When to give up the job search and go China to teach English

[CarbonRod]

I've been unemployed for a little over 2 months (after being fired) and of course things are dismal. I'm 27 and with only 2 years of experience and a B.S. s in Aerospace and Physics. I'm a big believer in doing something rather than being unemployed, both because being unemployed tends to sap your self esteem and the whole resume gap issue.

My question is in your opinion, will doing something like teaching for a year or two in a foreign country significantly limit my prospects of working as an engineer afterward? I like the idea but others may see it as a lack of focus or it may not know what to think.

I have always been under the vague impression, not confirmed or denied by any real data points, that once you got off the engineering career path you were basically done. But I can go teach over there very quickly and at least survive (I hope).

What's the crossover point where the being unemployed here is worse than being employed in something unrelated over there?

Anyways, sorry for yet another "help I'm unemployed wtf do I do" post. I know there's a lot of them.

 

[GregLocock]

An engineer who can speak chinese well, and english well, and is prepared to move to China, should be immediately employable. Not necessarily as a teacher, but as a liason engineer.









Cheers

Greg Locock


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[ischgl99]

I agree with Greg, the language and cultural skills will be a big asset to many companies and not only because they might want to send you there. When I hire people, I like to see someone that goes above the norm to learn something new and this would be a great example. Even if I did not need someone with Chinese language skills, I would favor you over someone that took the safe route.

As for the gap in employment, that is very easily explained. You were laid off and with the job market so bad you decided to take the opportunity to learn the Chinese language and culture, an opportunity you will not likely have in the future once you have established your career and have a family.

At your age, my company sent me to Germany for 8 months for training and it was a great opportunity, something I would not have traded for anything. I would have gone back for two more years several years later, but the company waited too long and I ended up getting married and declined the offer. Do this while you can, I do not think it will effect your career negatively at all.

 

[Medeski]

After graduating BS ME I went to teach English in Japan for 2 years. My minor was Japanese, but I put in a lot of time studying and practicing while teaching. After 2 years it was either go back home or work here, so I went job fair, and talked to some company reps who told me I was the first engineer to come speak with them. Interviewed a month later (not as nerve racking as I expected, I could only say so much (-: ), and got the job.

I guess a big part depends on if you have a long term interest in working for a Chinese (or which ever country's) company, or a company that has relations with China. And also that you take the time to learn the language, which means hanging out with the locals. Good luck, it's been quite an experience for me.

 

[ornerynorsk]

Ditto what greg said. A liason engineer or a focus on the teaching of english TO chinese engineers, that would classify you as a fairly hot commodity.

 

[KENAT]

When I first moved to the states, after almost 5 years working in engineering in the UK, I had trouble finding an Engineering job. I worked in a drugstore for nearly a year. I finally found another job in Engineering in the US.

So, while it's probably not ideal, you can get back in if you have a skill set someone is looking for.

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[MaterialsDude]

Hey man,

I'm finally working again but this after 10 months of unemployment. You probably saw my thread a couple of months ago. Anyways 2 months is nothing and so don't give up so soon. If you do want to to teach in a foreign country, then why not? You can do it for a couple of months while looking for something in your field. Besides it shows you have initiative to do something productive with your time.

 

[CarbonRod]

I'm glad to hear that it's not a terrible idea. I think I'm going to do it. Being a liaison engineer would be great, but I need to learn to speak Mandarin fluently. I already speak a bit but living there is the only way to be fluent. I don't want to be one of those people who always thinks the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, but then again we are in bad recession and it seems pointless to wait for it to get better... who knows how long it could last? Could be another year. Or more. Thank you for the good advice and encouragement folks! I do appreciate it.

 

[spongebob007]

Go to China. More engineering jobs are moving to China every day, and unfortunately they may never come back. If you can't beat em, join em.

Sad to say, but I see Engineering in the United States as being doomed within the next 20 to 30 years. American companies will need experienced senior engineers for a long time to come, especially specialists like myself. The problem is that most of the engineering work that is getting offshored is low level work, the kind of stuff that is perfect for fresh grads out of school. But how can a U.S. engineering grad compete with someone in India or China who probably has at least a Masters degree and will work for $6000 USD/year? I have seen the brain drain already. Alot of the old timers are retiring, and there is no next generation of young engineers to pass the torch to. Years of tribal knowledge is being lost for the sake of the almighty dollar.

 

[CarbonRod]

Yes, it is disheartening to see so many job postings for engineers with "5-10 year's experience" or "10+ years experience". You'd think that the distribution would be more like a pyramid, with the number of entry level positions greater than senior-level. Not really so.

I feel like the people doing this outsourcing grew up and worked during the postwar boom, and basically still see the world from the viewpoint of that era. "America is #1 and always will be because we're Americans and Asia makes cheap knock off junk and our stuff is high tech and high quality and that's were the real money is anyways and We've Got To Do What's Best For The Business". What about what's best for America, pal? Ever give that any consideration at all? But I guess the way a corporation is set up, you HAVE to do what will maximize profits or you else that's negligence and shareholders can sue and so on and so forth... it's just that the incentives are all wrong.

I do hope some of you old timers spend your retirement writing down some of this "tribal knowledge" so it's not all lost.

 

[KENAT]

I think it has far more to do with chasing the stock price than caring one way or the other about "USA Inc" or preconceptions of American dominance. Capitalism at its finest, right?

However, this is arguably off topic.

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[stanford94]

i owned a pawn shop for 13yrs after my MSME.

 

[COEngineeer]

First of all, you dont need to know how to speak Chinese to teach English in China. I took English as Second Language classes when I was young. I must say that just because you graduated from college and English is your first language qualifies you as an ESL teacher. I think you have to go through classes first. My wife is a native speaker and her response everytime I ask her a grammar question is "It sounds better". There are terms like:
Countable and non countable nouns
Regular and irregular verbs
Regular and irregular nouns etc...

Yeah, 2 months is not long enough. Try broaden your search. If you are willing to move to China, then you should search a job in all 50 states (or the ones you like). Dont just search in your state. Good luck!
I was unemployed for 3 months. Hang in there!


Never, but never question engineer's judgment

 

[plasgears]

Moving to China is not the ideal choice. Tough it out and be carried into the rebuilding of the economy. Remember, China is a communist police state.

My son's business was challenged by Chinese who wanted to buy the business. He resisted strongly. Sell commodities to China if you can, but do not buy from China.

Chinese interests bought a local Holiday Inn and posted dragons at the front door! There are a number of new shopping center stores with Chinese tenants. One is a big box store had almost exclusively Chinese made products.

I have a theory that Big Oil money from the gulf is undergirding China. Keep your eyes and ears open!

 

[HgTX]

Easier to sell commodities to China if you understand their language and culture. How better to do that than go live there?

Hg

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