I have an upcoming onsite interview with a team at the San Diego office, and I noticed that all the interviewers, including the hiring manager to whom I would report, are of Chinese descent. After looking them up on LinkedIn, I saw that they all received their undergraduate education in China before moving to the US for their graduate degrees, and then continued their careers here. This made me wonder if there might be any red flags associated with working in such an environment.
In my current job, we have a small percentage (less than 15%) of Chinese nationals on the team. I've observed that they tend to stick together and speak in their native language but switch to English in meetings and when interacting with non-Chinese colleagues. I’ve heard some concerns about working in a department with a majority Chinese workforce, including unhealthy competition, long hours (996 work week) with low productivity, exclusion of non-Chinese from key information, knowledge hoarding, and a general blame culture.
For context, I’m from Southern Europe, where work culture is more aligned with US values like critical thinking, healthy collaboration, and a reasonable work-life balance.
I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts or experiences about working in a predominantly Chinese department in a US based company. Please keep the discussion respectful and objective. Thank you!