Why do Indians outperform Chinese in the US jobs market? Better people skills could have a lot to do with it
While the thousands of Chinese graduates looking for work in the US may excel academically, cultural factors could still be holding them back
It turned out to be much harder than Ellen Wu had expected, to find a job in Seattle, where her husband works, after obtaining a Master of Business Administration degree in the US.
Having graduated in 2016 from a top 20 business school, which she prefers not to name, she spent a year juggling two internships before being formally hired at the end of last year.
Now a senior marketing manager at a tech start-up, Wu, 38, said she wasn’t the only Chinese in her class that faced difficulties in landing a job.
While a rapidly growing number of Chinese families are sending their children to get what they believe is better education in Western countries, those who stay on to look for work often appear to be much less competitive in the jobs market than they are in the classroom.
While Asians may be at a general disadvantage finding jobs in countries like America, analysts have said that, on the whole, Indians appear to outperform Chinese people in many fields.
Wu said that around 20 per cent of the students in her MBA class were Chinese or Indian, with the latter group being more numerous. “Almost all the Indians had found a job by graduation in May 2016, but only half of the Chinese had at that time,” she added.
“I think English fluency, networking skills and the ability to negotiate are why we lag behind Indians. This is especially true with MBAs when looking for a job,” she said.