How to Stand Out as Foreign Professionals in Taiwan: Insights from Cake

As of July 2026, a total of 3,239 foreign graduates applied to extend their stay in Taiwan for employment, roughly eleven times the number from the previous year. The surge follows Taiwan’s new extension of stay policy, which lowered the barrier for international students to remain in the country after graduation.

However, more graduates staying means more people chasing the same roles. With this rising competition, the question shifts from just how to find a job in Taiwan to how to stand out amongst the competition?

Cake International Talent Connect brought in expert speakers, from fellow foreign professionals to experienced recruiters, to answer exactly that.

Evelyn Peng, Account Executive at Cake and Bradley Orr, representative from Talent Taiwan started the session with information on how to find a job effectively and the different types of permits available for foreign professionals in Taiwan.

Evelyn started with the practical side of the job hunt: how to build a resume that recruiters actually like, and how to increase your visibility so hiring teams can find you. Meanwhile, Bradley walked through the permit landscape, from standard work permits to the Employment Gold Card, along with the support systems Talent Taiwan offers to people navigating the process.

The introduction session was followed by a panel discussion with speakers from three different countries and varying levels of experiences: Alexis (Director of Strategic Partnerships at MEET), Josaphat (AI & Data Team Lead at Lenovo), and Lana (Senior Project Manager at IsCoolLab). Each speaker shared their own experience as a foreigner trying to build a life in Taiwan, where Alexis came to Taiwan as a professional, while Josaphat and Lana started off as students, then built their career from then on. 

Their entry points differ, and so does how long they have been working. What does not differ is how quickly the conversation turned to AI, and what it has done to the value of the work they do.

How AI is Affecting Work Life

For Lana, AI has become a daily tool in communicating with customers, smoothing out the friction of working across languages and expectations. For Alexis, it means she can simply do more work than before. What neither of them handed over was the judgment.

Alexis emphasized that AI does allow you to do more, but you still need to add your own thoughts and perspective, and you still need to fact-check. The volume goes up, but the responsibility does not go away. Lana stressed the importance of keeping boundaries with AI, staying open to its advancements without becoming overly reliant on it. Keep your critical thinking intact, she said, because critical thinking is the part AI cannot replace.

Josaphat took it a step further. In this era, the skill that keeps you employable is not any particular tool, but it is learning itself. It is how you approach working in the face of constant change. You have to be upfront about what you know and what you do not, he said, and that honesty is what makes self-learning possible in the first place.

All in all, the panel agreed that AI helps reduce the time it takes to produce work, but humans are still the one to decide what is worth doing, catch what is wrong, or notice what you have not learned yet.

Each speaker closed the session with one final piece of advice for foreign talents in Taiwan. Josphat reminded the audience to enjoy life in Taiwan by connecting with the locals, because you are not here just to learn and work. Alexis echoed that message, advising people to make friends and build connections as much as possible, as doors open in ways you cannot predict and you never know when and how your next opportunity is going to present itself. She herself found her first job via Craigslist, a fitting anecdote for the advice.

Last but not least, Lana closed with an advice to target your industry and choose your role. “Be clear about what you can bring to the company, and learn how to communicate your strengths in order to stand out.”

The second half of the session brought in recruiters working directly with international talents in Taiwan: José María O'Con-Solorzano (or O’Con), Talent Acquisition Recruiter at Vanguard International Semiconductor; Ellen Yang, Recruitment Manager at Piccollage; and Candice Hu, Principal Consultant at Cake. They shared about what makes a foreign talent stand out in the market, and how AI has affected recruitment processes.

Skill Match Gets You Through the Door, but Not All the Way Through

In the age of AI, the three speakers confirm that AI is indeed used in screening candidates, but human judgment still makes the call. 

Candice highlighted three factors that she weighs when considering a candidate:

Skill match is the filter, personality carries you through the interview, and motivation frequently becomes the deciding factor at the end, as what sets you apart from other qualified candidates.

Ellen’s checklist lined up with that: core skills, soft skills, AI capability, and something that stands out, like a personal project. In the interview itself, she is looking at judgment skills. The whys and hows behind your decisions, how clearly you communicate, and how quickly you can learn.

For O’Con, adaptability is the real edge for international candidates. Show how you are able to adapt to local needs, that you want to learn and improve. Sell not only your technical skills but also your soft skills, and treat a diverse background as an asset rather than something to explain away.

To close the session, Ellen advised the attendees to use AI to think more, not less. And when a rejection comes, do not take it to heart. A hiring decision can come down to a single mismatch, and a no now is not a no forever. The candidates who win, she said, are the ones who can turn ideas into something they can show.

Candice’s closing advice was to show yourself more, by putting your work on LinkedIn or Cake. Write down clearly what you do, show your results, and put yourself out there. O’Con also encouraged the audience to step out of their comfort zones to push themselves to learn and adapt, as this will allow them to grow both professionally and personally.

Standing out in Taiwan’s job market is less about having a flawless profile and more about being visible and adaptable. We look forward to hosting more events to support international talents through their job search in Taiwan.

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