Edge-crafters, Gen Z, Millennials, Personal Strategy

by Bosen Zhang

October 2, 2024

In recent years, China has occupied the top position for sending international students to the United States; according to US Mission China, over 317,000 students have enrolled in US institutions in 2020/21 due to Chinese students’ and parents’ growing interest in the US education (2021). Sharing a similar interest, I have selected the USA as my destination for my educational journey.

Determining to leave the homeland and fulfill the American Dream, I find that decision appears very accurate. I have learned so much from this new environment and society which carries lots of differences as compared to China. My limited vision has been nurtured and broadened. That is one of the reasons why I selected the USA as the first market when I graduated from the university.

However, many people are of the view that being a foreigner is a disadvantage to getting my first job in the American and global market. I am not very convinced with such a judgment, since numerous successful Chinese people have managed to accomplish great achievements in the United States. As reported by XinHua, back in 2019 around 5.3 million of Chinese Americans have contributed over USD 300 billion to this nation’s economy (XinHua, 2021). Some legendary individuals contributing to this impressive number can be named Eric Yuan, the vice president of engineering over Cisco’s Webex collaboration software – the founder of Zoom, Jensen Huang – NVIDIA founder, Vera Wang – a premier designer of bridal wear, etc (Kurt, 2022). Those names trigger my thought and the more I think about their success stories, the more I believe that turning my foreign identity into my competitiveness is feasible and practical in facing such a disadvantage. Let’s dive in and see what I can offer the prospectus organization as a foreigner.

Turning Knowledge of My Home Country into the Organization’s Competitiveness

International businesses are popular and abundant, especially in the United States, and China is the home of numerous American companies’ strategic partners, vendors, and customers. China’s economic growth in recent years gives rise to the need to learn about all aspects of the Chinese market in numerous organizations. Therefore, my Chinese nationality, especially my knowledge about the market, could become handy and targeted by the organization.

Furthermore, my spoken and written Chinese as the native language could be well appreciated. It is particularly useful in doing market research, as Chinese people prefer using their language in communication, either online or offline. Google, the most useful search engine in many other nations, might not work well in China. Also, my Chinese language can help the negotiation with Chinese counterparties go smoother and thus generating a positive result for the cooperation. 

In this way, my knowledge and language as a foreigner could become a valuable asset to the organization. Recruiting me can end up opening the door to a new market if the company has never gotten a Chinese employee before.

Contributing a Fresh View from a Different Socio-cultural Perspective

Growing up in Asian culture and society, my personal and professional perspectives are unlikely to resemble Western people. As demonstrated in Figure 1 about the differences in six cultural dimensions of China and the US, China has very high power distance and long-term orientation as compared to the United States. Meanwhile, individualism, indulgence, and risk aversion are much more significant in the US than in China. Such distinctions are the key to create differentiation when I join a Western-style organization. For example, my risk attitude will challenge the existing risk aversion in the organization, thus bringing the chance to obtain higher rewards when higher risks are accepted.

As you may be aware, Western working style and Asian working style, particularly in the Chinese environment, are on two ends of a scale, in many aspects, contradicting each other like individualism. Being less favorable for individualism means that Chinese employees are willing to put forth the organization or the team’s benefits in all matters. Therefore, as a Chinese employee, I can be a supplementary element at the office, to balance the working environment and address the conflict of interest, if applicable. 

Figure 1: Compare six cultural dimensions between China and the USA (Xu, 2017)

People from different countries can have various opinions and views. Therefore, in teamwork and discussion, I can provide unique ideas from a different viewpoint or angle. Accordingly, the weakness in any plan or proposal could be addressed, for example. In other words, my viewpoint as a foreigner can improve the problem-solving capacity of the organization. 

Topping Up the Organization’s Diversity

Aside from work benefit aspects, the addition of Chinese staff to the workforce will enhance the organization’s diversity. Diversity and equality at work have been a criterion for most organizations in recent decades. My presence will contribute to the company’s demonstration of these values amongst other organizations for being ethical, diverse, and equal opportunities. 

In addition, the company’s demonstration of upholding diversity and offering equal opportunities could bring a positive influence on its image within the business community. It opens up the entity’s access to a wider global talent pool since people came to know that the organization values talents, regardless of their origins, ethnic minorities, nationalities, etc. Thereby, it can be a useful means to attract and retain talent. 

Building Interest and Understanding amongst Workforce

Once again, a diverse workforce not only contributes to the creativity, innovation, and problem-solving capability of the organization, it also enhances working morale amongst employees. Gathering people from various origins, nations, ages, genders, etc., and allowing them to contribute with uniqueness will likely provoke interest to learn and understand each other in the workforce. 

As the hosting entity, the company will benefit from a united and diverse team where people know about and understand each other. Particularly, my Chinese nationality and my rigorous knowledge of the well-known thousand-year culture are worth learning about. I might not be the most attractive individual but I am sure a connective and responsive person. Therefore, I perceive myself as the atmosphere constructor in this diverse organization.

Final Words

All in all, as I go along to discover and discuss more my position as a foreigner in this vast global job market, such identity encourages me to proceed and turn it into a mutually beneficial power. For the organization, the benefits are access to wider markets, more favorable vendors, improved problem-solving capacity, access to global talent pools, enhanced diversity, and a better working environment. As long as the organization sees such a potential, my foreign identity automatically becomes my unique selling point – my competitive advantage to compete against other candidates out there. 

One lesson I also learned from this situation is that we can turn a weakness into a strength, a disadvantage into an advantage when viewing it from a different angle. This lesson has been enlightening more when I took the course and started forming my personal strategy project. 

Initially, all I saw was my weaknesses – being short of professional experiences and understanding of the US society, as compared to native competitors. However, I started building confidence when seeing my strength over the others as I look at China as the target market for my expected employers. As I studied the gaming industry in different markets, including the US, South Korea, and China, I realized China is one of the most developed gaming industries with intensely high growing potential due to its gigantic population. It can be considered an attractive market for American gaming companies, and thus my China-origin becomes an obvious competitive advantage. I strongly believe that no business will ignore a rich and highly potential market for development, and investment in native workforce to deal with such a market is a bang for a buck. Therefore, I have ignored the perceived weaknesses and made America the starting point of my professional career.  

“But there are huge advantages and disadvantages. The reason others see the failings in us is because they are looking in the wrong place.” (Simon Sinek)

References

Kurt, D. (2022). Legendary Asian American Entrepreneurs. https://www.investopedia.com/legendary-asian-american-entrepreneurs-5181554 

US Mission China (2021). China Remains the Top Sender of International Students to the United States in 2020/2021. https://china.usembassy-china.org.cn/china-remains-the-top-sender-of-international-students-to-the-united-states-in-2020-2021/ 

XinHua (2021). Chinese Americans contribute to U.S. economic, cultural success: report http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-02/09/c_139732689.htm

Xu, Y. (2017). New Media’s Impact on China from a Culture Perspective. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Chinese-culture-in-six-cultural-dimensions-in-comparison-with-United-States-Hofstede-et_fig1_320590257/download 

About the Author

Bosen Zhang is a fresh and motivated student pursuing a MS in International Management at D’Amore-McKim School of Northeastern University. 

He is eager to join gaming industry to support the growth of gaming community and formation of a sustainable and environmental gaming community. 

LinkedIn profile of Bosen Zhang