The job to find a job

When we decided to come to Taiwan, my first intention was to study a bit of Chinese and right away to look for a job. But as the research of a job was getting more difficult than expected and I got into the Chinese course… I stopped and I was fully dedicated to Chinese.

9 months after, I achieved my 3rd term and then I decided to seriously look for a job. I couldn’t imagine just keep studing Chinese all the time, I needed something else. Most of foreigners living and working in Taiwan is because they came as expatriates, that means, with a job and all burocracy arranged from their respective countries, as in the case of Albert more or less. The rest, most of them work as English teachers in shcools, day care centers or cram schools, which are very popular in Taiwan.

As I didn’t like so much the fact to teach I tried to find something related to NGOs and organizations, and after some attempts (and the coincidence one girl was leaving the job position free, I have to say) I got the job!

Like in past occasions, everything needs to go through burocracy and Taiwan laws (quite stricts!). Due to I’m not Taiwanese and I didn’t have the residence permit, the process was even more complicated and long.

In short, it was a kinf of small gymkhana:

1. To provide all personal data and documents, in Chinese or English.

2. Then, all documents have to be sent to the Ministry of Labour.

3. To wait until it accepts my application and gives me the labour permit.

4. Got it! Because I’m foreigner and I have university studies I’m in the categiry of “white collar”, that means a base salary pretty high compare to standards.

5. And straightaway to the the Immigration Agency to apply for the Alien Resident Permit, with more documents of course!

I’ve already my ARC!! (Alien Resident Certificate). It’s like this one but with my picture :)

And also the Public Health Insurance!

Now, it’s about one month I have started to work at the Garden of Hope Foundation (you can have a look at the Chinese version which is more detailed!). It is an organization that works for women and children victims of sexual abuses, it gives assistance and participates in many campaigns against domestic violence and defends gender equity. My job…  still not very clear, but I’ll mainly work on the international department.

To start a new job it also entails to get used to the work, ambience and above all the relation with your colleagues and supervisors. A part of all that, I have to add the cultural defferences and the language! Even if two of y colleague speak perfect English, I have to communicate with the rest of my coleagues… in Chinese. It is a real challenge because I’m the only foreigner in the office. When Taiwanese explain something, sometimes you have to understand the real meaning and guess what they really want to say. One thing is to understand the language and another different is to understand the culture. So, even if I can undestand English and a bit of Chinese, the way they think or act… that’s different!

I would like to thank my colleagues Jiayin and Kaili, who are helping me a lot in this process of adaptation :)