1002 job applications to 236 companies in 13 countries.
10 replies, all negative.
If you have a job opening anywhere in the world that you think I am qualified for, please contact me immediately! Send me an email at
and I will respond to you as soon as I receive your message. Thank you!
I have a first-class MEng in Electronic Systems Engineering from Lancaster University in the UK. I am most interested in circuit design, sensor/control systems, and computer networks. I also have experience in technical support and user documentation.
I've applied for more than 1000 jobs, and still have not succeeded. My resume is available on my website:
My visa will end on the 11th of August, and I'm running out of time. I have hopes and dreams and goals, but I will sacrifice those for food and shelter.
I appreciate all advice. But please consult the
before giving generic advice that is not related to a specific job or a new company to contact.
Total: 885 (104.com.tw) + 46 (Adecco) + 19 (LinkedIn) + 39 (Company website) + 13 (Emails) = 1002 jobs
Total: 163 (104.com.tw) + 46 (Adecco) + 13 - 5 (LinkedIn) + 9 - 3 (Company website) + 13 - 1 (Emails) = 236 companies
13 countries
I've chosen one example job from each country, though I have applied to many more.
"But Hong Kong and Taiwan are part of China!". This is not supposed to be a political statement. Technically the job in Antarctica is on a base in territory belonging to the UK. Let's not make this complicated.
Images courtesy Polandball. Peter cannot into work!
Antarctica | Canada | China | France | Germany |
Hong Kong | New Zealand | Norway | Poland | Switzerland |
Taiwan | UK | Vietnam |
10 replies
None of these replies were positive.
This includes automated replies, just saying that I sent an application.
Reasons for saying no varied. Wistron and Orion Health found someone else. Yoctopuce is a small company with no jobs available. RelayTV won't hire foreigners.
Quanta said that I have too much experience. I've done many short internships, and they wanted me to have 2 years continuous work experience. The job description did not say that, though, and I made it clear that I want to stay for at least 12 months this time. After I answered, they didn't reply a second time.
885 jobs, 163 companies
104 is the main job searching website for Taiwan.
There is a list of every technology company, and I searched all of those for relevant jobs. I also used Wikipedia to find more technology companies in Taiwan, and searched each of those companies for relevant jobs.
Filling out the profile was not easy, because the website has no English version. Chrome can translate it, but some forms become unusable after translation because they are resized. I completed the profile myself, and asked 2 friends from Taiwan to check it (Thank you Hsin-yin and Stella!).
For each job application, I could add a cover letter. However, it is limited to 800 characters. You can write much more in 800 traditional Chinese characters than 800 English characters! So I only had about 2 sentences I could change, which I did.
46 jobs, 46 companies?
Adecco is a multinational job searching company.
Thankfully this website has an English version, so I could fill out my profile quite easily. However, there were only 450 jobs listed in total (compared to about 5000 that I viewed on 104).
Only the job description is given on the Adecco website, not the company name. It's also impossible to attach a cover letter. The website also only works on Firefox, which doesn't have built-in translation like Chome.
Job descriptions are in this folder:
http://peterburk.free.fr/jobs/PDFs/Adecco/19 jobs, 13 companies - 5 duplicate companies
LinkedIn is a multinational job searching social network.
Filling out my profile was easy, as the website has an English version. It is not possible to add a cover letter.
None of these job applications replied.
AMD | ATMI | Corning | Liteon | Marvell |
Migo | MOXA | NXP | OBI Pharma | Seagate |
ST Microelectronics | Trend Micro | TSMC |
39 jobs, 9 companies - 3 duplicate companies
Each company has their own website, and I had to fill out a new profile every time.
I got auto-replies from Apple and Nordic to confirm that my application was received. Orion Health replied to say that they found someone else.
13 companies - 1 duplicate company
This is my traditional way of applying for jobs. My cover letter is the text of the email, and my resume is attached.
Yoctopuce was the only one who replied. They said that they are a small company, and cannot hire more staff at present.