Learning Sweet Skills, or, How I became Gainfully Employed

You are looking at, or rather reading the words of, GlobalPR’s newest employee. I have been given a part-time job writing press releases for English-speaking markets as well as helping to communicate, via email mostly, to those markets’ press outlets about our client’s products.

It’s kind of a long story actually. Last fall I realized that I had a lot more time on my hands as a junior than in the first two years of university. I started trying to find something to do. For a while I was trying to get in touch with an orphanage to help volunteer but it just kept on falling through. So then I was looking around the foreigner websites for jobs and stumbled upon a job listing on Taiwanted.com, asking for someone who could write press releases in English, specifically looking for university students who could work part-time. Well – I emailed my resume over and  got a call to go interview. I got all dressed up and sweated (it was still really hot at the time) my way over to GlobalPR’s offices in Beitou, just north of Taipei City. It was a small office and the 4-5 people there were all dressed pretty casually so I stuck out all dressed up and sweating, as only a foreigner in Taiwan can. The interview went well with the guy who is now my boss, a German Swiss who married a Taiwanese woman and settled down to make a life of it here in Taiwan. It seemed by the end of the interview that I’d be receiving word from him in the very near future regarding the whole work permit application process, and starting work. But that is not at all what happened. Bear in mind was in September/October.

Like I said, I felt at the end of the interview that it was pretty much a done deal. I didn’t hear anything though and so, being the Scot Jefferies-trained guy that I am (that’s my dad, fyi), I gave him a call and an email. He said he was ‘really interested still but he was just really busy, and yes we should be ready to move in the near future.’ Well, nothing happened still and after a few more emails I figured that was the end of it. I supposed it was just a small company that put up a job listing before they were really interested in filling a position.

Time passed…

In March, four months later, I got a call on my mobile from a German Swiss guy asking me if I was still interested in the job I interviewed for back in the Fall. I was definitely surprised. ‘Sorry,’ he said, ‘my wife recently had a baby and we were just really busy but the job is ready for you if you are still interested.’ I told him I was game and there you have it…or do you?

Well now that both parties wanted to move forward, we had to get the government’s approval. I needed to apply for a work permit for foreign students issued by Taiwan’s  Council of Labor Affairs, Executive Yuan. This turned out to be quite an arduous process. I love bureaucracy don’t you?

With guidance from the extremely nice ladies in the International College office of MCU and the bosses wife at GlobalPR I figured out what needed to be done. I had to fill out and turn in an application to Taiwan’s Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training. My application also needed to have my university’s official stamp as well as GlobalPR’s stamp. Seals and stamps are very important in Taiwan. Along with the application I had to submit my transcript, a photocopy of my apartment’s lease agreement, a photocopy of my passport, national ID card, and student ID card, a letter from my university advisor explaining that I had financial need and that this job would offer me the chance to apply the knowledge I am learning (as an International Business & Management major) in a real-world situation, and 100NT dollars – about $3.00 USD.

It definitely was a process to get all the different university people and GlobalPR people to get all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed on the same set of papers…and I didn’t even do it right. About a week after I got everything turned in, instead of getting my work permit in the mail I got a letter saying my application was incomplete. Thankfully my university was able to satisfy that whole thing with a quick fax and in the end I finally got the permit.

10 points to the person that can find my name. You know this, I've told you my Chinese name before.

With Uncle Sam (or is it Uncle Yat-sen) satisfied I started work as a “PR Assistant.” I work on Mondays and Thursdays and so far I’ve been having a great experience. It’s been a real pleasure to get to know my officemates. My boss is the only other guy in the office, and then there is his wife and five other Taiwanese women. This is not including their baby, the nanny, and their little boy who also hang out in the office with us. It’s different to experience Taiwanese culture in an office setting as opposed to the classroom setting. I find it fascinating.

So far I’ve helped write fifteen press releases for clients including a computer chassis manufacturer, an LED lightbulb manufacturer, and a computer peripherals (that’s keyboards and mice and things like that for the rest of you) manufacturer. I’ve also started to help clean up the database and improve the contact information we have for foreign press outlets in places like Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA.

For those of you who are interested here are a few of the press releases I have helped with so far:
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=24606
http://computingondemand.com/?p=3434
http://www.ledsmagazine.com/products/22391

Besides the extra money it has really been great to be working again. Being a student and spending all this time ‘investing’ in myself has definitely taken a toll. The feeling of satisfaction after a day of work is a welcome change!