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SCMP Reporter

IF YOU ARE ON the brink of taking your career to Shanghai or want to refresh your job search skills and pick up tips for a career move to the mainland, you are probably encountering information gaps.

Whether these involve how to plan your job search, which kind of resume packs a punch, or what goes down well in interviews in Shanghai, Paul Lyons' Successful Careers in Shanghai - How to make your career work for you in China's economic powerhouse should steer you in the right direction.

Focusing on career planning and job searches as much as Shanghai-related employment, this guide, one of Mr Lyons' trio of career-driven titles published by SCMP Publishers, is a winner - regardless of the strength of readers' commitment to the destination.

The author said his text was designed to be used as a 'comprehensive guidebook' or, simply, 'an aid for some practical advice'.

The book operates as much as a broad job search manual as a Shanghai-specific employment guide and large chunks of the advice it contains can readily be applied to anyone in search of employment anywhere.

The guide incorporates tips for job seekers, knows the market or location they are targeting, advises those unsure if Shanghai is their ideal career destination and gives suggestions for those who have decided to make a career in the city their goal.

However, the book is strong on general career matters and goes some way towards answering most people's questions about changing their jobs or even their career direction.

Targeting fresh graduates seeking their first job through to senior executives, chapters touch on topics that include how to review yourself, your career and job search plans, how to put together application letters and resumes that work, preparing for and performing during the interview, weighing up if a job is for you, making the best start in your new position, and common job search issues and solutions.

With many sections on the specifics of the Shanghai job market, the guide is definitely worth reading before you commit to relocating to the city.

Several chapters, for example, aim to help readers figure out if they have what it takes to tackle the city's challenges.

The focus, however, is mostly on those already committed to Shanghai, with the goal of helping them nail the right job there.

In addition, Mr Lyons' work examines where opportunities lie, in which job sector skill shortages are particularly apparent, and where demand exceeds supply.

Invaluable advice that is Shanghai-specific covers how to set out a resume, including useful tips on layout, content and language, and what to exclude. What makes the advice particularly helpful is that all suggestions are backed up by real examples of resumes and application letters. While the text is geared to the Shanghai job market in 2004-05, it also touches on the long-term and short-term outlook, and will therefore probably have a fairly long shelf life.

Sections examine employment cycles, how  cyclical economic changes will affect the city in future years and what factors  are likely to have an impact on it, among other issues.

Although emphasis is on the actual job search and application process, Mr Lyons has not forgotten to share general advice on how to spend the first week, month and quarter in a new post.

Especially valuable tidbits dwell on creating appropriate relationships and levels of productivity, learning how to understand the culture and, invaluably, building your profile and performance at your new place of employment.

Notably easy to skim and dip into, the book is neatly laid out, divided into helpful sections and comes with  useful summaries at the beginning of each chapter.

There is a brief but useful appendix detailing recruitment fairs, government departments, prominent executive recruitment firms and other nuggets.

While its layout may not be the most exciting and the book lacks the colour photographs, charts and maps of big-name guides, Successful Careers in Shanghai is practical.

It should appeal to the skim reader as much as to someone who has time and inclination to dwell on it page by page.

Regardless of the intensity of your hunger to work in China's business boom town, Paul Lyons' small but essential manual can ultimately be seen as an effective set of guidelines for job seekers - in Shanghai, elsewhere on the mainland and worldwide.



Essential guide to Shanghai