Welcome to JobsInChina.com. This blog has been a long time coming…
I first came to live in China in 2002 and was immediately struck by life here. Everything seemed fresh, new and … unusual. I took hundreds of photos and made notes of things I wanted to write about. I should have started a blog then, to capture those exciting new experiences. Alas, blogging was still relatively new and it was not to be.
Fast forward to 2008. I’ve lived in China for more than 3 years (in several stints) and am currently living in Hebei in northern China. Things that would have made me stop and stare 5 years ago, no longer even register. Sure, at times the differences rear up, but for the most part, China has become home.
Why start a blog now? Well, I never lost the desire to write about China. Although China no longer seems ‘fresh’, I now have a much better understanding of the place and how things work here. Hopefully, this will allow me to pass on a more realistic view of China than I could have done when I first lived here.
Why JobsInChina?
That’s a tricky one. I’ve owned the www.jobsinchina.com domain name since 2004. My original intention was to create a website listing jobs available in China, but I was too busy, time passed and the opportunity was lost.
Having tasted blogging with my web development blog, I decided I really wanted to start a blog related to China. The www.jobsinchina.com domain name was sitting around doing nothing, so I decided to use it.
I am going to try to focus on issues related to living and working in China and to provide resources to people wanting to find jobs in China. I may also introduce a job service to the site in future, but we’ll have to see how that pans out.
So Will It Just Be About Working In China?
No! Although I’ll try to focus on that, I’ll be writing about all my experiences in China.
I plan to cover all things related to China, including daily life, culture, travel and my own experiences. I may post pictures I’ve taken, relate old stories, interview people, make commentary on news stories – in short, if it’s about China, then it belongs here.
Interspersed with that will be serious articles aimed at people wanting information on living or working in China.
The Final Word
I’m sure I’m going to enjoying writing about China – I hope those of you interested in China find value in this blog.
Very cool. I am glad to see your new blog. It will be very interesting to see the job news in China. Especially from a foreigner’s point of view.
Hi Terence, Congratulations on making the first comment here! It’s kind of appropriate I think, because we talk about China a lot – I can’t think of anyone better to make the first comment.It’s not just going to be about jobs. I’m going to write about anything related to China, but I will come back to things related to living and working here often.
You’ve reminded me of something. I should have said somewhere that this blog is about living and working in China, from the foreigner’s point of view, for foreign readers! I’ve been a little troubled by the fact that the vast majority of people living and working in China are, of course, Chinese! The site’s name and tagline sort of ignores them. I’ve been a bit worried about what my Chinese friends will think. I hope they understand…I might change the Stephen Cronin writes section to acknowledge this…
I think this blog can be a great source for both foreigners and Chinese to understand how foreigners survive with their career in China. Chinese can understand how to deal with Foreigners.
The difference between two cultures can be tough sometimes. The office politician in China is totally different than in the western world. This blog may give the foreigners some tips on how to adjust their culture shock and get used to the not-so-healthy environment. I bet you like some of the best Chinese foods and sight scenes. Those will be really helpful information for foreigners.
You can create different categories such as foods, travel, job and survival guide etc. With some great photo in the post, it will be very interesting.
I recommend the following tag line.
🙂
By the way, I can’t resist to subscribe to your Feed.
Hi Terence,You’re spot on about the cultural differences, especially with office politics. Westerners often aren’t ready for what they find here and it can be very frustrating. People have to be a little bit flexible and learn the way to get things done, rather than ranting at someone, which never works… So I hope to help people understand how it works here.Also, I’ll lighten it up with travel, food, etc. I like your tagline – I’ll see if I can work it in. Also, I keep reading interesting / odd news stories locally, so I’ll probably link to them and throw in a bit of commentary. It’s going to be fun for me – the only problem is finding time to post on two sites…
You are right. It needs to manage multiple blogs while you are still working full time.
Well. If this blog can bring you some cash, it’s worth to spend time on it. 🙂
Good luck!
It’s going to be full on… I’d like to make some cash (and I should make more than my other site), but that’s not the main point here. If it was I would have made it an MFA site with a handful of pages and a lot of Adsense ads! I want to write about this stuff…
Stephen:
That’s my point. Although I have some small banner ads on my blog, but I don’t make a lot from those. I did get some cash business from my blog though.
The real money could be from the advertisement on your blog. That’s going to happen when you are really famous. Before you get to the point, you are going to use blog to brand yourself. It may bring your some off line business, because of your blog.
You can become a great consultant in your niche. For example, one hour consulting service that can earn you more than three months of ad revenue.
Terrence, great point! And that’s ultimately why I didn’t go with an MFA site. It’d bring money, sure, but if I can really build a brand here, then eventually I’ll be in a much better position. Now we have to wait and see if I can do it!
Terence, I’ve used the tagline you suggested (next to my photo) and thanked you in the About page. Also, I’ve tried out your Flickr trick with my post on whether Beijing taxi drivers should stop eating garlic during the Olympics. Thanks again!
Stephen:
While you are posting your comment, I was reading your post on Google reader. I saw the garlic picture. It caught my eyes. I then realized that wa your post after I read the content.
Great job on making that header image. I like it a lot. Thank you for the mention in your about page. Hey one suggestion to you. When you refer to your previous post in your comment or other posts. Try use exactly title in your previous post as the anchor text. It will give your previous post a better credit on search engines.
Just my 2 cents!
Terence, Thanks.I’m happy with the garlic picture too. I’m not sure I can do it every time, because it is time consuming, but I’ll try to do it as often as I can, especially with this blog. My web development and WordPress blog probably doesn’t lend itself as much to this sort of thing (though you do it effectively with all your topics).Thanks for the tip for the anchor text – I’ve fixed it up.