West.
The global financial crisis only intensified the trend, prompting more and more Western expatriates to try their luck in Asia. The French seem particularly attracted by the possibilities that Asia has to offer - with the result that Hong Kong's French population has soared.
More recently, however, I was starting to hear more and more anecdotes about Westerners who wanted to find a job in Hong Kong or Singapore, but struggled to do so. Headhunters and recruiters told me that things have indeed become harder.
The main hurdle is that language skills - good Mandarin, in particular - have become more and more of a “must†for white-collar jobs here.
Of course, the exact requirements depend on the job. A computer programmer in a back-office function may not need to speak anything other than English. But if the job is client-facing (in wealth management or retailing, for example) or involves dealing with local suppliers or partners, chances are that the employer will prefer someone who can speak the local language.
“Language skills have become more and more important since the global financial crisis,†George McFerran, managing director for Asia-Pacific at eFinancialCareers, an online jobs portal, said at a recent news conference.
At the same time, as I write in this article, more local employees have the skills and experience to fill white-collar positions than they did 10 or 20 years ago. Employers, in other words, have more people to choose from - and Westerners who don't tick the box on the language front are finding it harder to compete.
What are your experiences of the job market in Asian hubs such as Singapore and Hong Kong? Have you struggled to land a job there - and what, in your eyes, have been the biggest obstacles?
