Our interview took place near Ren’ai roundabout, where numerous commercial banks, financial agencies, foreign enterprises, and corporate headquarters are located. Our interviewee, Jeffrey, works for Taishin International Bank in the southeastern quadrant of the roundabout, at one of Taiwan’s major financial centers. After graduating from the Department of Risk Management and Insurance at Chengchi University, and earning a master’s degree in Finance from Purdue University, he was recruited by the bank during the 2015 Hi-Recruit roadshow in Chicago, organized by the Taiwanese government.

As an ambitious postgraduate student, Jeffrey had already developed a strong interest in the banking industry and targeted that sector in his career plan. During his postgraduate studies at Purdue, he heard about the 2015 Hi-Recruit event in Chicago via Facebook and scheduled interviews with various firms in advance. Following a series of face-to-face interviews, he was eventually hired by Taishin International Bank and now serves as an Assistant Relationship Manager (ARM) there. He finds Taishin attractive because of its vibrant and lively corporate culture; and, above all, the company offers plenty of overseas travel opportunities to places like Hong Kong and Singapore. This, too, is in line with his career ambitions.

Jeffrey recalled that on the day of his recruitment, he saw many well-known Taiwanese companies in different sectors gathered in a single hall, making the recruitment event an effective platform to bridge overseas talent with local Taiwanese firms.

As for banking careers in Taiwan, Jeffrey noted that it is a common practice for the island’s banking industry to hold management associate recruitment exams between February and May each year, a period when overseas students are still studying and therefore find it difficult to come back to Taiwan for the exams. If they return to Taiwan for the exams only after graduation, they will have a six-month late start compared with local recruits. For that reason, Taishin took advantage of the roadshow platform organized by the government, which makes it much more convenient for graduates in the US to return to Taiwan to work. Overseas students who find jobs during the roadshow events can return to work in Taiwan immediately after graduating in the US, which means a seamless transition from graduation to starting a career. Its participation in the 2015 event enabled Taishin to recruited three overseas students in the US.

Jeffrey expressed his appreciation for the Hi-recruit overseas recruitment program, because it is truly beneficial to both sides of the job market. To make it more effective, he offered the following suggestions:

1. If more banking institutions can take part in the events, and if the events can be held in more US cities, more potential recruits for the financial sector will participate.
2. The day of the recruitment event is run on a very tight schedule with very condensed interview slots. If more time can be made available for each interview, both the company and the interviewee will gain a better understanding of each other.

It is clear that the Hi-Recruit program is valuable for both overseas personnel and Taiwanese firms. At the end of our interview, we chatted with Jeffrey about football and life as a student in the US, as well as the comprehensive training process for new recruits at Taishin. He greatly impressed us with his enthusiastic, self-motivated, energetic and vibrant character, which seems to be much like Taishin’s corporate culture. Best wishes to Jeffrey for success in his new job, a productive career and a pleasant life to come.