Offshore yourself: Making the move to Shanghai

China is if nothing else a complex, not easily understood country with many different political currents running through its system. Its relationship with foreigners is simultaneously open and closed. Of China’s many cities, Shanghai — the key industrial city — attracts multinationals and even Indian IT consultancies that are setting up shop to contain the rising costs of outsourcing services in their home country.

What’s hot: Shanghai’s tech industry tends to focus on development of embedded- and chip-level programming. Also, Cobol, Java, C++, C#, and .Net are good skills to have under your belt there, says Sam Lee, managing director of Dextrys, an outsourcing company.

An emerging area, says Brian Keene, CEO of Dextrys, is product engineering. Dextrys has been getting a lot of software business for product development, product extensions, and replatforming, he says.

Finally, if gaming is your thing, the Shanghai-Huizhou corridor attracts companies using the more advanced development technologies.

Despite the demand, there are mixed signals as to whether American immigrants are welcome to fill them. Lee says companies will be tripping all over themselves to hire you. “There is a tremendous demand. Every CEO worldwide is interested in China as a market,” Lee says. And these executives want IT people who have experience working there in order to liaise with local executives.

But John Murdoch, principal at Abeam Consulting, is not so sure Americans have a lock on such jobs. “The days for Western guys to show up in China and think there is a job waiting for them are past. Today is more about sales than technology,” he says.

U.S. and multinational tech companies: It is safe to assume most major companies, as well as many small and medium ones, have a China strategy, which means either they are looking to sell products within China or looking to leverage China as an outsourcer. In either case, the company will be on site to shepherd its strategy to fruition. That means there are lots of potential employers.

In the tech space, EMC, Intel, Microsoft, and Oracle all have huge facilities.

And ever since China was let into the World Trade Organization, financial services companies began setting up shop in China.

Red tape: If you do find an appropriate tech job, you will need a work visa. There are many types, including a business/official visit visa, an employment/work visa, and a resident visa.

Any visa must be obtained before you enter the country. If you did somehow land a job in China without one of these official visas and got caught, you’d likely be deported very quickly.

Language: Dextrys is a good example of a U.S.-based firm with a presence in China. It has about 1,000 employees, all of whom speak English. “There is sometimes a challenge of the accent but written English is excellent and it is not a major issue,” Murdoch says.

However, Murdoch says the best job opportunities, even in multinational firms, go to Chinese Americans who speak the local language fluently. “If you can read Chinese characters, that is a huge asset,” Murdoch says.

Financials: Typically, pay scales in China are quite a bit less than in the United States and Europe. But salary is based on specialized skills or having capabilities where China has a shortfall, such as project management, financial services and consumer products domain expertise, and manufacturing supply chain. “These skills are hard to find in China, and if you have any of them you will be paid a premium, closer to an international wage,” Kean says.

Although you may make only half of what you make in the United States, your buying power in Shanghai is probably five to six times greater, according to Lee. “A $50,000-a-year salary is going to feel like you’re earning $250,000,” he says. But that’s only if you buy in China. Don’t expect to send a lot of money back to the States.

A furnished two-bedroom apartment goes for about $615 per month, a loaf of bread costs $1.43, a Coke $2, a beer 43 cents, a cell phone $114, and a pair of men’s shoes $28.

Family: Everyone in the family must have a visa, but there are no significant problems in applying and getting one for the family.

Where things get out of whack are the international schools. For many years, foreigners could not send kids to local schools or even live in the same neighborhoods as locals, resulting in enclaves of foreigners.

Those rules are no longer in place, but the enclaves remain. Those foreign enclaves are not cheap, so you need a housing supplement to afford them.

In terms of international schools, a universally standard price is $20,000; the Shanghai Community International Schools and the Western International School of Shanghai are two popular choices. They take children from 3 years old up to second-year university level.

Daily life and culture: Shanghai is a very livable city. It set a goal for itself as a world-class city and is rapidly marching down that path, Murdoch says.

Getting around in Shanghai can be daunting: It’s a big sprawling city, like Los Angeles. There are pockets of interesting things to do, but those pockets are spread out. Shanghai has a public transit system, but it’s not as well developed as those in other Asian cities of similar size. (There is good public transit to other cities.)

That means it is difficult to just wander around and explore. You have to work hard to get from place to place. You’ll likely want a driver.

In terms of nightlife, “Shanghai is just like New York with its numerous nightclubs and bars. It’s a city that never sleeps, from 10 p.m. on,” Lee says. In fact, the Dragon Bar (Yue Yang) opens at 3. a.m. and caters to the “after party” crowd. It closes at 10 a.m.

Shanghai also has dozens of art galleries, a performance center, opera, and ballet. Last year there were also concerts by Beyoncé, Linkin Park, and the Black Eyed Peas, to name a few.

Although your biggest problem in any Chinese city might be adapting to the food — unless you like chicken feet for breakfast in rice gruel — Shanghai does offer Texas barbecue. Check out Bubba’s Texas BBQ.

If you plan on working in a major Chinese city like Shanghai you may have difficulty adapting to its standards for cleanliness. Lee says it is not as clean as New York, London, or Paris. “The air is not as refreshing as other big cities,” he says.