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| Big Bucks Not the Only Issue for Chinese Abroad |
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"The coming years will see a war for talent," said Adrian Wooldridge in The Economist's 2007 special edition. With the baby-boom generation now reaching retirement age, companies in the developed economies have been increasingly looking to attract the best from all over the world. Developing countries such as However, they may face a trade-off between career advancement at home and higher salaries abroad. Choosing between the two remains one of their biggest challenges. In 2006, the total number of Chinese students abroad reached 134,000. Of this number, 121,000 paid for their own education. According to UNESCO, For many who have chosen to stay abroad, the big gap between their personal expectations and the reality at home has created the main barrier to returning home. One major consideration is the difference in salaries. University graduates working for the same multinational corporation could be paid 10 times more in real terms in While employers in the West are able to attract talented Chinese students by offering competitive salaries, they often simply throw their recruits into a melting pot, failing to utilize their Chinese employees' contacts and cultural knowledge to exploit business opportunities in When it comes to promotions, Chinese employees overseas usually find themselves in a weaker position than their homegrown colleagues due to the language barrier and less knowledge of the local business environment. Both are key to career advancement. In order to address this trade-off between higher salaries and greater career prospects, Chinese employers and the government should consider increasing financial incentives to reduce the gap with their Western competitors. Also, companies in the West need to develop initiatives to leverage employee knowledge more effectively. As foreign companies recognize the contribution of cultural knowledge to the success of their Chinese students themselves should also not let myopic interests blind them to the long-term prospects. In this respect, foreign-educated Chinese can be greatly successful by combining their expertise learned from the West with the opportunities at home. A more balanced view between financial incentives and personal achievement will certainly help people to better identify such opportunities. Tackling the challenge of opportunity is not only in the best interest of all foreign-educated students. It is also in the interest of both domestic and foreign companies seeking to establish or expand operations in As Andrew Grant, head of McKinsey Greater China put it: "This is an era of globalization, but also one in which multinationals are becoming increasingly local." By offering the younger generation of
By Zun Wang The author is president of the Oxford Management Consulting Society for Undergraduates ( |
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