Gratuating Soon, I Want To Move Back And Work In Thailand.

[kyubi]

Hello,

I have some questions that maybe some of you guys can answer.

first, I'm graduating from San Francisco State University soon, and Im hoping that I can move back to Thailand and work there.

I was born in Thailand, but now hold a US citizen, but ever since my last couple visits, I feel like my home is truely in Thailand and I'm

looking for a good opportunity to work there.

My major is International Business, I can speak, write, and read Thai fluently.

I will be done next semester and I was wondering if any of you think I will have a good opportunity in working for a US company that has a Thailand branch. I know Unilever is one of the company that does have a branch in Thailand, I was wondering if anyone else know a good place I can look into if I want to continue with this plan. Maybe some place I can intern, hopefully around bay area.

Hopefullly if it works out, I will be getting paid in american dollar while working back in my home country.

Thank you in advance,

sincerely,

[wasabi]

The way the USD is going perhaps you should look like a Euro company. Though I do expect a rebound. Given you have dual citizenship and are bilingual it seems if you search hard enough an opportunity will be there. I think you just gotta look and apply to various jobs.

[think_too_mut]

Hopefullly if it works out, I will be getting paid in american dollar while working back in my home country.

You are close or in the same boat as Thai graduates, Thai conditions and no pay in US$. Multinationals would hire you in BKK but I doubt anyone would hire a freshman and send him to BKK. After some years, possible.

Edited November 20, 2007 by think_too_mut

[kyubi]

Thanks guys,

so you guys think I will have a better opportunity if I look for jobs over in Thailand? than try to get one here and ask for transfer? Now that I look more and more into this plan, I feel like I have less and less chance of it will ever happen. What if I decided to try to apply for jobs in Thailand, anyone knows an average income for someone like me ? ThinK_too_mut mention that multinationals company might hire me in BKK, do you know if I would have more advantage over other Thai graduates? Wasabi, thanks for an encouragement, I will try to look hard to see if I can get a great job with decent salary.

Any other comments are welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Sincerely,

[LaoPo]

Hello,

I have some questions that maybe some of you guys can answer.

first, I'm graduating from San Francisco State University soon, and Im hoping that I can move back to Thailand and work there.

I was born in Thailand, but now hold a US citizen, but ever since my last couple visits, I feel like my home is truely in Thailand and I'm

looking for a good opportunity to work there.

My major is International Business, I can speak, write, and read Thai fluently.

I will be done next semester and I was wondering if any of you think I will have a good opportunity in working for a US company that has a Thailand branch. I know Unilever is one of the company that does have a branch in Thailand, I was wondering if anyone else know a good place I can look into if I want to continue with this plan. Maybe some place I can intern, hopefully around bay area.

Hopefullly if it works out, I will be getting paid in american dollar while working back in my home country.

Thank you in advance,

sincerely,

If you don't try you never win...GO for it !

http://www.unilever.co.th/ourcompany/caree...linkid=dropdown

Unilever is a UK/Dutch multinational, not American, but that's not important.

Try to contact the American-Thai Chamber of Commerce and ask for a list of medium to large companies.

You're young but not too old to start....

LaoPo

[ukjackthai]

I think we're in the same boat!

My plan is to complete my BA here, do a masters back in England, enter a multinational company in England with branches in Thailand for a few years and then transfer back to Thailand with that nice expat package ahhhhh, the benefits of dual nationality

And... As some other members have suggested, you don’t really want to be getting paid in USD. Just the other day the GB pound reached a 28 year high against the US dollar and I read "Thai shares plummet amid US recession concerns" - BKK Post, Nov 20... So maybe try a British/EU company

Good luck! And please keep us posted

Edited November 20, 2007 by ukjackthai

[quiksilva]

Thanks guys,

so you guys think I will have a better opportunity if I look for jobs over in Thailand? than try to get one here and ask for transfer? Now that I look more and more into this plan, I feel like I have less and less chance of it will ever happen. What if I decided to try to apply for jobs in Thailand, anyone knows an average income for someone like me ? ThinK_too_mut mention that multinationals company might hire me in BKK, do you know if I would have more advantage over other Thai graduates? Wasabi, thanks for an encouragement, I will try to look hard to see if I can get a great job with decent salary.

Any other comments are welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Sincerely,

If you want to work and live in Thailand yes you will have a better chance of landing a job if you are already here, the chances of getting posted here on an Expat will be slim.

If you are fresh out of university, but with an American education you might be more employable than someone locally schooled, but even then you will be facing a similar salary package. Depending on the industry graduates in Thailand can look forward to starting salaries from 10,000 - 20,000 Baht a month. I know a very highly educated Thai at Unilever, who studied in the UK. She was a brand manager, earning Baht 30,000 a month. She was cool with it though, as like many of her colleagues, she didn't really need to work because she was fortunate enough to have a privileged background.

Experience is what counts. If you work for an MNC in the States for a few years in your chosen profession and then apply for jobs within that same sector here, you will definitely catch the attention of employers. Further, with those skills and experience picked up overseas you should be able to command a better salary here.

Thats a lot of 'ifs' there, but with dedication, passion, hard work and persistence you can achieve anything!

[think_too_mut]

so you guys think I will have a better opportunity if I look for jobs over in Thailand? than try to get one here and ask for transfer? Now that I look more and more into this plan, I feel like I have less and less chance of it will ever happen. What if I decided to try to apply for jobs in Thailand, anyone knows an average income for someone like me ? ThinK_too_mut mention that multinationals company might hire me in BKK, do you know if I would have more advantage over other Thai graduates?

Once you are in Thailand, you may not want to work for Multinationals. PPT blows away Toyota, Nissan and others when it comes to salary and benefits.

Furthermore, you may be a better value to Thai companies than to MNCs.

There are scores of Thais who completed their studies or Masters in Western countries and Chula graduates may be equally good.

They are your real competitors when it comes to well paid jobs in Thailand. Those don't start at 12K baht...start at 40, 50 and go up quickly.

To the employers, there is a little difference in your (English) language ability from what western-educated Thais would have. Thais also have a deep understanding of the place, something that you may have lost or have never had.

In my company in BKK, if someone like you were to bi hired, 30K US$ a year would be the start pay. (Sorry, there are no positions for your profile, just an example).

But you stand excellent chances of getting a good job in Thai, IMO, just depends how choosy you can get when it comes to accepting the incoming offers.

[kyubi]

Wow, thank you for such an insightful reply. I'm currently seeking jobs in my field to build up my experience, I'm not sure how much help it will be. But definitely, I will do more research on what company is hiring in Thailand. Maybe I will take a trip down there first to see if I can get a job there then I will move down there perminently. I will try to get dual citizenship so I wouldnt have problem staying there.

Think too mut, what is PPT?

I'm not really picky when it comes to job... I mean, as long as it pays the bill. What I want to do though, is work some where where my opinions actually matters. I guess my target salary is about 20k+ baht, the more the better I guess. I pretty much throw out my Expat idea.. like many of you said, unless I have couple years worth of experience, mostlikely I wouldn't get it.

I am so glad that I posted on this web board. I never knew that I would get this much help from many of you guys out there. Thanks again. I will update frequently about my jost progress.

One question though, any of you are International Business graduate? I'm trying to figure out what are some specific jobs that would be perfect for my field. I mean, besides export and import, Im trying to see what other jobs out there that would fit my profile.

Another question would be, anyone know any Thai company that have a resonably high pay? I mean, is there a fortune 500 ish company in Thailand that I should look into for job opportunity? I'm not looking for a miracle for small work with big pay, but just company that is doing well and willing to shell out a decent about of money regardless of how much work I have to do with high opportunity to move up. I probably have to work alot when I'm there the first few years to get started.

Thanks in advance.

[Heng]

I was in your shoes about 11 years ago only mine was a plain Management degree from that diploma mill called UT-Austin. I don't know what you feel would be "decent" in terms of salary, but IMO you won't be getting an expat deal with no work experience and you can almost certainly expect a rather barebones local package. Being a dual citizen gives you a minor advantage, but contrary to popular belief, it's IMO very minor, as there are a hundred thousand+ of us with thousands more "returning" to Thailand each year, and that's not including those who are born and raised here and go abroad to study.

My folks wouldn't loan me family funds to start my own venture "fresh off the boat" so I sent out about 60-70 resumes and got maybe 5-6 interviews and 2 job offers (Dell and Pinkerton @ around 30,000 -1996- Baht at each place). Didn't feel like moving to Penang (Dell) and didn't feel like commuting between Bangkapi and Sathorn (Pinkerton), so chose to teach English since I knew I only needed a few more thousand USD to start my own export ops (pet fish, orchids, and aquatic plants). There are employees and those who have employees. In Thailand, like most other places in the world, it's a rough and long road to wealth if you are an employee. *Important note to all budding entrepreneurs out there: yes, the failure rate is 90% here, just like anywhere else, just in case you were thinking differently*

That said, if you can be content with that whole sufficiency economy thing, IMO that's easier to do here as well when compared to many other places in the world.

Edited November 20, 2007 by Heng

[kyubi]

starting my own business is definitely a part of my plan. But like you said, failure rates are high, and I wouldn't want to go into it without any back up plan. I want to open my own business while me and my g/f have some sort of a company job. It might be hard but I think we can definitely manage it. Another thing I that I recently thought of is that, if I can find a company that have a branch in Thailand, some how even if it's not in the same state, I might try to apply there and move there for couple of years. But what I'm not sure is that should I tell them in advance that I have this goal of relocation in mind? or I should just take my chance of working there and after a year or two, ask for relocation.

side note* Heng, you said you open an export company to export fish pet? That is actually one of my interest and one of the idea that I wanted to do in Thailand. Some sort of a fish store that sells salt water/corals/fresh water. How is the business and do you think that it's a good profit field?

[think_too_mut]

Think too mut, what is PPT?

It was my typo: PTT.

http://www.pttplc.com/en/default.asp

[kyubi]

ahhh Thank you. That cleared it up for me. Thanks for the website, I'm looking into it as I type.

[kyubi]

getting a marketing job interview tomorrow... hope it goes well. Just trying to get some experience under my belt before I actually get a real job that I wanted to do.

[canadiangirl]

I was in your shoes about 11 years ago only mine was a plain Management degree from that diploma mill called UT-Austin. I don't know what you feel would be "decent" in terms of salary, but IMO you won't be getting an expat deal with no work experience and you can almost certainly expect a rather barebones local package. Being a dual citizen gives you a minor advantage, but contrary to popular belief, it's IMO very minor, as there are a hundred thousand+ of us with thousands more "returning" to Thailand each year, and that's not including those who are born and raised here and go abroad to study.

My folks wouldn't loan me family funds to start my own venture "fresh off the boat" so I sent out about 60-70 resumes and got maybe 5-6 interviews and 2 job offers (Dell and Pinkerton @ around 30,000 -1996- Baht at each place). Didn't feel like moving to Penang (Dell) and didn't feel like commuting between Bangkapi and Sathorn (Pinkerton), so chose to teach English since I knew I only needed a few more thousand USD to start my own export ops (pet fish, orchids, and aquatic plants). There are employees and those who have employees. In Thailand, like most other places in the world, it's a rough and long road to wealth if you are an employee. *Important note to all budding entrepreneurs out there: yes, the failure rate is 90% here, just like anywhere else, just in case you were thinking differently*

That said, if you can be content with that whole sufficiency economy thing, IMO that's easier to do here as well when compared to many other places in the world.

Good post Heng. I know you are quite successful now, it's nice to know how you got your start. :-)

[Heng]

starting my own business is definitely a part of my plan. But like you said, failure rates are high, and I wouldn't want to go into it without any back up plan. I want to open my own business while me and my g/f have some sort of a company job. It might be hard but I think we can definitely manage it. Another thing I that I recently thought of is that, if I can find a company that have a branch in Thailand, some how even if it's not in the same state, I might try to apply there and move there for couple of years. But what I'm not sure is that should I tell them in advance that I have this goal of relocation in mind? or I should just take my chance of working there and after a year or two, ask for relocation.

side note* Heng, you said you open an export company to export fish pet? That is actually one of my interest and one of the idea that I wanted to do in Thailand. Some sort of a fish store that sells salt water/corals/fresh water. How is the business and do you think that it's a good profit field?

Yes, started with pet fish, and one breed of pet fish in fact, the symphosydon discus (commonly known as the discus fish once native to the Amazon and Brazil, but known also commonly bred in Asia and especially Thailand). Started out with a few thousand $ as mentioned, mostly to purchase about 40 x 150 liter aquariums and to handmake the required filtration and water softening systems. Already had the location (an unused portion of one of the homes on family property... took quite a bit of space (had plenty of space but very little cash). Wasn't rocket science, took fish that it took about $1 each to breed and raise and sold them for $9 to $40 a piece for various specific strains in lots of 30 to 150 at a time FOB Don Muang, various sizes and ages. At customer request, we added a few more high margin items like ranchu lionhead goldfish and some high volume low margin items like Siamese fighting fish. Some folks requested that we do aquatic plants, and some of the folks we met through our plant business requested fresh cut orchids. This was all the while the Baht was rather overinflated (in relation to our local cost structure) at 38-42 Baht per US$ from 1997 to late last year when the rates started to go the other way. Not a huge issue as we could still likely turn a profit all the way down to 20 Baht per $ but also because over the past 9 strong export years we also began importing shrimp feeds (like brine shrimp eggs from Utah) and from a personal revenue point of view I had plugged much of our revenues into property, parked funds abroad here and there in plain jane fixed accounts at 4-6%, and also loaning out funds at around 15% a year secured through our family pawnshops. The "business" is still going and turning a modest profit... of course not like in the Baht/$ heyday, but I never looked at it like I was a pet fish or orchid exporter (and in fact now my younger brother and sister run both ops), but rather as someone making use of an opportunity. As the local saying goes "tak nam when the water rises." Done, sorted. Now at 32 I'm rather content with collecting rent and interest from my modest investments and raising my brand new son, with a daughter (hopefully) in the works next year, but of course ready to advise/help out my brother and sister and any other family member with their various ventures (some successfull, some not) and also ready for the next opportunity should I happen to notice it.

One can export in just about any market, but to be honest, the conditions are hardly savory right now.

More importantly, fish, orchids, plants, whatever: can you do (whatever) better than the other players? I made my awake hours midnight to noon so that I could take orders and have them on the plane by nightfall the next day. Now everyone does that. I invoiced in Chinese, Spanish, German (in addition to English). Now everyone does that. etc. Can you handle the slow months? In my first year, I went 9 months without a single order. Can you handle all of the improbable bumps along the way (snowstorms in Turkey grounding your time/oxygen sensitive shipment, the dept. of agriculture at destination finding a single bug in your flower shipment and then having to incinerate $10kUSD of your customer's product, forex rates, and so forth)?

p.s. it's not a good idea to just start breeding fish commercially unless you happen to know what you're doing, especially the discus as it's particularly sensitive and fragile. Loads of Bangkok University, ABAC, and Hua Chiew students who were semi capable in English, building websites, and had interviewed us for class projects were itchin' to get at that profit margin -but who didn't actually even like or know how to breed this fish- flushed all kinds of investment down the toilet when they tried their hand at it.

Edited November 21, 2007 by Heng

[Heng]

Good post Heng. I know you are quite successful now, it's nice to know how you got your start. :-)

thanks CG.

[kyubi]

Wow.. great info Heng.

Heng, so you only do fresh water? discus in particular? Im more interested in Salt water fishes and corals. do you know anything about that? about opportunity, and cost and stuff? I mean, fresh water fish is fairly cheap, and some, you can even get it for free from a local pond or lake... but it's harder with salt water, which is one of the reason why im interested in it because not many people are willing to do it due to the difficulty of taking care of it. I do have about 4-5 years in experience with salt water fish keeping, one of my hobby. I do visit local fish stores in the US quite often to know the operation and stuff.. just not sure about how much things cost in Thailand.

[Heng]

Wow.. great info Heng.

Heng, so you only do fresh water? discus in particular? Im more interested in Salt water fishes and corals. do you know anything about that? about opportunity, and cost and stuff? I mean, fresh water fish is fairly cheap, and some, you can even get it for free from a local pond or lake... but it's harder with salt water, which is one of the reason why im interested in it because not many people are willing to do it due to the difficulty of taking care of it. I do have about 4-5 years in experience with salt water fish keeping, one of my hobby. I do visit local fish stores in the US quite often to know the operation and stuff.. just not sure about how much things cost in Thailand.

Kyubi, if you can breed and ship saltwater fish with them surviving 12-14 hour flights AND the acclimation/shock time (fish get jet lag too... more like jet lag + a hangover + a mild illness is what I recommend that people look at it as), then you'll have your own niche. I don't know a single OFI (Ornamental Fish International) member here in Thailand who can do that with regularity AND with a high product survival rate. Those that do, IMO use the profit margins to cover their high DOA rate. If your soul can handle that, go for it. Personally I could not and have always focused on freshwater. In the end, even 1-5% freshwater DOA grew on me and I focused more on orchids (wilting orchids don't suffer like dying fish) and let someone else who needed/wanted the revenue more than me take care of that biz.

p.s. you know, there are plenty of things in Thailand that aren't living and breathing that can be traded/sold on the world market.

[kyubi]

cool. thank you for the heads up.

Back to our original topic ***

so anyone know any good company that has a high growth rate with competitive salary in Thailand? fortune 500-ish company.

I don't know much about any company in my field in Thailand, because it's hard trying to find those information online. Slow loading doesn't help either.

Thanks.

[pete_r]

Heng, may I ask how importing/exporting living things from Thailand works, regulation-wise? Do you have to get some sort of "certificate of good health" for each shipment, or is there a systematic check by the customs of the receiving country?

kyubi, sorry for the off-topic. Some big Thai companies / brand names you may want to look into:

- Double A paper (Advance Agro Co).

- Poultry products / pork products / animal feed / animal medicines: CP, Betagro, etc...

- PTT (petrol).

- AIS, DTAC, True... (IT).

- Banking: SCB, Krungsri Ayudhaya, Kasikorn...

- Furniture manufacturers. Some big brands (La-Z-Boy) are made in Thailand, but I don't know the names of the local manufacturers.

[kyubi]

wow. that's a good list Pete. I can't think of a better one myself. Time for more research for me

[Heng]

Heng, may I ask how importing/exporting living things from Thailand works, regulation-wise? Do you have to get some sort of "certificate of good health" for each shipment, or is there a systematic check by the customs of the receiving country?

Yes, the Department of Fisheries (I assume it's another dept. though if you want to export things like snakes or puppies... which people do as well) will require that you bring in a sample of each order. It's less of a hassle than it sounds. Say if you're sending out a thousand bettas, they'll want you to bring in 3-4 fish from the shipment for "observation." Takes about 1-2 days and then they issue a certificate. There's no charge. That gets tagged to the airway bill. Same thing for orchids and all plant life, although that's through the Dept. of Agriculture and I actually have a broker that takes care of that for me (including the baking/fumigating and packaging). I just slap on my brand at the airport for orchids and send them on their way. And yes, theer is also a systematic check at every destination that I can think of. They don't check everything obviously because of volume, but they definitely random check product for insects and anything illegal.

[TonyLeung]

how do the export costs allow you to remain competitive against local fish businesses in the countries you are exporting too?

Edited November 21, 2007 by TonyLeung

[NordicMan]

Hello,

I have some questions that maybe some of you guys can answer.

first, I'm graduating from San Francisco State University soon, and Im hoping that I can move back to Thailand and work there.

I was born in Thailand, but now hold a US citizen, but ever since my last couple visits, I feel like my home is truely in Thailand and I'm

looking for a good opportunity to work there.

My major is International Business, I can speak, write, and read Thai fluently.

I will be done next semester and I was wondering if any of you think I will have a good opportunity in working for a US company that has a Thailand branch. I know Unilever is one of the company that does have a branch in Thailand, I was wondering if anyone else know a good place I can look into if I want to continue with this plan. Maybe some place I can intern, hopefully around bay area.

Hopefullly if it works out, I will be getting paid in american dollar while working back in my home country.

Thank you in advance,

sincerely,

In my opinion, if you are looking for a regular "office career path", you will be much better off by working for a well-known American company in USA for a couple years first.

With little relevant work experience, it will always be easier to obtain a good job where you actually are. It takes time to get a job, the probability of taking a quick trip to BKK, get some interviews and land a job, are quite small. If you go to BKK for a longer trip (ie. months) to look for a job, you will lessen your chances of getting a job in USA in the meantime. Returning to USA after several months in BKK, to start looking for a job in US will be theoretically possible, but will in reality be difficult.

Your attractiveness in Thailand will be much higher if you have a couple years work experience in a well-known Western company in USA first... This is the case for people returning to most developing countries - those few years gained in a well known company overseas is worth gold.

Your chances of going back to USA after working a couple years in a not-so-good job in TH are also less than desireable. You will have been away from the market for a while, your work experiences may not be so relevant, and generally it will be more difficult to get a job in USA while you are not physically there (can't go to job interviews etc.)

I am sure there are many exceptions to this... myself, I quit my job in my homecountry, bought a 1-way ticket to Singapore and spent every day looking for a job. After 10 weeks I got a quite decent job, and worked there for 3 years before I returned. I wouldn't do that now, though, being married and having many financial obligations.

There are no guarantees and no absolutes... this is just my opinion on how to maximise the probabilties of getting what you want.

Best of luck

NM

[Heng]

how do the export costs allow you to remain competitive against local fish businesses in the countries you are exporting too?

Export costs as in the less favorable exchange rate + rising fuel surcharges on air cargo?

The cost structure here is still X times ahead of any country where you have to pay someone to clean tanks, feed fish, change water, construct tanks, construct filters, pack fish, drive them to the airport, etc. etc. *by the hour.* Here I can get any and all of those things done for 220 Baht a day.... so regardless of whether it's $8.80 at 25 Baht to the dollar or $5.50 at 40 Baht to the dollar, it's still a situation where one single fish (depending on the breed of course) out of thousands shipped out everyday can pay for one employee's daily wage. Also, supply wise, not many varieties of fish breed well in countries with drastic climate changes. Here you can pretty much grow them year round.

As for fuel surcharges, it's a level playing field type factor that everyone must absorb/pass on to the end consumer.

Edited November 21, 2007 by Heng

[kyubi]

NM, thanks for the info. Im planning to stay in Thailand indefinitely. With that said, I have no intention of working there for a while and come back here. Maybe in the far future, when I have kids or want change in my life significantly, I might come back to the state. Working here for couple of years is also something that I'm now considering. I do not know the impact or salary differences when I have some experience here and go to Thailand and apply for job there. I would imagine it's quite big if I already have exprience working for well known company. When I'm done, I think I will still go back there and try to get some interviews. If I land a good job with good salary, I might just ended up taking that job and stay there. If not, I might have to come back here and get some experience here first.