A sense of home

"(Chinese companies) are offering faster-growing salaries, more opportunities to get to management level if you have obtained higher degrees such as a PhD or MBA, and at the same time you can be closer to your family and friends - a sense of home," said Jacky Chen, a PhD student in computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, who has stayed in the US for about seven years since starting his undergraduate studies.

He said that China has made huge progress in technological innovation in the past few years. "Every time I went back to China, I saw so many changes - the rapid growth in mobile payment, share bikes, e-commerce and especially artificial intelligence ... I was surprised and also want to participate in it," Chen said.

As an engineer, he said what attracts him most about returning to China is the announcement that billions will be invested in artificial intelligence.

The total output of China's information-technology industry grew by 10 percent year-on-year in 2016. And while overall GDP growth has slowed in more recent months, large tech companies such as Tencent and Alibaba are still expanding exponentially. The two companies are now worth more than $1 trillion combined.

"Chinese companies are catching up really fast. One of my friends who graduated last year decided to take a position at Alibaba in Hangzhou because big companies like Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent are offering very competitive salaries - as much as Google and Amazon offer here in the US - to attract outstanding engineers to join their research and development departments," said Chen.

He said he had started to look for positions in China and attended several job fairs in the US hosted by Chinese companies.

"If I cannot find my dream job in China, I will consider applying for jobs with Tencent and Baidu's US labs, and then relocate to China, or join tech startups in China - they are growing really fast," Chen added.

"It's easy to find big career opportunities in China for PhD talent, especially at prestigious universities. The companies in IT, manufacturing, energy, medicine, (and the) chemical industry have a strong need for this sort of talent," said Ge Wei, a manager with Lockin China, an overseas recruitment company.

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)