Opinion

Choosing the right work sector

By Apple Xu (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-11 08:00

People should consider carefully the pros and cons of working for a privately-owned company as opposed to being employed in the State sector.

Landing a new job in a Chinese private enterprise can be a wonderful accomplishment, offering a more challenging career, better advancement opportunities and more lucrative pay. But what happens next? How should a recruit handle the new role?

Pursuing a career with a local private company is challenging. It can present big risks, but not always big rewards. It's not uncommon for those who have made the move to complain about the new environment and quit before they have attained their goals.

The package offered by privately owned companies may look pretty attractive, but behind this lie high expectations. Often, local companies hope that "non home-grown talent" is able to return the investment in it in the short term. Not surprisingly, their requirements far exceed that of foreign-funded enterprises.

Unlike many foreign companies, operational procedures at Chinese private companies are often unsystematic and likely to be improvised. There may be insufficient resources to coordinate or deploy tasks, little or even nothing to learn from the past, and the systems might not be running smoothly. In some cases the employee may have to draw upon his own resources and work very hard to get established and be recognized.

In addition, interpersonal relationships can be more complicated. Nepotism thrives in these private enterprises. Cliques are common and being a "newbie" can be intimidating. Making things happen can be even trickier.

Career choice is a gamble

Taking all that into consideration, the people who survive and thrive in Chinese private companies are talented and self-motivated with strong interpersonal skills, a confident outlook and an ability to work independently. Being capable of embracing chaos and finding order in it is an essential skill.

People have to ask themselves, are they the right person for the task? As a veteran expert in the recruitment industry, Manpower suggests that before anyone decides to take the plunge, they had better understand whether they are cut out for the new responsibilities and able to succeed in Chinese local companies.

Every choice of career is a gamble. Therefore, people should calculate the risks and opt only for that which they find tolerable: It will not hurt their career in the future.

People's judgment on their suitability for work at a Chinese private company should be based on their past or current working experience.

They should search their hearts and consider how keen they have been to undertake new projects and accept new challenges. How did they react to tasks or projects in which the process was not clearly identified? How did they respond to decisions made subjectively because of an immature system or process? Were they willing to take part in complex cross-functional cooperation?

If their answers tend to be negative, then private companies might not be the right choice. If in doubt, people can consult with an expert career consultant to help them make up their minds.

Those who think they can handle more complicated scenarios should move on.

The author is the HR & Marketing Director from Manpower China. To comment on the topic, please email Feedback@manpower.com.cn.