Quote:
Originally Posted by Syndr0m
This means that as an educated foreigner you become extreme valuable and it will be very easy to get higher position jobs, and also makes it more interesting to start a business of your own since lack of middle management means that not many businesses thrive and grow up to their potential, meaning there's lack of strong competition and lots of opportunities. Basically there's workers and money but nobody smart/educated enough to make **** work.
I had never thought about it like this but it sounds like it makes a lot of sense and would also explain LB's quote since Chiner was exactly like this 15 years ago but now the complete opposite. Resulting in the majority of jobs left for foreigners are things where you're going to be overqualified and underpaid and mostly just needed because you have a white face, or much higher-end jobs where it's going to be hard to land it due to the many requirements. And good luck building a big ass business yourself.
What sort of "skills" do foreigners think they have that opportunities are so plentiful? Where are all these overqualified foreigners to begin with?
Reality is that even 15 years ago in most professions there was a glut of Chinese candidates working for peanuts and they work longer hours for a lot less pay.
Most jobs worth taking used to be white-face back then just as they are today. The only difference is that there's so many foreigners today that even white-face jobs are not as easy to get and with economy boom, the comparative pay is not what it used to be either. Just as back then, most foreigners only have one marketable asset - English/Western culture.
Quite a few of my friends did quite well for themselves in China. Without exception, they are all Chinese who came to US 15 years ago to get degrees or Chinese Americans who decided to go to China after graduating.
This is mostly common sense, but no matter where one goes if one doesn't know the language (speaking and writing at a very high level), one better have very specific industry skill to get a job and be a superstar if you expect to get paid more than the measly local salaries for same type of work. Most foreigners don't have this, so their primary job avenues are in English language/Western interface roles... And the Western interface roles are increasingly being taken by Chinese who came back after getting US/EU education.
As for Colombia, I'm skeptical. I'm bullish on the country because it is getting safer by the day and opportunities are developing. But there simply isn't as much money and investment in Colombia and there probably never will be. They are not competitive in manufacturing or anything else (?) so where is their edge and source of growth? They're going to grow as country stabilizes but it will not be rags to riches story by any means.
India is the next China and it's not even close. The issue here is that expat lifestyle is not much of a draw.