For the past month or so, I’ve been working on a new side project. Unfortunately, this has taken a lot of my focus away from UnAnchor, but I’m excited about the opportunity the side project will addressing. The company’s name is “Keys To China” and it’s a place for job seekers to look for jobs in China and for companies to recruit candidates from outside of China. In this post, I’ll be explaining more about the company.

Keys To China was founded by a former Seagate colleague of mine (as well as a loyal LAC reader), Vivian Keys. The idea, at its simplest, is to match candidates from outside of China with jobs inside China.

Vivian was born, raised, and went to college in China. She speaks the language and understands the job market. She was struggling with the technical aspects of creating a website and approached me with suggestions. I decided to take it a step further and offer to create the website for her. Thankfully, many of the core features were similar to those required to create UnAnchor, so it didn’t require me to learn a lot of new things.

While I could try and butcher further explaining the site, I’ll let Vivian explain further:

Why are Chinese companies looking to hire people from outside of China?

The short answer is many different reasons. Here are a few:

• Many companies have moved their R&D center to China and while they hire mostly local, there are always a select few positions which are offered to expats.
• In one particular example, VMWare looked for people with a particular technology skill-set that only existed in the United States.
• Yet another scenario is if a Chinese business is looking to expand into the United States or European markets.
• Another example is if they’re trying to get listed on NYSE or Nasdaq stock exchanges. The companies need people with the right experience and language skills.
• Chinese companies are also trying to lure back the many workers who have left China and are living abroad.

Are there opportunities for non-Chinese speaking in China?

Of course. Again, back to the VMWare example, they weren’t particular about the language. They really needed someone with the technical knowledge. The local engineers can’t effectively communicate with the headquarters back in the U.S., so English speaking people are better than locals.

Then again, knowing some Chinese makes everyday life much easier, even when it’s not in the job description.

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As for how this will affect UnAnchor, the answer is I hope it won’t. I still plan on focusing most of my time going forward on UnAnchor — writing itineraries, marketing, and continuing to develop the site.

If you have a moment or just so happen to have an interest in looking for a job in China, head over KeysToChinaJobs.com and check it out. As always, I’d love to hear your feedback and suggestions on the site.

Filed under: Money Making