How to apply for job in los

[Zendesigner]

as i have the same questions as RoberT on this forum i'll start a new thread.

I now have another question regarding your reference to the futility of applying for jobs locally by email. You mention that the topic has been discussed extensively. Does the website have an archive where this discussion might repose?

Otherwise I take that if I am interested in a local job I should present myself in the hopes of having a chat with a manager. Are phone calls useful in this regard? I went into the local office of a European engineering firm on Wireless Road on speculation to enquire about making an application and the receptionist was not very helpful. I did manage to come away with an email address for an HR person that was worthless.

What can you suggest regarding applying to newspaper adverts? Are farang applications handled the same way as locals? If 'Thai national' is not specified can one assume the position is open to a farang willing to work for a local salary?

[Zendesigner]

anybody have a story on how they applied ?

bart

[Sunbelt Asia]

I personally feel e-mails are a good way to reach potential employers. I read my e-mails with resumes but find I will be more inclined to read the actual resume, if it’s also in the e-mail text with a opening paragraph.

Our firm is expanding our offices so always looking for a sharp foreigner with prior business ownership.  That person must be willing to go the extra mile. The red tape makes it easier to hire a Thai but if I’m convinced your skills are worthy and you'll add to the bottom line. Then I and many firms are interested in meeting you.

[robertT]

Well, zendesigner...looks like me and you are attractive candidates for Sun Belt Asia. I don't think that the reply addresses our main concerns and I am not a businessman...just an engineer looking for work.

SunBeltAsia, what do you have for non-entreprenurial types?

[Zendesigner]

hi gregory and robert,

thanks for the reply, i tried to get a job by applying to  job offers on jobdb for over 6 months now. I just don't get any reply , possibly because it states that i'm not in thailand yet and i have a Belgian telephone number. The only reaction i got was from a Belgian who was working at CP petro in Rayong. I came over for a job interview in januari after he introduced me to his vice president.

They offered my the job without problem and with a very reasonable salary for thailand, but my instinct said i'd better decline as there was no support for the department from higher management.

it panned out to be through as my friend there has ended his employment from the first of juli.

i can talk to them again when i arrive in the beginning of august, but probably they will stear for freelance jobs without work permit, which is not the thing i want to be involved in as i'm immigrating for the long run.

I currently have an IT business in belgium which I'm in the process of shutting down due to the economic situation in europe ,especially in the IT biz here in belgium. under this government rule , social taxes, vat, ect it's not viable to start a small company in belgium or europe for that matter.

you are just not able to grow in size or cashflow quickly enough to compensate for bad times.

Apparently in thailand you just need to know somebody that knows somebody to find your job.

As networking takes a lot of time , i just wondered how most people started out in their first job hunt.

gregory, I'm always willing to see if maybe we can strike up a common ground together for future enterprise.

I'm not in the business brokerage at the moment but i'm a ######/director/consultant. I'm also open for change feel i can do most things if i set my mind to it .

I'm arriving on the first of august and probably will be getting my bearings on living quarters, neccesary paperwork ect for a few weeks.

We'll see what life brings after that .

just let me know.

Thanks

Schillebeeks Bart

[email protected]

www.adinternet.be

[robertT]

Zendesigner...can you summerise your experience here and make a recommendation? I take it that Thai employers will exploit a falang looking for work...mess about with salaries and etc. If you confirm this would be good to know for people looking for jobs that pay wages. Anything else is jive and shuck that requires an investment and I have known a lot of folks that have been burned with that arrangement. Maybe up here I could convince tourist agencies that wading around in the mud (barefooted) and looking at irrigation schemes would be worth the money that a tourist would want to pay....'Agricultural tours in central Thailand...please provide your own hammock and drinking water'.

Let's get serious...how does a falang wage earner find work around here?

[Sunbelt Asia]

Salaries in Thailand

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Asiaweek's Salary Survey 2000

All figures in USD.

THAILAND

Position Salary/Month

GOVERNMENT

Head of Government 1,694

Finance Minister 1,642

Member of Parliament 1,019

Government Clerk (Entry-level) 93

PROFESSIONS

Bank Manager 794

Architect 304

Civil Engineer 397

Doctor 662

Lawyer 530

News Reporter 357

State Professor 662

CORPORATION

CEO 5,075

Controller 3,475

Human Resources Director 3,326

Systems Director 3,696

Manufacturing Director 2,772

Sales Director 3,150

Factory/Plant Manager 1,931

Sales Manager 1,699

Accountant 1,147

Systems Engineer 927

Software Developer 927

Field Services Engineer 772

Production Supervisor 618

Executive Secretary 649

Secretary 446

Chauffeur 240

That’s what you’re competing against. It’s cheaper and easier to hire Thais. You have to prove you're worth the extra paperwork and money. Sum it up in your opening statement, what you'll bring to their business. The one advantage that Westerners have is being problem solvers and thinking outside the box. Just one mans opinion.

[sting01]

about IT job in Bkk

for my experience it's VERY difficult to find something here, mostly the ISP don't need really invest in farangs.

I was during 5 years a security consultant, as soon I landed in Bangkok (20 month ago) I tryed to find a job. I did some "audits" for free about the security for the majors thai ISP, and went to the head office with my logs, the security holes I found .... they said thanks, asked me to give to them my documents (logs I mean) but never asked me to stay and correct it. Mostly at this day, the same holes exist. Thai culture, they prefer to kill the messager than to heara bad new.

Sunbelt, could you be more prciseabout the people you could eventually recruit? Is the fact to be french, and not really fluent in english as a native speaker is a fact who can disqualify me for working for you?

[Zendesigner]

hi everyone,

i'm not in thailand yet so i don't have that much experience yet over there. i just notice that after sending out 150 job applications i not even received one return reply one them.

so apparently they dont apply that way for a job in thailand.

i 'm coming over in august to start a new life there and will se what happens. i can survive for about 2 years in los before the money runs out and i have a backup oppertunity maybe.

but i'm sure some company's need quality of service over cheap quantity labour.

Somewhere has to be a thai company or multinational that understands this ?

as the salary survey shows a system engineer makes around 30.000 bath a month. The one i went to at cp , their engineer didn't even know the english buttons on a windows 2000 server, he memorised the path from the start button how to get there. Don't need to explain probably that his system was crap and badly setup full of holes and dangerous possibilities.

but they could easily chuck out a million bath for a pda project for 5 people to consult 1 exel spreadscheet once a day.

I just find it hard to beleive that there is no one willing to pay that little bit more for experience and hard expertise that will save them money in the long run.

Sunbelt i'll send you my resume   maybe you or one of your customers could use my services or it could be the start of a small networking venture . hope to see you in BKK.

sting . What are you doing at the moment then in BKK. I willing to take what is offered to me but don't want to get in to problems with immigration without work permit. I still want to support my thai wife who is coming with me.

thanks guy's for your reply's

bart

[sting01]

Hi there,

About visa, it must be include when you will get a job, you will just have to go abroad (Laos, Cambodia....) during 3 days to get at first an non immigrant B. You can search a job with a tourist visa.

About me, I went in Bkk 20 month ago, 'cause I get a bad divorce in france. I started here with some money, and many illusions. After a while, the illusions left and a part of my money also, I decided to create a little firm with my gf(ex.gf will be more accurate).The company is legaly registred (Partnership limited company), but for some dumb reasons I don't get my work permit (income not enough to justify my salary), but in 6 month I will re apply and get it. For now I don't work officially, but just take care of my investment (mostly the income are provided by business on internet, then no need to have an office).

We/I have 3 fields of business :

1) I design, ask a tailorshop to sew, and sell outfits for collectible dolls in USA and worldwide. It's not ecommerce ( I don't trust economically in ecommerce) but internet is good to send pictures, to stay in touch with customers, retrieve money (paypal), the business exist because my best friend is a collector, and live in USA, she introduce me. The earnings are about 20 000 bht/month or 500 euros/month, and the benefit is about the half. I have some retailers in USA and Canada who asked me to my sellers, but they need to order quantities and ask for price ... I don't have enough in capital (who is my own money) to do it, and it's really sad. This market is called in french "niche", it's a protected market when you are recognise, you have daily orders.

2)As my gf(ex.gf) is a singing teacher, I use my IT skills and computers (I have some lol) to record the students for contest (KPN, Nescafe or other). I also create karaoke from western songs (suppress voice and keep music only, put the lyrics on the screen and mix all together with the original video, or a nice video about France, Italy or germany). This for educational purpose only, I don't sell it on the street lol. I do some blue disk for local stars also ( Ploy, b-mix or Zig Zag), like that they get a first idea how they will be in real. Music or Video, in a computer are only data, then I know how to play with data.

3) I teach french also, private course, to some students.

I forget, I am preparing an audit for a local firm who prepare a soft for security. It's Mac adress related, then I told to the boss it's not good, he asked me to proove it. But it's for fun, no sure I can get some coins with that.

All in one I have a living, but it's not easy, feel depress sometimes ( this is why I brake up my rship after 18 month, I started to bothering the girl who is a nice person).

The key word, one of the key word, is Thai personns look at us as devils, necessary devils (english teachers for exemple) but if you (or I) know best, they loose face and they dislike that, then they prefer to not use us too much.

hope than answer to you, if you need more , just mail me.

Best regards

Eric

[Zendesigner]

hi all and sting

visa and the rest is no problem as i'm married to a thai national. i have a non o for a year.

as i not even get a reply here how to go about it the best way , it is getting more and more obvious most people here just don't want to tell you as you probably mean competition to them in the long run.

As i not decided the way to go yet, there are also some other options open to me besides find work in a company, maybe i'll start my own again or work for foreign company's through the internet.

if thailand doesn't pann out after a few months i'll relocate again to more westernized structures like singapore or hong kong.

Work and money and enterprise can be found anywere so i doubt it it would not work out in thailand if you really push for it. In the end the lord buddha will provide you with what you have coming to you

just sorry to find that most members here just limit there comment to " it's hard, why don't stay at home"  type of thing.

thanks to the people who go out of their way to supply a newcomer with some info.

By the way not every new person looking for a job is of the kind that wants to sit in beer bars every night and comes to LOS for that reason alone. ???

greetings

Bart

[LPCustom69]

Hey Zendesigner -- I think that it is hard to find a good job in Thailand unless you just get lucky, you know the right place at the right time. There may be some resentment to someone offering competition, but I really don't detect that. Just remember that sometimes the answer to a question about a job that you asked may be read by hundreds of individuals and their friends co-workers etc after it's printed. So I feel that it may be somewhat safer not to give too much to someone who isn't even in-country yet.

    They don't want to pay farangs what they are worth, so be prepared for that. I think once you get there and network some, it may improve. I'm going to go the teacher route to guarantee a small in-country salary while I look, to go along with my other income. Good luck!

 :cool:

[sting01]

hi Zen,

I am french, my english suck, maybe it's why it's hard to understand me.

If I stay here (LOs) since 18 month, that mean it's not HARD to survive, but as you said it's necessary to be strong, and have some ideas.

A point is, they have (thai personn) a culture who dislike the changement. They are not innovative.

Someone who is innovative and entrepreneurial, and who have some money in more (key word also) wcan have a very good life in LOS. I know some exemples of farangs who success here, and it's not complicate.

In IT field, our filed, there is many opportunities who exist. After to make this opportunities reallity. Yet, the security level about ISP don't exist really, in more the governement try to build a firewall, agains porn site or other "tendencious" site, last 6 month the government have selling some 100 000 computers at low price for the non wealthy people, the OS is Linux ....

Many opportunities, and trust me that make me sick to don't have the money enough to take these opportunities. My daily life is spending to do work for peanuts, because I must pay my bills, buy food ...

But if you have money enough, some millions of bath, and can wait the time to contact the different organisation/firms, then you can succes without doubt.

In more, I am sorry if I am not more precise, but I try to keep some ideas for myself, as with the cellphone network (big boom here about cellphone), about the security of the governemental ofices (IT secu),about Linux also (a strong community exist here, but I never get the time to meet, alas).

If you need more infos, mail me, maybe can I given to you some precise view about what it's possible to do here.

Best regards

Eric

[Zendesigner]

hi Zen,

I am french, my english suck, maybe it's why it's hard to understand me.

If I stay here (LOs) since 18 month, that mean it's not HARD to survive, but as you said it's necessary to be strong, and have some ideas.

A point is, they have (thai personn) a culture who dislike the changement. They are not innovative.

Someone who is innovative and entrepreneurial, and who have some money in more (key word also) wcan have a very good life in LOS. I know some exemples of farangs who success here, and it's not complicate.

In IT field, our filed, there is many opportunities who exist. After to make this opportunities reallity. Yet, the security level about ISP don't exist really, in more the governement try to build a firewall, agains porn site or other "tendencious" site, last 6 month the government have selling some 100 000 computers at low price for the non wealthy people, the OS is Linux ....

Many opportunities, and trust me that make me sick to don't have the money enough to take these opportunities. My daily life is spending to do work for peanuts, because I must pay my bills, buy food ...

But if you have money enough, some millions of bath, and can wait the time to contact the different organisation/firms, then you can succes without doubt.

hi sting ,

i didn't mean that i did not get an answer from you because you'r englisch is bad  . I'm sure nobody notices much there as even native speakers start to speak bamboo englisch there.

I know i wont get the same salary as in the western world, but the cost of living is lower also. Compared to that maybe i earn even more in thailand then i do in belgium at the moment.

i was offered a job 6 months ago for the amount of 54000 bath monthly which translated in to netto profit was more then i would make in belgium. the only reason i din't take it was that destoying my biz here in belgium was still a step to big at that time. it's slowly destoying it self at the moment due to the recession in europe and the heavy social taxes i have to pay , so i decided to quit and come to thailand after all.

the only thing that i still haven't gotten a reply for is how to apply for a job the best way.

Email

Regular mail

uninvited personal visit

or knowing somebody that know somebody.

Hey Zendesigner -- I think that it is hard to find a good job in Thailand unless you just get lucky, you know the right place at the right time. There may be some resentment to someone offering competition, but I really don't detect that. Just remember that sometimes the answer to a question about a job that you asked may be read by hundreds of individuals and their friends co-workers etc after it's printed. So I feel that it may be somewhat safer not to give too much to someone who isn't even in-country yet.

   They don't want to pay farangs what they are worth, so be prepared for that. I think once you get there and network some, it may improve. I'm going to go the teacher route to guarantee a small in-country salary while I look, to go along with my other income. Good luck!

Hi LP

thanks for your answer   I was just annoyed at some answers in another thread i have , that always make the same jokes without giving any real info. I also know it is forum related because everybody asks the same thing every two months , so answers can get bland.

I just feel that if you need to network the first networks you can establish are the ones with the people of your own kind who have the same problem, then the rest will follow.

i will be arriving in LOS on august the first and will need to make it work anyway. So i'll see what happens  

thanks

bart

[sting01]

or knowing somebody that know somebody

this is the best in my opinion.

your network must be made by both expats ( be wise about who) and thai.

hope that can help Zen

Best regards Eric