It has been a bit busy these days because I started my first job abroad in Taiwan and also joined a fitness club next to the office. Working here isn't so much different than in Finland, I already did IT projects before and usually it's very time-oriented, go lives, testing, development and so on. This time it has been very fun to work with in-house research and development unit. I actually wanted to work in this kind of environment. It's good that if you have something to do, something new, you just need to talk to the people next to you.
But there are differences, quite simple ones. First day I was going to go to wrong elevator when I noticed by the help of one lady that elevator isn't going to stop before 20th flood. Our office is on 19th floor, so the first thing I learnt was the right line. I would like to have a few talks about the on-going discussion in Finland but I just say we usually work more than regular hours (iit's the same in project work in Finland sometimes) and have less holidays (8 days after first year). To my mind this hasn't have anything to do with efficiency, because it sometimes better than in Finland, or that people aren't so committed (they are, but yes sometimes changing a job is quicker but it happens also in other countries). Of course this is just one company but it's more a common goal to make customers happy and that's the reason why companies are doing very well.
Maybe later it will be a bit different when I start my own project next week as a project manager. The first days I studied about the company, product and basic things behind it but quite soon I started to help with one on-going project. I would say this starting was faster than in Finland because we don't have such a thing as 4 months period of time when the company and employee start together and both sides can quit the contract. In Taiwan that time doesn't pass away, it's written that one month notice can stop your contract. To my mind hiring a new person is expensive also here, it's not a goal to get new persons and change them once in a while. Actually many companies are making the working environment interesting, offer company trips on their cost and in Taiwan some snacks are available if you need something to get extra energy. I know that there are good companies everywhere in the world, but at least I was able to decide where I want to live.