How to enter a foreign company if your foreign language skills are not good?

Each of us, looking back on our past, finds that this is a process of constant slaps in the face.

When you are 25 years old, you will think that chasing stars when you were 20 years old is childish, and the celebrities you liked at that time have long been disliked now.

As a 30-year-old, when you think back to your 25-year-old understanding in the early days of employment, you are extremely naive. At that time, the "master" in the company just didn't teach me, and would wear small shoes for myself from time to time and make fun of myself. I felt that these people were not decent and selfish. It seemed that "this job is not good, and it is not suitable to stay here for a long time. I have to leave quickly!"

When you are 35 years old, recall your thoughts around the age of 30 and ask yourself, "Why was I so naive back then?!" Because when you were 30 years old, you felt that the relationships in this company were too complicated, and there were always people with connections and responsibilities. It’s not clear, “This job can’t be carried out”, I have to find a place to work where the relationship is simpler, “I’m not suitable for a place where the relationship is complicated!” Then I changed jobs one or two times, and they all changed careers and positions. Only then did I realize, “It turns out that the water in every house is very deep.”

At the age of 40, you finally bought a second house, which was not easy. But now you realize that most people borrow the down payment for their first home. For so many years, I worked hard, thinking, "Earn enough down payment first before buying a house." How stupid, your salary can't double every year, how can you keep up with the rise in housing prices? Cutely silly.

Of course, after the age of 45 or even 50, you will be slapped in the face for your previous things and judgments, but the slaps will be lighter and lighter, and your "skin" will become thicker and thicker. There are still detours to take, but they can be taken less often. Today, I will talk about a detour that can save you 5-10 years. It is mainly aimed at current professionals aged 25-35.

How to join a foreign company?

In the third year after graduating from undergraduate degree, I wanted to escape from the employment situation of Taiwanese and Hong Kong investors, where I had to work overtime and have a low income, so I occasionally sent in my resume. However, foreign companies, especially large foreign companies, dare not deliver because they are not good at foreign languages. They always think, "I will join a foreign company after I learn English well."

One day, the HR of a small foreign company called and informed me to go for an interview. I went home in the evening after get off work and checked. It turned out that I had invested in this company three weeks ago. After a closer look, I saw that it was not a small foreign company! It is still a Fortune 500 company with 180,000 employees worldwide and an annual turnover of nearly US$40 billion! Moreover, I submitted it to the China R&D Center and Asia-Pacific Headquarters.

“It’s over now, I will definitely fail the interview!” I thought and felt anxious at the same time. The next day, I quickly contacted HR to ask about the interview arrangements, and asked the interviewer by the way. I thought that since I was only a junior engineer, my future leader would probably be just a manager, and he was Chinese. Maybe I could get through this foreign language interview. Unfortunately, by coincidence, HR told me that the Chinese manager was on a business trip, and the person interviewing me was a foreign director!

How to do this? I used to work in a Taiwan-funded company, and I would occasionally see the English information of customers. I installed real-time translation on my computer, either "KuaiTong" or "Kingsoft PowerWord". Both were installed. Look at how bad the English is. Already? ! Later, when I went to a Hong Kong-funded company, I only sent English emails, and that was it. Not only was I mute in English, I was also "deaf" and couldn't understand it at all.

What to do? In this kind of unsolvable and helpless situation, no one can help you. I passed the three-day assault, and in just three days, I participated in the interview with a top 500 foreign company and passed. Soon it was time to talk about salary. The monthly salary was increased from 5,000 to 10,000, and I went to work directly. After reporting in, HR took me into the department at noon, and then I met my immediate boss, a Chinese. The Chinese manager called me into the conference room, and the two of them communicated and got to know each other for only ten minutes, all in Chinese. In fact, these ten minutes are a "two interviews", but they are arranged after the interview with the foreign director and after joining the company.

My situation seems a bit special. In fact, no matter what the order of the interviews, my success in getting in this time is basically certain. After thinking about it and combining my efforts in the three days before the interview, I summarized the following three points, which are the keys to joining a top 500 foreign company.

1. 100 English interview questions?

Many people think that they can only join a foreign company after they become proficient in a foreign language. You are Chinese, how can your foreign language reach the "fluent" level of a foreigner's native language? The English interview doesn’t require you to be fluent before you can come! You just need to be able to cope with the one-hour exchange with foreigners.

Think about it, if you interview someone for an hour, how many rounds of back-and-forth can you discuss, or how many issues can you talk about? 10? Or 20? Besides, the interview is just a conversation, and only those common questions are asked. I searched online and compiled "100 Common English Interview Questions". In those three days, I read and practiced these 100 questions and answers over and over again. The interview actually only asks a maximum of 20 questions. Think about it, if you use 100 preparations to answer 10-20 questions, isn't it a sure win?

Two, writing, reading, speaking and listening?

Think about it, when learning a language, should you first learn to listen or learn to write? It must be listening, because the requirements for listening, speaking, reading and writing increase in sequence. When you start learning Chinese when you are a child, it is also in this order: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

But it’s a pity that in our Chinese schools it’s the other way around, writing, reading, speaking and listening. Chinese students are best at writing, then reading, then speaking, and in the end they don’t. A few can understand foreigners speaking.

Actually, it’s already 2018, and there are now children’s foreign language training institutions all over the street. They use the “natural phonics method”, which is a teaching method learned from American kindergartens and elementary schools. A simple example, their learning sequence is to listen first, then speak, and then recognize and speak the words, which is "reading". There is no emphasis on writing, and writing will come naturally later. So, this is called "Phonics".

They don’t need you to memorize a dictionary. They start with the vocabulary list starting with A, then B, C, and finally those starting with Z. This is not about learning a language, this is about memorizing a dictionary. Phonics requires you to learn the letter R first, then A, then T. This is the natural pronunciation order of English. To learn a language, you need to read articles intensively. This is the way to learn well, but it is not memorizing a dictionary. Memorizing a dictionary is to prepare for the Chinese exam. The result is dumb English and deaf English.

Okay, when applied to our English interviews, especially short-term surprises of a few days, we must start with listening and speaking, and only then can we speak. I went to an Internet cafe during those three days and listened to and watched many English speeches by foreign celebrities over and over again. Later, I concluded that this is a kind of "presidential speech method" that can help you improve your foreign language skills in a few days, so that even a novice can cope with an English interview for two hours!

You still have time now, you don’t only have 3 days, you can try it. Remember: don’t write, read, speak and listen, but listen, listen, read and write!

3. How to choose foreign companies?

No matter whether it is within the system or large state-owned enterprises, including private enterprises and other domestic-funded enterprises, there are connections inside, so in fact interviews are mostly formalities, the interview success rate is very low, and most of them do not hear back after the interview. For example, I graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2005 three years ago. You said that with a monthly salary of 10,000 yuan, which domestic company would not give this position to "its own people"? This monthly salary was equivalent to the housing price of 2 square meters in Shanghai at that time. Only foreign companies will give you strangers from this network. Domestic capital is basically predetermined, otherwise it would be your turn to make up for it if the above-mentioned relationships with customers and "tiaozisheng" are involved?

However, when submitting applications and interviewing foreign companies, we also screen them in advance. Especially foreign companies that are new to China, including new companies and new factories of foreign companies, are excellent opportunities to enter. As the saying goes, "win in chaos", the requirements for employment are also relaxed. When I joined a foreign company for the first time, the company had just transferred its Asia-Pacific headquarters from Singapore to Shanghai. The recruitment plan for that year was to expand from 500 to 1,500 people. Therefore, I accidentally "selected" a foreign company that time, but when I changed jobs again after that, I chose subjectively.

The above three major experiences can make it easy for you to enter a good foreign company.

Don’t wait until your English is fluent before joining a foreign company. This is a child-like naive idea. You will never become fluent. Or, wait until your hair turns gray before joining a foreign company? !

Finally, some people are worried: I am not good at foreign languages. If I sneak in this time, and I will use foreign languages ??at work, won’t I be a gangster? !

This is one of the trial period skills, we will talk about it next time.