Afghanistan to China: Maruf finds himself working in the center of Beijing’s tech hub

What is it like working in tech at Z Park, China’s Silicon Valley? Is it true you have to work insane hours? What is the work culture and landscape of Chinese tech headed? Watch the full interview here.

Based in Beijing, Maruf grew up in Afghanistan when the Taliban was still around, and then moved when his family went into textile business in China. He attended one of the top schools in China, Wuhan University, and later worked in Beijing at a tech innovation hub. I get to chat with him on his experience working and living in Beijing.

Explain 中关村 (Z Park), the tech hub in Beijing, China.

I was shocked when I heard the first time that almost 85% of all technology companies in China are located in Beijing. You have tech giants, like Tencent and Huawei, and a growing amount of startups. China is a pioneer in deep tech. China embraces these startups to develop. 中关村 (Z Park) is the Silicon Valley of China, but they don’t want to be known as Silicon Valley — they want to be their own hub. They want to have their own unique position in this technology world and market.

They want to position themselves as a place where international and local Chinese technologies emerge and connect. They give a lot of support for local and international startups, especially the ones in deep tech. There’s all kinds of financial support: they have a lot of kind of competitions, like the Z forum, where they give a few million dollars in prizes. They do this because they want to attract high quality international startups to go there and grow.

Are there a lot of opportunities for expats to work in Beijing?

Chinese startups and companies still want diversified teams to be a global company. If there’s something that a foreigner is doing, which Chinese can easily do, then they don’t need that foreigner, right? But if there is something that a foreigner can do and his or her talent is able to make a really huge difference, then they can give that position to the foreigner without having any problem. I myself work in a very diversified team in Beijing who are working at this incubator. So I think they do welcome foreigners, as long as they’re not taking the normal jobs from the Chinese.

What are the prestigious companies Chinese techies want to work for?

There are many new innovative companies that really welcome the young people, compared to let’s say, Alibaba, where Alibaba requires fully experienced talent to join them. Innovative companies like ByteDance kind of relies on the creativity of the younger generation. Companies like Huawei, Alibaba, and Tencent are more developed, and they believe that people should have a specific skill set and experience level before you can join them. Companies like ByteDance are really hot these days, and a lot of younger people wish to go there.

What are the infamous 996 working hours?

996 means you work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week. There is also new working hour called 007, where you have no limit and work 7 days a week — you’re on call all the time.

But at my company, we would never complain. We’d never say, ‘It’s so late. I’m so tired.’ It’s just another working day. At some point, we would also be 007. Because we would be so busy and projects need to be finished; we would work real late and then early morning. We almost would not have certain weekends. Especially for me, I would never complain because I went to Beijing to learn some new things to challenge myself. If young people can survive in Beijing, it is admirable.

What are the company tech perks you get?

Our work environment is relaxed. It’s not like we have to sit in the office on an on a chair and table — you can move. We had very nice couches all over the place. You sit wherever you want, sit down, lie down, and do whatever you want. We have flexibility in our working style, which is so awesome. We play a lot of badminton in the office outside— we would just get our rackets and start playing for 30-40 minutes, just cool off, and then just start working again.

What are your main takeaways from working in Beijing?

I think that the Chinese government has really prioritized ed tech, but technology as a whole, and they’re investing in it. As I mentioned before, at the very beginning, I have a very good background with education since I was a teacher for two years. I’ve also been in touch and involved with technology a lot since I was a child since the first time I had a computer. So my goal is to immerse myself into education technology.

What are your forward looking thoughts?

Hopefully one day, through the knowledge that I gain and with my experience, I hope to provide a better education for those who are underprivileged, like kids who don’t have access to education in countries like Afghanistan and China. I want to bridge the gap between remote villages and cities — the quality of education is vast. I hope to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of education. I hope that I can join and be a part of this change, and hopefully, take that and implement this in my own country, as well as help other underprivileged children all over the world.

Emily is a US expat currently living in Singapore to learn about the tech communities growing in Asia. You can watch her YouTube vlogs here. She has worked 4+ years in dev relations, community management, and event marketing within the tech and travel industry. Her time at OmniSci, Google and Booking.com gave her cross-functional expertise. In her free time, she runs the volunteer community initiatives for Singapore Women’s Network and CMX Hub Singapore, as well as documenting her journey in digital at The Fang Girl.