The Asia Pacific Headhunter

Asia Recruitment Set To Slow Down

I guess this is a massive statement of the obvious but the Finance industry in Asia is looking at lower hiring according to this article in Bloomberg. They also go into a lot of detail about how there will be less "expat" hiring in the region. This isn't a new trend. The number of expats in all industries, not just finance, has been trending down for years and years. While there are great positives in hiring expats there are also a great many pitfalls, and most multi-national organizations have slowly but surely cutting down the numbers of expats who they bring to places like Singapore and Hong Kong.

My favourite quote from this article has to be from a credit trader in London: "You're going to need less bankers worldwide than you need right now.'' Right there is another massive statement of the obvious. It's going to be interesting to see exactly how many less that may become.

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Checkout medical jobs at Health Jobs USA.

Top 15 Japanese Online Job Boards

First of all, a big thanks to reader and freelance sourcer Bernd Kestler in Tokyo for generously sharing this find with me!

If you're interested in the Japanese market either as a jobseeker or employer - which job boards would you go to? To help sort through the different online job boards Gomez.com, a provider of on-demand web application experience management solutions, ranked 15 Japanese job boards based on user nominations and for ease of use, volume of information and content, site security and feeling of trust, and comfort in interface and service.

Here's a list of the top 15 job boards in Japan (all sites are in Japanese only except for Daijob!):

1.  Mainichi Communications (http://tenshoku.mynavi.jp)
2. Intelligence, Ltd. (http://doda.jp)
3. Recruit Co. Ltd. (http://rikunabi-next.yahoo.co.jp)
4. PROSEEK, Ltd. (http://www.proseek.co.jp)
5. SoftBANK Human Capital Corp. (http://www.ecareer.ne.jp)
6. Career Design Center Co., Ltd. (@type) (http://type.jp)
7. en-japan inc. (http://employment.en-japan.com)
8. Career Nikkei (http://career.nikkei.co.jp)
9. Mixi, Inc. (http://find-job.net)
10. Create Co., Ltd. (http://www.d-dj.com)
11. I & G Partners Inc. (http://green-japan.com)
12. JS Corporation Inc. (http://shigoto.js88.com)
13. Aidem Inc. (http://www.e-aidem.com)
14. Daijob, Inc. (http://daijob.com) In English see here (http://www.daijob.com/en)
15. Antique, Inc.(http://www.q-jin.ne.jp)

To see the fully detailed report compile by Bernd, you can download here:

Download japanese_online_jobboard_ranking.pdf

Friday Links

Some great articles for you to take in over the weekend:

Evidence from Japan that companies that offshore operations are more successful at maintaining and growing their domestic workforce. This is worth a read for all the anti-offshoring types. Offshoring has been a big issue in Japan since the 80's thanks to all the manufacturing done there. And while the study can't say what type of employees are hired in the domestic operations, the results do show that perhaps not offshoring is a bigger risk to the growth of a company in their country of origin.

Immigrants Fuel Workforce Growth in Canada - Canada's foreign-born population has reached it's highest point in 75 years with 20% of the population born overseas. They have given a much needed boost to an ageing workforce.

South Asian Blood Sweat and Tears in the Middle East - A damning article on the treatment of nearly 600,000 Sri Lankan domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, and the UAE. The Sri Lankan government reports that 50 domestic workers return to Sri Lanka "in distress" every day! More needs to be said about this, it's disgusting that this type of abuse of workers continues.

Indonesian Economy on The Rise But Jobs Scarce - Quick article on economy growth in Indonesia but also how that growth has been confined to certain parts of the country. In some cases people can make more money offering themselves as passengers to commuters so they can use the car pool lane, than they can from working near their homes.

Dow Chemical cuts 1000 jobs - Includes leaving the automotive sealers business in Asia. Hardly even causes a blip on the share price which always seems to be the case when there are layoffs.

UK Investment Bankers Predict Doom in 2008 - But they still think they'll personally get bigger bonuses!  You've gotta love their optimism. Not that those bonuses weren't bad last year either.

Indians and Filipinos Happiest People in Asia - Who would of thunk it? Filipinos in particular are happy about their career prospects and families but are most of all happy about their health. Unfortunately they came last in "preparedness for retirement". Still at least they aren't unhappy about it.

Crazy Job Trends in Japan

The way jobs work in Japan has always been different, with "Lifetime Employment" and Freeter probably the most widely known work and career styles that continue to be quite uniquely Japanese. But I just read an article from Joi Ito's blog (which is a great read for a variety of reasons) talking about a new company who are really bringing another very innovative work style to Japan. The company is called, "Otetsudai Networks" ("otestudai" is the noun form of the verb "testudau　手伝う" - which means to help or assist someone with a task) and they take advantage of the proliferation of cellphones with GPS technology and also the preference of many young Japanese to work in ways that give them a lot of freedom.

Joi explains it best:

With Otetsudai Networks, if you are willing to work, you sign up for the service with your skills and focus, take a GPS reading on your phone and then just hang out. If you are looking for someone for say... 3 hours to man a cash register or help wash dishes, you just send the request to Otetsudai Networks and within minutes, you have a list of people available. The list shows what each person is qualified for, how others have rated their work and exactly how far away they are. Typically you will receive a list of half a dozen or more people within a few minutes.

The businesses are rated too on a per-manager basis so when you're hanging out with your friends and you get a request to go help at the corner convenience shop, you know how your peers have rated that particular guy who's asking you to come and help. You can also counter the request and say you'd go if they paid you 2000 yen / hour instead of 1500.

As more and more people start using this system, it's liable to start filling a very important gap in the workforce. It's also a perfect example of a location based, peer-to-peer reputation based, mobile behavior oriented product for an aging society.

This is a REALLY interesting idea. For employers (or anyone for that matter) who want 2 or 3 hours of work done for them it creates a great opportunity to get help quickly. For people who have flexible time situations it brings opportunities to them where they are right now. I can imagine this kind of scenario. You have an area you want cleaned and it's too big a job for one person but you only have a couple of spare hours. You look for 3 available people in your area and you could have help within minutes that serves their needs and yours.

The fact that this is all run through cell phones also means you have a way of tracing all those involved to help eliminate any possible fraud. There will be issues with quality of work for some people, but the risk is low since you can start with short periods of time and since the system becomes reputation based over time. The other barriers I can think of are possibly legal in regards to some workplaces having legal requirements for safety training for employees. None of the issues are insurmountable though. I for one will be really interested to see how this grows.

Where Do The Highest Paid Executives Live?

We really live in a mobile world nowadays. In particular many people will consider working not only different careers but also in many different countries during their career. There is no doubt that Asia is seen as an excellent area to move to and work for many people, at the same time many people in Asia are very interested in working in other parts of the world. The spirit of adventure drives many but if you are also interested in the power of money you might want to check out the Hay Group's 2007 World Pay Report available here (beware the link goes to a PDF download).

I like this report because it doesn't just show salary levels, it takes into account the cost of living and tax in each country to reveal disposable income levels - the true purchasing power of executive salaries for 46 countries in North America, South America, Africa, Europe and Asia Pacific. The results might really surprise a lot of people. The USA is 24th while countries like Russia, Turkey and Thailand are all in the top 10. From within Asia Hong Kong is 3rd while Thailand is 8th, Singapore 9th and China 14th. If you've been thinking hard about taking your executive skills off the beaten track then this might make you even more interested. While you might take a pay cut to go to many places your purchasing power may make up for that cut.

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Experience.com provides information on internships and entry level jobs.

How To Find a Career in Asia

I'm often asked by people who want to move into the Asia Pacific region, especially those with training in Asian languages, "How do I get a job there?". There are also a lot of people who find themselves in Asia, gain good local language skills and knowledge who also want to leverage that into a corporate position. Now as a Headhunter I can rarely help these people directly. But I have seen a lot of people in the past use the following method to get their footstep in the door in the Asia Pacific and not just get a job, but build a career.

Firstly, remember this: you are in a very lucky position! It's unlikely that at many other times in your career will you have such a clean slate to work with on where, and what you want to do. Next, try the following steps to thoroughly to really give yourself some choice.

1. Establish the skills and experiences that make you valuable for companies. By this I mean analyzing your experience and finding great stories of how you can help others from your recent experience. Make sure you are convinced of the validity of these stories of your experience and that you can back them up with both referees and if necessary hard numbers.

2. Choose a group of 10 companies through online research where YOU think these stories will really resonate.

3. Find someone in these companies to try your story out on. Anyone will do but ideally someone who has been with the company or in the industry for more than 5 years. When you approach them ask them if you can do a quick, "information interview" on their company. Ask them what is valuable to them in an employee etc. Finally tell them one of your stories and ask them, "honestly do you think my experience is useful for your kind of company".

4. Go back to your original list of 10, from what you've learned from the people you spoke to, is your experience still valuable to them or should you look at another industry or position? If the group is right then congratulate yourself. You now have a real world understanding of where you can add value quickly. That is what companies care about, knowing this point is CRITICAL to selling yourself.

5. Now that you know the industries that will benefit from you start researching which companies you want to work for in the region. Once you have that list it's time to approach them and actually see if they have a need for you now. Often the people you spoke to in your first calls will recommend someone as long your original value and personality has resonated with them.

This may sound a little difficult but it should give you more choice that YOU want. The fact is there are many jobs for good people, if you are a good person you won't have a problem finding a job. But finding a career you love is a different story and I think the process above can help with achieving that.

Checkout Austin jobs at itzbig.com.

Interview with Doron Vermaat of NewChinaCareer.com

At Asia Pacific Headhunter, we try to be a source of useful information for those wanting to work, network or research career opportunities and the recruiting/executive search market in Asia Pacific.  I'm working on putting together a series of interviews with some key people in the recruiting industry giving insight into the uniqueness of the Asia Pacific market.

As we know, the recruitment market, especially the online job boards in China has been heating up over the past couple years with the increasing demand and shortage of talent - read Workforce.com's article on Recruiting on Asian Job Boards.

So to get behind the scenes, first up is Doron Vermaat, Managing Director of English-only China-based online job board NewChinaCareer.com which started up early this year. He talks about the online job board market in Asia, the importance of English as the medium, and gives some advice for both employers and candidates.

1. Doron, can you tell me a bit about yourself and NewChinaCareer.com?

I’m a Dutch national and have been working in the field of online recruitment for quite a while. I was part of internet startup NationaleVacaturebank.nl, a leading Dutch job board that was acquired by VNU Business Publications in late 2005. When I left after the buy-out I joined an international recruitment company where I was responsible for all online and offline marketing and branding strategies. When they wanted to expand their business to the APAC region, I found out that there wasn’t a serious English language online recruitment platform for the Greater China region. The idea for NewChinaCareer.com was born.

NewChinaCareer.com went live in January 2007 and is currently listing over 15,000 (mostly executive) jobs from over 400 companies.

2. Why come to Asia to start a job board?

We’ve been seeing the growth of online recruitment in Europe for some time now. On this side of the world, I also expect the trend to continue.  (The number of Internet users in Asia is approaching 400 million, up 241 percent from 2000, according to Internet World.)

There’s more and more demand for native English speakers by foreign companies but also by local Chinese operations who are increasingly looking to do list in Europe and the US. We are also seeing that there are a large number of Chinese students who have studied overseas and are looking for jobs back in China. NewChinaCareer.com hopes to capitalise on the fact that English will be their medium of application preference.

 3. With the boom of career sites and online job boards coming out of China, how does NewChinaCareer.com set itself apart from the other big players in Asia, such as ChinaHr.com, 51job, JobsDB etc, etc?

 Although we are new on the scene, there’s no doubt that we are already a serious player in the market. By using English as a platform medium, I am positive that NewChinaCareer.com will appeal to a particular type of sought-after professional in Greater China. For both jobseekers and recruiters, as far as I’m concerned, there is now no other alternative.

There are a variety of job boards out there, but normally the English they use is just for the site’s menus. When you get down to the details of the listing, it can often be very disappointing for users who don’t read Chinese. We offer an easy, one-stop shop for China’s top jobs and China’s top professionals.

We did a lot of research in China and it seems that the top-end multinationals are all desperate for highly-educated people. One of the things that helps us, is that because we are an English-language site, we have a built-in selection filter. You can’t post or apply on the site if you can’t read or write English.

For years, more and more expatriates, highly-educated locals and returning students have been seeking top positions in Chinese companies. By using English, the site is in the exclusive position of being able to narrow down a particular type of candidate and vacancy.

4. How do you find the online recruiting market in Greater China different from other markets, such as the US or Europe? Or is it not different at all?

The volume is extreme. The major players are job boards such as ChinaHR.com, which posts nearly 1 million jobs each day and offers 10 million registered job seekers. Another thing that surprised me at first was the usability and the look and feel of most China based job boards: Looking at them is like walking through a Hong Kong night market, with every neon advertisement hoarding trying to capture your attention.

5. What do you think are the biggest issues facing employers hiring in Greater China from an online recruiting perspective?

Hiring is through the roof in Asia, particularly in China and India.

China’s major cities generated 12 million new jobs in 2006, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China. This volume of hiring is possible only when sourcing is fully automated through employment sites.

Multinationals recruiting for professional positions on local job boards like ChinaHR.com and Zhaopin receive an extraordinarily large volume of responses and need to be prepared to target individuals.

6. What about employees? What do you think is the most important thing they should know about using the internet to find a new job in Asia?

 Be careful with using social networks to jump start your career. They attract millions of visitors every month providing lots of opportunity for individual interaction and relationship building. While this activity is indeed networking, however, the most important aspect of its description is the adjective that defines it: "social."  They should be aware that it can harm their reputation or even jeopardize their employment if their profile is full of pictures from late night party adventures or other “social” activities.

7. There is a lot of argument in the recruiting industry at least about the effectiveness of job boards. Certainly they provide a cost benefit over print advertising but they have proven to not necessarily be great source of talent. Still the huge advantage I personally see for job boards is the ability to tweak a product over time and improve. Where do you see the greatest changes and improvements coming from for Job Boards and online recruitment within Asia in the near future?

 I personally think you can only deliver a large percentage of qualified candidates if you are a niche player with a certain focus.  The problem with the large general job boards will always be the extremely large amount of unqualified candidates that apply to their clients' job postings. The biggest challenges for these job boards is to help their clients to filter this large amount of applicants. 

8. There seems to be a lot of ways that job boards are trying to change online over the last few years, with advertising on social networking sites, vertical search, paid referral systems, and social networking sites that are also job boards (phew, that was a mouthful). Despite all this change and creativity many of the larger players strictly advertising based services still continue to produce excellent revenue results. What's your opinion on all the new models that are appearing? How much is hype and how much is here to stay, or ahead of it's time?

So far the most successful job boards in terms of revenue are still the traditional web1.0 job boards like Monster.com, Careerbuilder and for Greater China ChinaHR and Zhaopin.com.

From a user's perspective I do believe in vertical job search engines like indeed.com or social networking sites like LinkedIN, but as an entrepreneur I prefer to make some money. Something that still seems to be a huge problem for web2.0 startups that are based on the Freemium business model.

9. Doron, do you think Headhunters like me (and Harry Joiner) are eventually doomed to be replaced by the internet or online savvy guys like you and Joel Cheesman?

Definitely not. I think that especially recruitment agencies and headhunters like you benefit from recruitment tools like job boards and social business networks. Besides this there will always be positions that can not be filled by companies themselves, simply because they don’t have the expertise. I think guys like me and Joel are serving both the HR community and the recruiters / headhunters but I am convinced that the last will benefit most. Simply because it’s their core business.

10. I really appreciate you talking with me Doron, is there anything else you'd like to add about NewChinaCareer.com?

 Thanks for having me Steven.

And thanks to Doron for taking the time to answer my questions.

 

China Outstrips US in Pay Increases

Link: Quick Takes -- Want a Good Raise? Go to China | workforce.com.

According to the Hay Group Pay Survey via Workforce.com, salary increases in China are outstripping increases in the US by a long-shot. Average pay increases in China are about 7.8% - 8.9% for professional, administrative and senior managers compared with 1.4% for their counterparts in the US.

While percentages look good the reality is that salary levels just aren't as high in China (although who knows how long it will take to reach US levels, at the current growth rates probably not that long). Even then low salary levels are not stopping many returnees from heading back to the mainland. As one China expert said to me recently, "the trend has changed, while previously Chinese students went overseas to study and stay for jobs, they are now returning immediately after graduating at foreign universities because the opportunities to move up in China are so exciting".

This has a positive and negative effect. There is no doubt that the Chinese returnees, much like India's returnees, who have extensive international experience bring a new (and very valuable) mindset to their home country. Returnees who bypass working overseas to return right after graduation will at least return with stronger foreign language skills and a wider international perspective but miss out on that valuable work experience. My advice would be to those young graduates that you challenge yourself to work overseas before you return to China. You will be a better person for it and it may make a big difference to your career. Certainly in the eyes of many recruiters it will make you stand out over many of your peers.

ZDNet Asia - IT Employment Trends 2007

Link: A ZDNet Asia Special Report - Asia's IT Employment Trends 2007.

To get an overview of the IT employment in Asia and how you fare compared to professionals in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, India and Indonesia, ZDNet Asia conducted a salary survey of about 5000 IT professionals from these countries. With IT skills crossing various sectors, their survey includes respondents from ICT; Government, Health and Education; Legal and Finance, Media, Marketing and Sales, and Manufacturing.

Some quick info of interest:

Highest Paid IT professionals (for 5-10 years experience):

#1 Hong Kong at US$ 48,830

#2 Singapore at US$ 40,465

This drops to #3 Thailand at US$21,703, with the lowest paid being US$ 9,836 in the Philippines.

Highest paying job functions on average are in IT Management, then Project Development, Systems Development, then Other functions.

Where are the Hotspots?

Hong Kong. The opportunities are great for IT professionals, particularly in the Legal and Finance sector - as Maneck Mohan of Recruit.net noted in an interview with ZDNet Asia. Those in IT management are paid the most, especially those with over 10 years experience, where their salaries are often double or more of their entry-level colleagues.

Singapore. IT Management specialists are highly paid and sought after. Candidates who are business savvy with strong management and execution skills are what most recruiters are looking for. A recommendation from Doris Cheng, managing director of an executive search firm is to work on managing skills, in particular, managing outsourced vendors as outsourcing grows.

India. Again, IT Management skills and strong experience, especially in infrastructure management is key and hotly pursued. Best paid jobs are in the IT, Web and Telecom sectors.

Malaysia. Has become a center for outsourcing, after India and China, and so there is a growing need from MNCs there to find good IT talent, particularly those with management skills.

Overall, their findings in all countries point to the same critical skills of having strong management skills and experience, and business-savvy entrepreneurial skills that will push a technically-skilled candidate further along to the higher ranks with higher compensation.

To see specific information for each country, check here.

Vietnam alternative to China & India?

Link: Vietnam ready to take on India, China? - Business - News - ZDNet Asia.

Vietnam is emerging as a viable alternative to China and India for multinationals looking to invest in Asia.  Seen as "a hybrid between China and India", Vietnam is capable of hosting chip and computer manufacturing plants, as well as software development.

Vietnam grew 8.4 percent in 2005, overtaking India as Asia's second fastest-growing economy but trailing closely behind China's 10.2 percent. The Vietnamese tech market was also worth approximately US$800 million last year, and is expected to grow about 20 percent each year.

Intel has made it's decision about Vietnam with building its US$300M+ chip assembly and testing plant in Ho Chi Minh City. It'll be interesting to see how the Vietnam market grows in the next few years.

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The new insurance schemes today are not fishy at all. This direct insurance approach is equally appreciated amongst the clients as well. This is why health insurance companies are having a blast. Due to increasing consumer awareness, even national insurance plans have started including personal perks like boat insurance etc, to lure their clientele.