<p>I was first set on majoring in Chemistry but then decided that I would be better off with some type of engineering or business with Chinese. I love the Chinese language and culture and would ejoy a career in it, but I am not sure what types of job opportunities would be available to someone with a major in Chinese studies (language, chinese business, culture) and some type of business degree. I would enjoy traveling but would like to continue to live in the United States. I have always been a very math and science oriented person and I also love language. I am not sure what types of jobs I would enjoy in business. I would certainly not like to be confined to a desk working long hours though.</p>
<p>international business major might fit if you prefer a job in business</p>
<p>I was considering that but it seems much too broad in terms of what you will ultimately do.</p>
<p>Do Intl Bus. and pick another major.
Also study abroad is China.</p>
<p>Everyone wins.</p>
<p>Do you know any Chinese at all now? Do you know what kind of business that you want to go into?</p>
<p>The answer to these questions will help us decide your 50-year life plan and recommend it to you.</p>
<p>Yes I am currently in HS and have taken 2 years of Mandarin Chinese and will take another year as soon as school starts up again (senior year). I have been looking more into engineering now and have stumbled across Industrial Engineering. This is a more business oriented major than other engineering degrees right? I think I might enjoy Industrial Engineering, but would Mandarin be applicable in this field?</p>
<p>dude about anything that requires a high skill set (including engineering and business) would make a good combo with mandarin, cuz china is growing and needs skilled workers and management.</p>
<p>dont major in international business, its a joke degree. anything they teach (business ethics in other countries) can be learned with a quick wikipedia of said country. i learned this from asking the same question on <a href="http://www.ibankingoasis.com%5B/url%5D">www.ibankingoasis.com</a> under consulting forums and also asked my career counselor at berkeley.</p>
<p>major in something else - engineering or another business concentration. continue studying chinese, and a study abroad stint or a summer vacation with a part time job in china wouldn't hurt.</p>
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dude about anything that requires a high skill set (including engineering and business) would make a good combo with mandarin, cuz china is growing and needs skilled workers and management.
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<p>Irrelevant, unless you are Chinese American and actually would consider going to work for a local Chinese company as a local hire. If you are Chinese American, they'll consider you Chinese anyway and you'd have a shot. If you are non-Chinese, you won't have that shot. It used to be anyone with a little Chinese and some experience in China could work there for a company. Now, though, more and more firms have localized their hiring and it is hard as an expat to get a job unless you bring other skills to the table.</p>
<p>I would seriously consider going to China as quickly as possible to work and not waiting. Maybe you could do this for next summer. At the very least, start looking into programs right now and at what point in your college years you would be able to go there. Learning Chinese without spending time there is very difficult. You won't be taken seriously as a Chinese speaker unless you've spent time on the ground there.</p>
<p>The big business interface that American-trained people have with China these days tends to fall in sourcing (since we get so much of our imports from there) and investment (since a lot of investment goes there). So if you want to work with China, at some point incorporate business study or experience that involves these two. Some marketing focus might be useful, but these days marketing is simply staffed more and more by Chinese.</p>
<p>If you want to go into business, pretty much any engineering will do. For business careers that don't involve engineering, all they really want to see is that you can handle the analytic rigor required to get the degree.</p>
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Irrelevant, unless you are Chinese American and actually would consider going to work for a local Chinese company as a local hire. If you are Chinese American, they'll consider you Chinese anyway and you'd have a shot. If you are non-Chinese, you won't have that shot. It used to be anyone with a little Chinese and some experience in China could work there for a company. Now, though, more and more firms have localized their hiring and it is hard as an expat to get a job unless you bring other skills to the table.
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<p>i wouldn't say it's irrelevant. it's true that firms, even foreign ones, are looking more for localized hiring (which includes hiring chinese nationals who went to college abroad), but i dont think the supply isn't meeting demand, so expats still have a chance. </p>
<p>i'm also assuming the OP (who has a lot of time ahead of him/her) is actually going to be pretty good in chinese (better than a lot of chinese-americans) if his/her major is chinese. of course, anyone serious about learning the chinese language and culture should also spend some time in china (or taiwan). even if the OP isn't chinese-american, it is possible for him/her to build up the credentials to become a solid candidate for jobs in china. </p>
<p>but in re-reading the OP's post, it seems like he/she wants to stay in the USA, so i guess debating about job prospects in china is useless.</p>
<p>Already a ton of companies are outsourcing more and more of their basic manufacturing to companies in the Far East--including Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and mainland China. My own company does over $3 billion of manufacturing work per year in China right now. </p>
<p>Get a double major in operations management/logistics and in Chinese or in engineering and Chinese and you'll be set. The import/export and continued outsourcing of engineering designs to be built in China will be expanding for at least the next 20 years (even as China builds up its own engineering capabilities).</p>
<p>Once you get that degree you can apply here and be hired in about 15 minutes--we look for people with those combinations every day (they are hard to find).</p>
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i'm also assuming the OP (who has a lot of time ahead of him/her) is actually going to be pretty good in chinese (better than a lot of chinese-americans) if his/her major is chinese.
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but in re-reading the OP's post, it seems like he/she wants to stay in the USA, so i guess debating about job prospects in china is useless.
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<p>And it is these two points which really make me wonder whether this plan is up to snuff. If the OP isn't ready to really, really embrace China (and at least live there for two years), he/she will never get to the point of credibility and solid credentials you referred to for jobs dealing with China or for working in China. At least that is to say he/she won't reach that point through the knowing and studying China and Chinese route. If he gains other technical skills, perhaps it would be different.</p>
<p>Chinese takes as long to learn as several European languages combined. It's not something to be embarked on lightly. And then you have the cultural issues to consider as well.</p>
<p>Calcruzer, what company do you work for? I am still heavily contemplating strucural engineering and mechanical engineering. I have no idea what type of business degree I would want to pursue, but it seems I would enjoy engineering. What type of work would one do if they worked at your company (ie. live in china?)?</p>
<p>BedHead, I actually would enjoy living in China for a year or so but mainly for study. I love where I live now (California). And in response to your comment on the difficulty of the language, I actually find it not very difficult at all. I enjoy it.</p>
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And in response to your comment on the difficulty of the language, I actually find it not very difficult at all. I enjoy it.
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<p>Are you Chinese or Chinese American? Was/is Chinese spoken at home?</p>
<p>Chinese grammar is baby grammar, but it is generally a much more time-consuming language to learn than most others. This is more about the difficulty of facing so much rote learning rather than being difficult in an intellectual sense. Having said that, you may be a linguistic sponge that absorbs like a Brawny paper towel -- and congratulations, if so. Still, you'll absorb Chinese less quickly.</p>
<p>I am Caucasian. I find the language very interesting. I can memorize characters fairly easily and their meanings and pronunciations and retain them. The grammar can be confusing at times since there are not really any set grammar rules. I don't see it as rote memorization. Every time I learn a new character I learn why it represents what it does. This is one reason I enjoy the language. I previously studied Japanese and became bored with it because it was all too phonetic.</p>
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Every time I learn a new character I learn why it represents what it does. This is one reason I enjoy the language. I previously studied Japanese and became bored with it because it was all too phonetic.
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<p>Ha, well, I am opposite you. As another Caucasian, though I find characters nice to look at, I hated the fact that they aren't phonetic. Anathema to say, but it's a terribly inefficient way to set up a language. It takes much longer to learn for anyone. There was a study done comparing Spanish kids and Chinese kids. The Chinese kids knew significantly fewer words at the same times because of the difficulty.</p>
<p>If you enjoy it for its own sake, that's reward enough.</p>
<p>I know one Caucasian, of my many friends who are Harvard/Stanford/Berkeley etc. people who live in China. There is one of them who speaks Chinese such that he could be mistaken for a Chinese, and this after living there for 10 years. The other non-slouches aren't really even fluent in the real sense of that word, though having lived there and being married to Chinese women. If you are that guy who can get to fluency, go for it. It'll take years, but if you enjoy it along the way, that's great.</p>