Believe it or not, here in Taiwan pretty much the worst thing you can do is study abroad for graduate school. Which is quite remarkable when you think that less than ten years ago it was the best thing you could do for your career.
First things first, not many people in Taiwan go abroad for college. I'm not exactly sure why this is, but that won't stop me from making guesses. I'm assuming it's because of the status put on schools here. Since there is a clear (in Taiwanese eyes) number 1, 2, 3, and so on, school ranking, if you get into a high university, the status is actually better having graduated from that school than from some school abroad. Also it seems like a lot of people just don't feel comfortable with their English ability at such a young age and would rather have the extra years to improve their English, then go abroad for graduate school.
Now getting back to grad schools. Yes it used to be that if you got your master's degree abroad, you would come back and every company would want you. What happened? Well the obvious thing really, so many people did it, that it wasn't special anymore. Also employers started to discover that studying abroad didn't mean you were any better of a worker. To this day I remember when the CEO of one company justified her hiring of somebody the rest of us didn't agree with by saying "but she studied abroad." I think the tides really turned around the time that worker got fired, as though that was the nationwide sign that studying abroad doesn't guarantee you will be a capable worker.
Also we can't forget that status is a HUGE factor here. And with so many schools abroad, it's hard for many employers to know if your school is any good. They basically only know Harvard, so if you didn't go there, they are going to just assume you went to a very bad school. I recall the story of a friend of mine who actually went to the same school as I did. He was up for a job, but the school was kind of lukewarm about him. But that night they researched the school he went to, and they were quite impressed. The next day were ecstatic to hire him.
But this is a rare case, most employers want a name that they have heard about all their life, not some school they had to look up online, no matter how high a ranking it has. Also in Taiwan there is no such thing as the best department, only the best school. So even if a school is the number one business school in the world, if the overall university is ranked 40th, that's all the Taiwanese company is going to care about.
But why is studying abroad actually bad for your career? Well because it's not special anymore, it doesn't give you any advantage over other job applicants. A bigger issue is the feeling of the person who studied abroad. They feel that they are better than other people who didn't study abroad and should be given better jobs at better pay. Honestly Taipei is full of these people during the day time. If you see somebody out shopping or in a cafe on a weekday afternoon and they are between 26 to 35, I can guarantee you that it's because they studied abroad and after coming back haven't worked for anywhere from six months to two years, because they are still trying to find a job "worthy" of their level. I know because of my previous work schedule, I was usually free during the day time, so most of those type of people are the ones I would hang out with in my free time. Uh...love you guys!
But the biggest way that it's bad for your career, is that it actually sets back your career a few years. In Taiwan yes you can get promoted because of your ability, but mostly it's because of your time spent working there. And even if you leave that job, your position in a new company would be the same relative level as at the one you just left. So a lot of people go abroad to study and come back and are basically two years behind where they would have been if they just here and kept working. Not to mention having spent a ton of money studying abroad, the cost is anywhere from 12x to 40x the cost of studying in Taiwan.
An unfortunate common result is somebody leaving to study abroad, and then coming back and unable to find a job they feel is at the level they are at. They spend many months looking and get more and more angry and depressed. Eventually their parents start yelling at them "i told you not to study abroad, you wasted all that money!" and then tell them to get a job as soon as possible. Forcing the person to go back and work at the job they left three years ago, working in the same position they previously had but for LESS money, as they employer says they have been unemployed for so long their skills must have gone down. Meanwhile their coworker who was also considering going abroad but decided to stay, is now in a very high position in another company, basically having the dream job the person who studied abroad wanted.
Now am I against studying abroad? Not at all, but I always advise people to know why they are doing it. It may help their personal development, but will probably be detrimental to their professional career. And yes a lot of people just want an excuse to live abroad and travel to which studying abroad provides a safe and stable way to do this. I always feel that working abroad actually immerses you in the culture of that place a lot more, but I will not begrudge somebody from wanting to use studying abroad as a way to live in another country.
What's all this have to do with the today's picture? Well when friends and students ask me if they should study abroad, many of them will say "yes but I've always had this goal for myself ever since I was a teenager." And my response to this is usually "well you are not the same person now that you were when you were 15. the world is not the same place as it was then. and it's kind of crazy to base your life around a 15 year old's decisions." Granted I don't say this to discourage them, just to help them to look at their situation from all angles.
Getting to the picture though, it's for the Taipei video game show. When seeing this sign one day, it reminded me of how much i'd always wanted to go to TGS (Tokyo Game Show) to check out all the crazy new games. I also figured that since I live in Taiwan it would be quick and easy to hop over to Japan to go. But as I got older the world changed, TGS isn't what it used to be, there are other places and ways to see and try those games, and having been to Tokyo already, I'm not as enamored with it as I had been.
Still I know how people who always wanted to study abroad feel, because when I saw this sign, it made me think that I should really go to TGS one year, even though I know that it really isn't what it once was and that in the long run it will be a waste of time and money. Yes I will never go, but it's still a hard idea to give up.
