# How to gain employment in Thailand or SE Asia?



## MTB280678 (Feb 5, 2010)

Hi my name is Mark,

i have been looking at a move into SE Asia, ideally Bangkok but Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Phillipines or similar locations will be looked at seriously. 

I am based in the UK currently and have worked in a sales management role for over 10 years now, i currently work in the fire safety industry. I have a friend who is an expat in Bangkok and after much deliberation with him i would at least like to look at my options. I have already sent countless CV's out and contacted several recruitment companies but dont seem to be getting anywhere or even much response back.

I have come across a website called Asia-Work where you pay them a fee dependent on Silver, Gold or Platinum level cover and yes the cost goes up with the level of cover. They will either let you look at there specific expat jobs or the more you pay the more personal service you get (they search more specific roles out for you). Is this a con or is it the only real way of having a slight serious way of gaining employment in SE Asia??

Help please as im getting a little disheartened.


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## gino (Jul 20, 2009)

*What do you want?*

Mark,

Do you want a job or do you want to pay somebody to tell you what you want to hear, namely that they are looking for a job for you? 

I’m in the States, planning a move to Bangkok, Hong Kong or Tokyo in the next month or so. I lack the personal experience of others on this and similar message boards. But I think you can learn a lot by reading messages already posted here and articles on various Asian employment web sites.

Generally, the prevailing wisdom is that the only jobs you can expect to find involve teaching English at a wage that seems ridiculously low to most Westerners. But the cost of living is also lower and there’s the adventure and other aspects to compensate.

Another option is buying or starting a business and investing in the local economy, but there are restrictions and you will probably need local partners.

And there seem to be more than a pleasant sufficiency of scams and dubious employment practices. I saw an ad the other day for scuba diving videographers. They will pay you to take videos of their customers’ first diving experience. Sounds great. Except you first need to obtain special certifications, which entail paying them thousands of dollars for supervised dives. Once you become qualified, most of your income will be from commissions on the DVDs you sell to their customers. Their ad didn’t spell out all the details, but being the unredeemable cynic that I am, I assume they charge their customers a fee to have the dive videotaped, then give you a small portion of what the customer pays, which is largely offset by the fee you pay to participate in the dive, have your tanks filled and so forth. 

Gino


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## adverthaiser (Feb 9, 2010)

*...get a job teaching English in Bangkok*

Hi there,

It is very easy to get a job teaching English in Bangkok and this is a common path younger people take. However, full time teaching has a number of drawbacks. For one, the pay is low. The typical English teacher is paid between 200 and 300 Baht an hour. Hours are typically long, and split schedules are common. What starts as a grand adventure may soon become a grueling drag. 

However, there is another way - freelancing. Freelance teachers teach private lessons on their own, typically in their own home or in the home of a student. These opportunities pay more than jobs, are more relaxed, and are usually more fun to teach.

While traditional full-time work is easier to get, a freelance business can be more rewarding. Unfortunately, there are no recruiters or one-step solutions to becoming a private teacher. You have to do the work yourself. This can seem intimidating. However it is possible, within five months or less, to establish a solid income exclusively from private lessons.

Goodluck!


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## gino (Jul 20, 2009)

But how do you get a work permit if you are teaching freelance exclusively? I understand Thailand is tightening up on visas and monthly border runs are costly and time-consuming.


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## Acid_Crow (May 11, 2009)

The back-to-back tourist visas are still easy to get, even though there are posters on the embassies saying that you might be rejected with to many visas in your passport, there seems to be no written-down limit to as how many you can have. 

I was in KL last week to get a tourist visa. On an average day, I estimate they have about 200 people seeking a tourist visa. It's far to many for them to check up on everyone. And there still are people, such as myself, who spend alot of time here on tourist visas and arn't working. So rejecting everyone with a certain number of visas, will be a loss of income to the country.


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