Graphic Designer In Chiang Mai

[brennanstimpy]

My friend, who is actually a luk kreung, but an American, is interested in moving to Chiang Mai. He is a graphic designer and is very good with lots of experience. Is it even possible for him to get a job here? or are there laws against farangs getting that kind of a job? and if it is possible, where?

This is his online portfolio:

http://www.ewmea.org/embeeportfolio/

[Drew Aitch]

Hi Brennanstimpy

Usually, the law protects the local workforce, meaning if a Thai can do a job, then a foreigner can't. As most things there maybe loopholes for legal work such as a specific skill that cannot be found locally. But surely your friend's skills mean he can work remotely for anyone, doesn't it?

Aitch

[satiariyan]

The situation isn't that the Chiang Mai area is desperately awaiting yet another unique web design talent - there already are about a million of such talents advertizing allover including on Thaivisa forums with sleepy moderators. The question isn't whether your promotee can get a job, but rather how small a salary he'll accept.

[brennanstimpy]

Hi Brennanstimpy

Usually, the law protects the local workforce, meaning if a Thai can do a job, then a foreigner can't. As most things there maybe loopholes for legal work such as a specific skill that cannot be found locally. But surely your friend's skills mean he can work remotely for anyone, doesn't it?

Aitch

It does indeed

[brennanstimpy]

The situation isn't that the Chiang Mai area is desperately awaiting yet another unique web design talent - there already are about a million of such talents advertizing allover including on Thaivisa forums with sleepy moderators. The question isn't whether your promotee can get a job, but rather how small a salary he'll accept.

I don't have a clue what a good graphic designer would make here.

[ASHTONITE]

Average salary in CM for Graphic Designer and Programmer is about 10,000 THB per month... if they are really good and have exceptional talent... 15,000. But most companies pay between 10-12.

Best bet is freelance work... will be hard pressed to find a local company to hire him...

[Sao Jiang Mai]

If he is not a Thai citizen, then frankly there are few companies would take on the burden of work permits and high salary. If he has Thai citizenship then fine. If he is that good and gets to manager position the the salary would be at least double or insome cases tripple of the above mentioned. There are some businesses like The Good VIew and some hotels that hire in house designers, he may be luckier there. But once again they are few. Companies would probably not hire in this climate, but as someone mentioned, go freelance. Many farang like working with farang, so maybe he can get in that way.

[brennanstimpy]

Average salary in CM for Graphic Designer and Programmer is about 10,000 THB per month... if they are really good and have exceptional talent... 15,000. But most companies pay between 10-12.

Best bet is freelance work... will be hard pressed to find a local company to hire him...

What kind of a visa would he have to have to do freelance work?

[Ciaphas]

Or he could still work for his American clients but live in Thailand.

[Sao Jiang Mai]

legally? he has to probably have a title of manager to get a work permit, as any job that competes with Thai is not allowed a work permit, but perhaps manager title would help. And yes, he can work for his American clients, live here, but he will not be working legally. So many people do it anyway, he just has to do the visa runs...

[Drew Aitch]

It sounds like he wants to work for and sell his services to the local market, but a graphic designer can sit at home alone and sell to anyone, anywhere in the world if they're both good and competitive. Picture this; He's in Thailand, his business site is most likely hosted on US servers, his clients are global, and his payment methods are PayPal and Credit Card.

He will probably already know this, but one place to display his portfolio and tout for business worldwide is on the Digital Point forums, but there are of course many other popular places.

Graphic designers, in my experience, are a little bit like web designers and web developers. They all promote how good they are, but in reality very few can deliver results of exceptional standards. Meaning, if he's really good, he'll always find clients no matter where in the world he's situated.

Aitch

Edited February 6, 2009 by Drew Aitch

[ollylama]

as a former professional graphic designer i'd say your friend should do whatever he can to get some regular freelance gigs he can do through the internet and then come live here and email the work back home.

the point being that in the west any kind of skilled labor can fetch very high pay, whereas here "time" cannot actually be called anything approximating "money". there are loads of talented young folks willing to work for a tiny fraction of what they'd pay at home, and the quality of work here is superb compared to the average graphic designer in the states (anyone with a mac thinks they're a graphic designer these days). never mind the legal issues.

but with the advent of the internet it doesn't matter much where you live - it's easy to send stuff via the internet. i myself did that for a while years ago. the disparity between my incoming cash flow and cost of living here was very pleasing.

better yet, have your friend land a huge job and then tell him to come here and start a graphic design sweatshop!