Quitting My NYC Job to Look for a Job in Taiwan: The Journey

6 min readJan 11, 2025

Hi, I’m Kristine. After working as a brand strategist in New York City, I made the bold decision to quit my job and move to Taiwan. In this article, I’ll share my experiences and insights from the job hunt process in Taiwan, including some surprising cultural differences and practical tips for anyone considering a similar move.

If you’re interested, I also filmed a video on this, from which I wrote this article.

The Big Move

Leaving a stable job in New York was a significant step. I wanted to ensure that my new job in Taiwan would be something I could be comfortable with, even if it wasn’t my dream job. My goal was to find a role that wouldn’t make me dread 40+ hours of work each week. Despite career being lower on my list of priorities, it was still important to me to feel like I was progressing rather than taking a step back.

The Job Hunt Process

I began my job search by networking with branding agencies and consultancies in Taiwan, similar to my approach in New York. Over two to three years, I reached out to 47 different opportunities, including remote roles in Singapore and Manila. My focus was on brand strategy, but I was open to roles in branding or strategy alone.

Finding a job that matched my niche expertise in Taiwan was quite challenging. Even in the US, it is a specialized position, a role that not every company has. In Taiwan, finding a company that had a need for brand strategy was even more challenging.

From my observation, I realized that the job market here (at least in marketing) is less specialized compared to the States, where roles are more siloed. In the US, roles and departments might be separated into brand strategy, creative strategy, marketing strategy, and more. Whereas in Taiwan, this might be one department or role that covers the broad spectrum of “brand” / “marketing” / “strategy.” Because of this difference in the job market, I had to broaden my search and be open to roles that might not fit perfectly with my previous experience.

Applying for Jobs

I used several methods to find job opportunities in Taiwan:

Direct Applications: Websites like 104 and LinkedIn were the most helpful. While 104 is popular among Taiwanese companies, LinkedIn is used more by global companies recruiting in Taiwan. I realized the job opportunities available on the platforms are largely different. This is again different from the States where you might find similar postings on LinkedIn and Indeed. I recommend at least using both 104 and LinkedIn if you’re seriously considering looking for a job in Taiwan.
Headhunters: Although I struggled to find headhunters on LinkedIn due to my New York base, friends helped me connect with recruiters. However, these roles often didn’t match my profile. This was largely because the roles they had on hand required local expertise and experience. As someone that only has US working experience, I didn’t have luck with finding roles from headhunters.
Networking: Cold networking was more challenging in Taiwan as fewer professionals use LinkedIn. I had a few companies that I was interested in, and wanted to understand the work and the culture. However, it was challenging for me to find people that I could reach out to. I resorted to cold emailing companies through their websites or Facebook pages, which proved effective.

Compensation and Benefits

Bonus

Compensation in Taiwan differs significantly from the States. Here, bonuses play a crucial role, often referred to as 三節獎金 (bonuses for the three major holidays). It’s essential to ask about these bonuses when negotiating your salary. The base salary might seem lower, but bonuses can significantly boost your overall compensation. Every year during the year end, you can find the announcement and comparison of bonuses across different companies and industries making their way to Taiwanese news.

Work From Home Flexibility

Regarding benefits, work-from-home (WFH) options are rare and considered a perk for more progressive or international companies. Most companies still mandate employees to be in the office five days a week.

Time Off

Paid Time Off (PTO) is regulated by Taiwanese law and increases with tenure, emphasizing the value placed on long-term employment. Often in the first few months, employees aren’t given any PTOs, so that’s an additional item you should keep in mind for negotiations when job searching in Taiwan.

Cultural Differences and Reverse Culture Shock

Lastly, I was quite surprised that I found myself being reverse culture shocked. Having spent a significant chunk of childhood in Taiwan growing up, I was still shocked by some of the experiences I had job hunting. Specifically, several aspects of the job hunt in Taiwan surprised me (disclaimer: this speaks to the experience I had, but doesn’t account for all or majority of the companies in Taiwan):

Work Hours: I had expected that work hours were generally longer in Taiwan than in the US. But because I was New York based, I was communicating with the HR departments often at odd hours, including late nights and weekends. Even with the time zone differences, there often wasn’t a delay in communication.
Personal Questions: I was asked detailed personal questions that would be illegal in the States, such as plans for having children or financial responsibilities towards family. I learned that these questions weren’t legal to ask in Taiwan either, so it was quite surprising that interviewers asked that.
Salary Discussions: It’s common to be asked about your current salary early in the interview process, without a reciprocal disclosure of salary budgeted bands from the employer. While it’s common to be asked an expected salary, I’ve never been asked to disclose my current salary until interviewing for jobs in Taiwan. This I learned is common practice. For someone working in a more expensive market such as the US, it didn’t affect me. However, I imagine that this answer is being used as a baseline to lowball prospective employees in their salary offers for a comparable market.
Photo Submissions: Unlike in the States, submitting a photo with your application is standard practice. There were a few companies where it was a required field in the application system.
Recruitment Attitude: In general, the job hunt in Taiwan feels more like you are seeking a job rather than the company recruiting you. While there were companies that valued talent, it often wasn’t the vibe I received from recruiters.

Conclusion

My job hunt in Taiwan was a learning experience filled with unexpected challenges and cultural differences. Despite the lower salary compared to the States, the benefits of living in Taiwan, such as proximity to family and personal safety, outweighed the financial drawbacks.

If you’re considering a move to Taiwan, I hope my experiences provide valuable insights and help you navigate the job market more effectively. Don’t hesitate to comment if you have any questions or comments!