My First Week in China! (unedited)

After a frustrating talk with my old boss, I decided to post the unedited version of my first week in China which includes a more detailed version of my post: Business Trip?. My boss actaully tried to defend what she had done as a special opportunity for me. Needless to say, I don't feel it was an opportunity but moreso a rude inconvence. Enjoy!


My First Week in China!

The first company I worked for in China was BHI Architects Australia, Shanghai Office. On my first day at work, I was given a Master Plan to Photoshop to make look as realistic as possible. My computer station including all computer programs were in Chinese and I do not know Chinese. The company had known for nearly two months that I was coming and still they made no effort to have my work station ready. Thankfully, I knew Photoshop well enough to use it by memory, granted I could have done the work a lot faster had I been able to read the tabs, effects, and filters.

After lunch, I was asked if I wanted to go on this business trip to ZaoZhuang. I did not know how long the business trip was nor where that city was, all I knew was it was north and we had to take the Hi-Speed Train to get there. Is there anyone who says, "No" to their boss on the first day of work? So, of course, I agreed to go. It was about an hour later that I was told we left that day on the last train which left about 5pm or so and that I needed to finish the Master Plan I was working on before we left. At no point did anyone say go home and grab some clothes and other items you might need for the business trip.

With only two or three hour notice and no information about how long the business trip will be, I along with some other colleagues including my boss headed to the train station. That is actually not the correct use of words, we RAN through the subway stations and through the train station because we left the office at the very last minute. Right as the train was sounding the bell that the doors were about to close, we stepped onto the train. I don't like to be rushed nor to I wait to the last minute when I am trying to catch a train. On the subway, I was praying we would miss the train but luck was not on my side that day.

Once on the train, I took my seat and I immediately started to send text messages to the two architects I had already met since moving to Shanghai the Friday before. Can you guess why I was texting them? I was asking them if they knew anyone who was hiring because I wanted to change my job as fast as I possibly could. Sad to said that didn't happen for another two months down the road.

Upon arriving in ZaoZhuang around 10pm, we went straight to our hotel. I was happy when a couple of colleagues asked me to go with them to find something to eat for dinner since none of us had had dinner yet. It was a quiet night in the hotel which was nice but I was nervous about waking up on time the next morning because I had forgotten my tablet back at my apartment that morning which is what I usually as my alarm clock and my mobile phone was nearly dead. My phone did last until the next morning but died a couple of hours later.

The first day in ZaoZhuang started with meetings with clients and governmental officials. I would have be interested in learning about the projects my new company was discussing but in this city, English is not as common to find as in Shanghai. So, needless to say, the entire meeting was in Chinese and there was nothing for me to do and no one translating so I could understand something that was going on. I felt useless there.

We did take a break for lunch which was very good and my first real experience with Chinese cuisine. The only positive that came out of this business trip was the food and seeing the "real China" unlike the international version of China that you see in Shanghai. After lunch was more meetings which continued into dinner which ended late around 9pm or possibly later, I cannot remember the exact time.

By this point, I had a lot of emotions going through my head including anger (being sent on the business trip my first day with no notice), embarrassment (having to wear the same clothes including underwear and socks for the second consecutive day), pain (having my shoes that had already started to rub a sore on both ankles the day before continued to do so which made it hard to walk), and humiliation (being called or referred to as fat by people at the business meeting as well as a colleague through the means of gesturing a large stomach or told "this will help you lose weight"). I don't remember ever telling anyone that I wanted to lose weight or that I was unhappy with the weight I was. You would think that my boss would have said something in defense of her new employee but that was not the case.

The next day (count it, that is a total of three days in the same clothes....discussing!) we had more business meetings which I did not understand with the only difference that I went on a site visit with a colleague. Now if you think about it, I had one day in the office and I was working on Photoshopping one master plan of a project I had no prior knowledge of, and I was sent to do a site visit and survey with a new colleague. I had no idea what I was looking at or where I was in relation to the city plus the colleague I was with didn't have the best English skills so he was hard to understand at times.

It was Wednesday at this point and I still had no idea how long we would be there. Everyone I asked said, "I don't know." That was very unpleasant for me to hear as I expect a company to know and tell their employees how long a business trip will be. Thankfully, later that day, a colleague and I left. Again we took the last train to Shanghai which left around 8pm, at least this time we got to the train station with time to spare. We arrived in Shanghai around 11:30pm and by that point the subway had closed which I didn't find out until my colleague told me on the train. I still didn't really know my address that well nor how to say it in Chinese. I knew the street number and the street name in English, I did not know my cross street at all. I did have my colleague write my address in Chinese so I could show the taxi driver but the taxi driver still had to call someone to look up the cross street which was a pain for him and me.

After spending 70 RMB on a taxi, I was home. My shoes had rubbed my ankles so much they were bleeding and didn't heal completely until weeks later and I still have scars on both ankles because of it. My clothes smelled so bad that I had to wash them the moment I got home. Since it was so late, my roommate was asleep I thought and I wasn't able to find my tablet that I had left on the kitchen counter by mistake when I went to work Monday which had worried me the entire trip. Thankfully, my roommate heard me come in and told me where my tablet was which was a relief. My roommate said he and my landlord were worried about me because they had no idea where I had been for the past few days which made me even more angry because I caused them to worry about me.

From the time I got back from the business trip, I was on a mission to find another job as soon as I possibly could. It made me sick to my stomach and caused me so much stress to even go into work at that place. I also felt like I couldn't say anything to my boss because I was still working at getting my full work visa and I was afraid if I mentioned I was unhappy or that I was looking for another job, my boss would have made a phone call and cancelled my visa application. I felt stuck and alone, so all my job searching was done in secrete including my interviews. I would try to schedule them during lunch breaks or after work but there were some that had to be schedule in the morning or afternoon. For those, I would come to work late or call in sick.

I was so happy that I found another job because I was planning on leaving China at the end of August if I didn't find another job. It might not have been the job that I really wanted but it is exponentially better than my first job here plus my salary is over double my previous one. I have never had a job or situation make me question whether or not I wanted to be an architect until this company. Old colleagues and I agree it is the worst company to work for with the disorganization, which was getting better thanks to the newest Aussie employee, and the fact that we never got paid on time. My first paycheck was three weeks late getting to my bank account.

I had been told by colleagues as well as other people I had met that western employees are often taken on business trips or present projects whether they worked on them or not so that office appears to have westerners as the designers to the clients. After I had heard that, I figured that was the only reason why I was on that business trip so my firm could show off their newest western employee. There was no other reason I could think as to why my boss would spend the money to take a new employee, who had no knowledge of any current projects in the office and who did not speak Chinese and could not understand or learn from the business meetings, on a business trip the very first day of work.

New Job

After the nightmare of my first job in China, I was nervous that the same issues I had with BHI I would have with this new company. I did know from my interview that they at least had a layering system for AutoCad and file naming with was a major improvement. My newest company, Valode + Pistre Architects, Shanghai Office, was not the company I wanted to work for. The fact is I turned down their offer when I was still interviewing with other firms. I felt really good after my interview with Mayho Design. I knew the interviewers, an Italian and a Brit, wanted me to be part of their design team. After waiting a week or so, I contacted one of the interviewers via email to inquire about the position. Just as my luck would have it, the company president put them on a hiring freeze for the moment which was just as much of a shock to my interviewers as it was to me. That was devastating news for me.

As I was contacting the headhunter I was using to inquire about more interviews, he advised me that Valode + Pistre Architects were still interested in hiring me even. So one month after my interview with them, I submitted another counter offer to them of 8,000 RMB per month for the first two months with an increase to 10,000 RMB per month after the two months probation. They accepted right away and I realized I could have asked for more but oh well, at least I have a new job.

The company wanted to start me in their Beijing Office for the first three months. I was excited to go to Beijing but I knew that I would not have been able to afford an apartment in Beijing and keep my lease in Shanghai so I asked them to pay my apartment in Beijing while I was there. Apparently they did not like that idea and told me to just start in the Shanghai Office.

On my first day, I took a taxi to work and took my seat, got some information regarding rules and regulations and a list of the folder system and file naming and layering system. So far so good! As the day went on, I asked where the other employees were and to my surprise I was told the five of us were the only ones in the Shanghai Office. I thought I was entering an office of forty-five. Small offices always worry me for a couple of reasons: first, the management isn't always present and employees are expected to work without management which is bad for someone just starting out as an architecture, and second, if it is a satellite office, the project architects and the company Human Resource personnel are located in the larger office which was similar to my first company here. I like to be able to talk to the project architect if I have questions about the project or what exactly they are looking for when it comes to my work. The biggest shock out of all this was the fact that I am the only non-Chinese employee at this office. All the employees knew English and seemed very nice so that calmed my nerves some.

My first week, I did absolutely nothing. It was so boring. I was already starting think my fear of little to no management was justified. So as the week went by, I would read articles and search for apartments on SmartShanghai.com, window-shop for clothes and shoes on TaoBao.com, and draw in my sketch book. OMG! I hate being bored at work.

We did get some work to do the next week but it was still fairly slow most days. It continued this way until the head of the Beijing office was going to stop by for a visit and talk about the new project we were working on. I had been working on a PowerPoint presentation which I had been given the Monday prior and told I had two weeks to work on it which was more than enough time and it was now Thursday and Olivier was going to be here on Friday. My boss came to my desk around 3pm that day and gave me a list of changes I needed to make before his boss arrived at the office the next day at 11am. Where was he with these corrections the day before or that morning?

I ended up staying 3 hours over that night to get most of the work done so there wouldn't be that much left for me to do the next day. I was not happy that I had to do overtime when I was not getting paid extra for it and that it could have been prevented by better management. My boss did seem surprised when I was not quite done with it when his boss arrived which just increased my frustration. I was done before he needed to access however.

The next week things were back to being slow. Doing this slow then rush to meet deadline then slow then rush to meet deadline is not the way to run an office. I know it will happen at times but most of the time it is avoidable with good time management by the project leader and office managers. At least I am not sick to my stomach to come into work like I was at my last office, so I figure I can deal with it for the time being.

Business Trip??

My first day at work was interesting for sure. I arrived to the office for my first work day at an architecture firm in China to be told that I was going on a business trip to ZaoZhuang for an uncertain amount of time. This would have been an exciting event had it not been my first day at work and had I been giving the opportunity to go home to get a change of clothes but sadly that was not the case.

The city is located north of Shanghai in the ShanDong province. It is a city that is pretty much completely under construction (ALL of the projects in the office are located in ZaoZhuang). There is no English to be found unlike Shanghai. I believe I was the only western person in that city until my boss's friend from Australia showed up which was a much needed relief.

We, a few colleagues and I, were there to meet with clients, government officials, as well as do some site visits. I still don't know why I was there which was a total of 2 full days and 2 nights. All the meetings over the 2 days there were in Chinese with no one to translate for me and I had no knowledge of the projects that were being discussed. I was told by others that I was there to be the "white face" of the company to impress the clients and officials. Whether this is true or not, I did feel useless there.

The only good thing about being there was attending the big banquet lunch and dinners. Every lunch and dinner was a chance to discuss more business for my boss, however; I was there for the new foods. I had some really amazing food (don't ask me what I ate because I didn't ask, I just tired it all...lol). I did try something that I knew exactly what it was but I tried it anyway, that was a large INSECT with 6 legs and a crunchie outer shell (trust me it was crunchie). There was an entire plate of them sauteed for the table. I knew I had to try one to keep face and not be laughed at by everyone at the lunch. To my surprise, it wasn't that bad. I did just have only one though..lol.