Pros
- Fancy new office with accessible MRT - Very fast upskilling - Treats and gifts from management from time to time - Decent local colleagues - Flat structure - Opportunities for overseas travel (for both work and recreational team-building) - You'll pick up the East Asian work ethic and demand for perfection (not a pro for some people, of course)
Cons
- Very little to no work-life balance; be prepared to work very long hours to keep up with the Chinese side's 996 schedule. - Language barrier; you'll be constantly working with Mainlanders, watching videos and reading documentation (and code comments. yes, code comments) in Mandarin. Not being able to understand, read or write Mandarin will limit you to AI translation tools/subtitles that make communication and learning difficult. - 3 month probation is not a guaranteed pass; you'll HAVE to put in effort in your first 3 months and present your work. - While the flat leadership structure has its benefits, it can be TOO flat sometimes (at least for my team). It's easy to lose sense of direction in a project without a senior or leader to seek guidance from, as your direct supervisor will be way too busy single-handedly managing every one of a 20+ person team.