The Chinese market is of course huge and significant investment into infrastructure, transport networks and transport technologies has attracted engineering companies from all over the World.

The demand for knowledge and experience around certain industry areas, in this case automotive, has attracted and helped create pockets of ex-pat communities of engineers and many other professions within the country.

China’s commitment to the cap of carbon emissions and the eventual phasing out of diesel and gasoline engines means that the alternative fuels and in particular the electric vehicle market place is in a state of growth. Now everybody wants a piece of the pie!

Where did all the engineers go?

Having already established themselves in China our client was looking to recruit a highly experienced engineer to help develop the local engineering team, train technicians and offer support to the company’s client based local to the Chinese market.
Unfortunately, the right person couldn’t be found by the company. The challenge was on….

The World is a small place!

Around the late 90’s the internet wasn’t a prolific part of the recruiter’s tools. Networking however has always been and with online databases, social media and networking sites evolving rapidly over the past 20 years the World has indeed become a small place.
Although UK based, Marcus Webb Associates already had a small but established network of contacts in China. Reaching out to this network of people was the best place to start to solve the problem and find the person. We soon identified a shortlist of people one of which was of keen interest to the company.

The journey was going to be tough!

Identifying somebody and getting communications going isn’t always straight forward. The toughest part was trying to get key decision makers in agreement, able to meet the candidate, come up with a suitable package, process a local visa and cross off all the legal requirements to a short timescale driven by a recent change in Chinese government legislation.

The commitment by the candidate was incredible and the support provided by the company was fantastic too. About five interviews, numerous return flights crossing half the World, coach journeys and hotel stays, and some interesting and taxing financial solutions resulted in a successful placement almost 6 months after the initial contact.

Having a committed, patient and enthusiastic candidate, coupled with a collaborative client with a “can-do” attitude really helped. This was a project that involved keeping “many plates spinning” and required none to drop… it was a challenge for all but a great team effort.
It just goes to show what a partnership of motivated people can achieve. Perhaps having a sense of humour was the most vital component!