[photopress:chinese_students_in_USA.jpg,full,alignright]While many Chinese students at U.S. business schools still covet a visa that will allow them to work in America, career-service directors say a growing number are much more willing — even eager — to return to China after graduation. Paul Allaire, career-resource center director at the University at Buffalo School of Management, said, ‘International companies have long tried to pitch this idea of going back to China where a student’s language and cultural background is of great value to them, but until recently, it fell on deaf ears.’
Students say they expect ever greater career opportunities and compensation as China’s economic expansion rolls on. Patricia Cheung, a first-year M.B.A. student at Berkeley who will be interning this summer at Deutsche Bank’s real-estate asset management office in Hong Kong and working extensively in China, said, ‘I plan to go back to China after my studies because of the high demand for real-estate and infrastructure development. I am passionate and patriotic about China and also feel that it is where I have a comparative advantage both in language and culture. I speak fluent Mandarin, Cantonese and English and have lived or worked in many Asian countries.’
U.S. and European companies consider many Chinese M.B.A. graduates ideal managers because of their knowledge of languages and business customs. They also have studied the ways of Western companies in business school so they can relate well to their employer’s management style.
Johnson & Johnson, which has had business operations in China from more than two decades, is finding it easier to recruit Chinese nationals and has already hired 13 this school year for its pharmaceutical and medical-device businesses.
Some Chinese students still prefer to spend at least a year or two working in the United States both to repay some of their education debt from their higher income and to learn about Western business practices firsthand.
Source: Wall Street Journal (subscription only)