Beijing challenge is helping me thrive

Madeleine Leewellyn, 22, is an Indonesian student at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

Since 2016, I’ve been interning at jingjobs.com, a free bilingual platform that helps young people find career opportunities in China. Over time my monthly salary has grown from 1,000 yuan to about 10,000 yuan ($160 to $1,580).

I’m the fourth generation of a Chinese family. My great-grandparents were from Hong Kong, so my family speaks Cantonese and a little bit of Mandarin.

As the political relationship between Indonesia and China has improved in recent years, when I got an opportunity to come and study in Beijing and experience the true China, I immediately said yes. I now call the city my home away from home.

I’ve had a chance to witness how fast China is growing.

One example is that when I first came to Beijing, in 2013, UIBE started to build a new gymnasium and dormitory for international students beside the northwest gate, and the project took just three and a half years. If you had the same situation in Indonesia, it would take at least double that time.

I adore the majority of people here because they are extremely hardworking. Also, being able to live in a fast-paced city like Beijing has trained me as a young professional how to better grow my career. The competitiveness in Beijing has pushed me to thrive.

You can get a job in China as long as you meet the job requirements and have the right skills and experience. Actually, many multinational corporations and small and middle-sized enterprises have opened their doors to foreign talent.

One of the biggest problems most expats face is the language barrier, while the requirements for foreigners to obtain a work permit are high.

Nowadays, expats also have to compete in the job market with a lot of Chinese returnees who have studied abroad.

A large number of them are perfectly bilingual, plus getting a visa for an expat can consume a lot of time, but hiring a returnee doesn’t require a company to go through that.

I’ve decided to stay and build my career in China because there is still a lot of things to learn and room for me to grow.

I hope I will be able to master the language and better understand the culture. I know for sure that I will not grow as much if I have to go back to Indonesia straight after graduation.