Job Opportunities After Degree In Thai Studies

[femalefarang]

There is a 'Thai & South East Asian Studies' four year university degree course in the UK. The second year of this would be studying at a university in Chiang Mai, and by the end of the four years, students can expect to be fluent in Thai. The course also involves Culture, History and Development of the region.

Do you think this would be enough to secure a decent job in Thailand on completion (other than teaching English)?

Would I need a certain amount of work experience also?

I am unsure of which industry I would like to work in - but any feedback would be appreciated.

[Prakanong]

There is a 'Thai & South East Asian Studies' four year university degree course in the UK. The second year of this would be studying at a university in Chiang Mai, and by the end of the four years, students can expect to be fluent in Thai. The course also involves Culture, History and Development of the region.

Do you think this would be enough to secure a decent job in Thailand on completion (other than teaching English)?

Would I need a certain amount of work experience also?

I am unsure of which industry I would like to work in - but any feedback would be appreciated.

I know of a guy from the UK who did a similar course and spent 1 year in CM - he was working in the hotel industry in Thailand last time I saw him

[PeaceBlondie]

Offhand - not to burst your bubble, but - I don't think so. Reverse the situation and ask what if a native Thai took a course in English culture at a Thai uni and then came to England. Would she have good job prospects, assuming she was more or less fluent in English? I doubt it. I know a guy who got a master's in women studies and then couldn't get a job in the field because - you guessed it - he wasn't a woman!

All the Thai courses in Thailand won't make you Thai. Even Thai citizenship won't make you an ethnic Thai. I say study something more useful, like tourism management, or accounting, physics, higher education, etc.

///Added:/// Also, I don't think there's much demand for farang to teach Thai language, culture, history, etc. Thais do that far more cheaply.

[fletchsmile]

Do you think this would be enough to secure a decent job in Thailand on completion (other than teaching English)?

Would I need a certain amount of work experience also?

I am unsure of which industry I would like to work in - but any feedback would be appreciated.

It would probably help find a job, but in itself would not be enough to secure a job. That will depend on a much wider range of factors/skills. The extent to which it helps will also vary job to job.

Bear in mind, Thailand is not one of the most free job markets in the world, and there is a lot of built in nationalism and protectionism, which can make it difficult for foreigners to find jobs here. In some ways that's fair enough depending on your view point.

I'd recall career advice I was once given when choosing whether to study languages (and culture) or finance: If you're pursuing a career in finance it's more important to be strong in finance and know something about languages, than to be strong in languages and know something about finance. That would translate to most industries. So unless you're going to work specifically in a language and culture related field, it'll be the job field itself people are primarily interested in. As mentioned above, there are plenty of SE Asians and Thais out there who will be ahead of you in Thailand, when it comes to language and culture.

That said, plenty of people find jobs in fields totally unrelated to their degree. Personally I went for the languages and culture degree, had fun for a few years, then learnt finance later! Your degree is as much about self development, as anything. A year abroad is great fun. Thailand's job market is more restrcitive tho', and I would not have been able to follow the same approach here in Thailand that I did back home.

Edited September 17, 2007 by fletchthai68

[simon43]

A degree of this type might help you to obtain employment with one of the NGOs in Thailand. But they also often look for a skill or experience in a specific area.

Simon

[samran]

There is a 'Thai & South East Asian Studies' four year university degree course in the UK. The second year of this would be studying at a university in Chiang Mai, and by the end of the four years, students can expect to be fluent in Thai. The course also involves Culture, History and Development of the region.

Do you think this would be enough to secure a decent job in Thailand on completion (other than teaching English)?

Would I need a certain amount of work experience also?

I am unsure of which industry I would like to work in - but any feedback would be appreciated.

Doubt it to be perfectly frank. It all depends on what you want to do however in life. It sounds like a great degree to kick off a life in academia, but little else espeially in Thailand, where the focus is more on practical degrees and little else. So finance, economics, engineering, medicine etc etc etc all good in the eyes of a Thai employer. Every somchai and his dog here have a masters of varying quality as well. So thats the competition.

I did an economics degree from an Australian university and then stuck on an honours year which in Australia requires an additional year of study. I did a minor though in Thai studies all the way though, language mainly and then spent 6 months in Pattani on exchange at the Prince of Songkhla uni. But the focus was economics and it is that degree which has gotten my job. The thai language side if things was simply a nice way to round off my education so that I had a mix of technical and non-technical, which was good from an employers point of view.

As for NGO's, well, as much a people bitch and moan about Thailand being a hard market to crack, NGO's are a closed shop more or less, but if you can get in, they do like degrees like yours for the touchy feely side of things, but then again, you'll be competing with other people with masters degrees.

Where they do hire locally you are going to be competing with highly educated wives of highly educated and well connected husbands. The typical demographic for both is that they are from extremely wealthy backgrounds, have spend a considerable amount of time in the west and east growing up. Fluent in both lanuages. Hubby goes off to work in high finance or high government. Wife works in a cushy NGO job to pass the time.