Finding IT work in Thailand

[Vaughan Green]

Hello, I'm new here so not sure if this is the right forum, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm an IT guy with over 40 years experience in the field.

I want to marry a Thai lady (my fiancee) and live in Bangkok.

Will I be able to find IT work (English speaking) or would I have to start my own business and employ Thais in order to be able to work in Bangkok?

Many thanks

Vaughan

[beano2274]

if a thai can do the same job then you will find it hard, what specific skills can you provide. Can you speak Thai?

Look at opening your own business, if you have the required money and can employ 2 thais.

[Guest]

My empirical advice is to have a company outside of the country, where you can really own your company, if it comes to that.

In Thailand you can own 49% of your company. For IT sector companies you should seek a country where you be the real owner of your investment.

I had a company providing IT services in Thailand for the past 6 years. I paid all the taxes and the social feeds of my employees, I never met. I never felt that I was never on the top of my own company.

So if you are one of the people who wish to abuse the system, then go ahead and start your own company. However if you are the type of the people who would like to be part of the society, forget it. As a nice person, You'll never be approved.

[balo]

Most IT guys work online these days. Digital nomads they call us.

[Crossy]

To our OP.

What are your actual skills? "IT" covers such a vast job market that one has to be rather more specific than just "IT".

There are positions for expats but they can be very niche market.

With 40 years in the game you ought to have a broad base of knowledge and skills, eminently employable but you'll need to give us a little more information.

[manarak]

To our OP.

What are your actual skills? "IT" covers such a vast job market that one has to be rather more specific than just "IT".

There are positions for expats but they can be very niche market.

With 40 years in the game you ought to have a broad base of knowledge and skills, eminently employable but you'll need to give us a little more information.

40 years of experience could also be AS400, mainframe and cobol...

[Mudcrab]

Most IT guys work online these days. Digital nomads they call us.

Amongst other things

[Vaughan Green]

To our OP.

What are your actual skills? "IT" covers such a vast job market that one has to be rather more specific than just "IT".

There are positions for expats but they can be very niche market.

With 40 years in the game you ought to have a broad base of knowledge and skills, eminently employable but you'll need to give us a little more information.

40 years of experience could also be AS400, mainframe and cobol...

Thanks for your replies, chaps. I've done the lot over my 40 years: 5 years in operations, then from '81 onwards, analysing and programming in Cobol, Fortran, Adabas/Natural, Lotus Notes/Domino (25 years on that, still current), and for the past 2 years migrating to Sharepoint/Office 365 (which is growing rapidly and the place to be right now, seemingly). Most of this time was spent freelancing, I've worked long spells at over 10 different companies, including Banking and insurance, manufacturing, consultancies.

Along the way learned how to Project Manage, and have good 'soft skills' and communication.

I don't speak Thai but I couldn't find a job in an English-speaking office I had planned to employ a good bilingual developer/sales person and let my wife own the 51% company.

I'd apply directly but it's hard to find out these days what platforms companies develop on, back in the day you could refer to the Computer Users' Year Book but now you have to rely on Agencies (spit).

[MobileContent]

Its no longer that easy to find IT or software development jobs in Thailand. What is currently needed are developers that are familiar with the PCI DSS standards and their seem to be a shortage of Thai's in this field.

My suggestion would be to look outside of Thailand.

I have been working in the Thai Software industry for over 2 decades and yearly billings dropped from 7 million Baht in 2012 to just 850,000 so far this year. I do have to be honest that my Singapore company only works with expatriate management and we never deal with local Thai companies but the billings outside of Thailand (licencing fees).

As to your post you should only setup a company if you actually can land some good contracts. I know many many software companies in Thailand that were run and managed by expats but many shut down. The one still in business are very unique and focus mainly on SAP and ERP projects.

Good luck

[gandalf12]

if a thai can do the same job then you will find it hard, what specific skills can you provide. Can you speak Thai?

Look at opening your own business, if you have the required money and can employ 2 thais.

One of his specific skills is possibly that he can actually do IT, have not found anyone in Thailand who can get past the basics

[Aussie69]

Most IT guys work online these days. Digital nomads they call us.

Personally I don't class IT people as Digital Nomads. I think of a Digital Nomad someone who does online work and moves around a lot; kinda like the merge of a blogger (reviewing the same coffee shop for 1000th time) & a twatpacker.

IT people are professionals who's work just happens to be mostly online these days, and has opportunity to perform it anywhere.

[Berkshire]

If you truly have strong IT skills (and current), you may be able to find jobs in government or universities. The pay won't be huge, but it's certainly possible. As another poster said, there are Thais that can do IT work and do it for less. Your selling point would be strong English skills...but the need is more of a niche sort of thing.

[ecline]

I have also been in IT in Thailand for the last 20 years. I have never had trouble getting work. But you need to network and develop contacts with people in the industry. If you don't need to land a job as soon as you arrive, then you can take the time to meet people in IT here and put the word out that you are available. Obviously, the more people you know, the better chance you will find something up your street that pays a decent wage.

If you really have good project management skills, I would shop those around first. There is plenty of work here. As anywhere else these days, universities are simply not producing enough qualified IT and computer science people to satisfy demand. It certainly isn't super easy breaking into the industry here, but it can be done. A solid skill set in project management or a current, in-demand technology is what will get you in. Good luck!

[Vaughan Green]

I have also been in IT in Thailand for the last 20 years. I have never had trouble getting work. But you need to network and develop contacts with people in the industry. If you don't need to land a job as soon as you arrive, then you can take the time to meet people in IT here and put the word out that you are available. Obviously, the more people you know, the better chance you will find something up your street that pays a decent wage.

If you really have good project management skills, I would shop those around first. There is plenty of work here. As anywhere else these days, universities are simply not producing enough qualified IT and computer science people to satisfy demand. It certainly isn't super easy breaking into the industry here, but it can be done. A solid skill set in project management or a current, in-demand technology is what will get you in. Good luck!

Thanks for that, at last a bit of positivity :-) Could you recommend to me any agencies and agents in particular who could help me please?

My current plan is to take a TEFL course and try to get an English teaching job for when I arrive. I'm told that it's hard to get one without a degree, but I know for a fact that there are many English teachers out there without even the TEFL. Maybe it's just got harder in the past few years.

[singa-traz]

If you have lotus notes to Sharepoint experiences, you could sell you skills to a few companies here, or approach any Microsoft partners for this.

To our OP.

What are your actual skills? "IT" covers such a vast job market that one has to be rather more specific than just "IT".

There are positions for expats but they can be very niche market.

With 40 years in the game you ought to have a broad base of knowledge and skills, eminently employable but you'll need to give us a little more information.

40 years of experience could also be AS400, mainframe and cobol...

Thanks for your replies, chaps. I've done the lot over my 40 years: 5 years in operations, then from '81 onwards, analysing and programming in Cobol, Fortran, Adabas/Natural, Lotus Notes/Domino (25 years on that, still current), and for the past 2 years migrating to Sharepoint/Office 365 (which is growing rapidly and the place to be right now, seemingly). Most of this time was spent freelancing, I've worked long spells at over 10 different companies, including Banking and insurance, manufacturing, consultancies.

Along the way learned how to Project Manage, and have good 'soft skills' and communication.

I don't speak Thai but I couldn't find a job in an English-speaking office I had planned to employ a good bilingual developer/sales person and let my wife own the 51% company.

I'd apply directly but it's hard to find out these days what platforms companies develop on, back in the day you could refer to the Computer Users' Year Book but now you have to rely on Agencies (spit).

[ghworker2010]

40 yrs in I.T and you still need to work. I feel sorry for you no offence. You should be a multi millionaire by now. Why would you want to get involved in I.T again after all this time in a country that you might not fully understand....

[2fishin2]

40 yrs in I.T and you still need to work. I feel sorry for you no offence. You should be a multi millionaire by now. Why would you want to get involved in I.T again after all this time in a country that you might not fully understand....

Great post bud....

[bearpolar]

As you are an older gentleman i urge you to read around before thinking of giving a woman 51% of your company

Work outside of the country untill you can retire, if your woman is of any decent calibre(by that i mean that she would not steal everything you have) she should be able to come live with you until you can afford to move to bangkok together

or keep freelancing online

on a side note, i would suggest you contact a lot of international and private school to offer to work part time for them, you could probably find enough IT works in the school industry to get a good salary.

Edited July 10, 2016 by bearpolar

[Lannig]

I've worked in the IT field in Thailand for 8 years or so (I don't anymore, back to my home country)

I think that if you want to find a job in a Thai company, you do need to speak (at least) and possibly write Thai.

I certainly couldn't have got my job if I didn't.

It's really hard to get hired by a Thai company. It took me almost a year to find a job despite the fact that I had skills that were really hard to find in Thailand then (probably still are). Hiring a foreigner is a real hassle and many people from mid-management at least are very much prejudiced against this (sometimes for good reasons, there's a story I've already told here on TVF).

Also, at some point I have recently considered coming back to Thailand and I spoke to one of my former colleagues who's now the tech director at one of the major Thai ISPs. He basically said "you're over 50 now, no way you'll find a job". Harsh to hear, but true I'm afraid.

[Vaughan Green]

As you are an older gentleman i urge you to read around before thinking of giving a woman 51% of your company

Work outside of the country untill you can retire, if your woman is of any decent calibre(by that i mean that she would not steal everything you have) she should be able to come live with you until you can afford to move to bangkok together

or keep freelancing online

on a side note, i would suggest you contact a lot of international and private school to offer to work part time for them, you could probably find enough IT works in the school industry to get a good salary.

Thanks for the heads up, but I am appraised of the dangers of such a large step to take, and have been undertaking extensive research. I would not embark on that course of action until I was completely sure it was the right thing to do, maybe 2 or 3 years down the line, hence the 'work as a TEFL teacher first' which would give me plenty of time to sound out the environment.

Right now I'm going to put out feelers with my intended's family and friends who work in business out there, a bit of networking always comes in handy.

[Vaughan Green]

As you are an older gentleman i urge you to read around before thinking of giving a woman 51% of your company

Work outside of the country untill you can retire, if your woman is of any decent calibre(by that i mean that she would not steal everything you have) she should be able to come live with you until you can afford to move to bangkok together

or keep freelancing online

on a side note, i would suggest you contact a lot of international and private school to offer to work part time for them, you could probably find enough IT works in the school industry to get a good salary.

Thanks for the suggestions, I am keeping all my options open for now, I still think the best way forward is for her to come and live in the UK, but there's a hell of a lot of expense and ball-ache dealing with the Embassy before that can happen, plus the fact she'd have to countenance her kids moving out of her ex-husband's house (which he's still paying for) to go and live with him and his mother. Theirs was a pretty acrimonious split, unfortunately :-/

Edited July 10, 2016 by Vaughan Green

[Vaughan Green]

I've worked in the IT field in Thailand for 8 years or so (I don't anymore, back to my home country)

I think that if you want to find a job in a Thai company, you do need to speak (at least) and possibly write Thai.

I certainly couldn't have got my job if I didn't.

It's really hard to get hired by a Thai company. It took me almost a year to find a job despite the fact that I had skills that were really hard to find in Thailand then (probably still are). Hiring a foreigner is a real hassle and many people from mid-management at least are very much prejudiced against this (sometimes for good reasons, there's a story I've already told here on TVF).

Also, at some point I have recently considered coming back to Thailand and I spoke to one of my former colleagues who's now the tech director at one of the major Thai ISPs. He basically said "you're over 50 now, no way you'll find a job". Harsh to hear, but true I'm afraid.

I think maybe my mileage may vary with yours, in my time it's always seemed to me that if you have in-depth niche skills (like maintaining legacy code that nobody else wants to touch) then you'll always get a job somewhere. The best IT managers look beyond youth and skill and go for age and treachery ;-)

[ecline]

I have also been in IT in Thailand for the last 20 years. I have never had trouble getting work. But you need to network and develop contacts with people in the industry. If you don't need to land a job as soon as you arrive, then you can take the time to meet people in IT here and put the word out that you are available. Obviously, the more people you know, the better chance you will find something up your street that pays a decent wage.

If you really have good project management skills, I would shop those around first. There is plenty of work here. As anywhere else these days, universities are simply not producing enough qualified IT and computer science people to satisfy demand. It certainly isn't super easy breaking into the industry here, but it can be done. A solid skill set in project management or a current, in-demand technology is what will get you in. Good luck!

Thanks for that, at last a bit of positivity :-) Could you recommend to me any agencies and agents in particular who could help me please?

My current plan is to take a TEFL course and try to get an English teaching job for when I arrive. I'm told that it's hard to get one without a degree, but I know for a fact that there are many English teachers out there without even the TEFL. Maybe it's just got harder in the past few years.

Well, without a degree you may find it difficult to come by quality I.T. work. Not impossible to find something I suppose. The company I work for almost never hires anyone (Thai or expat) without a degree. Technically it is not a requirement for a work permit, so if you can convince an outfit to hire you it should be OK. I don't know anything about agencies. You could try developing contacts on LinkedIn maybe. I get hit up on there by one company or another from time to time.

[Vaughan Green]

I have also been in IT in Thailand for the last 20 years. I have never had trouble getting work. But you need to network and develop contacts with people in the industry. If you don't need to land a job as soon as you arrive, then you can take the time to meet people in IT here and put the word out that you are available. Obviously, the more people you know, the better chance you will find something up your street that pays a decent wage.

If you really have good project management skills, I would shop those around first. There is plenty of work here. As anywhere else these days, universities are simply not producing enough qualified IT and computer science people to satisfy demand. It certainly isn't super easy breaking into the industry here, but it can be done. A solid skill set in project management or a current, in-demand technology is what will get you in. Good luck!

Thanks for that, at last a bit of positivity :-) Could you recommend to me any agencies and agents in particular who could help me please?

My current plan is to take a TEFL course and try to get an English teaching job for when I arrive. I'm told that it's hard to get one without a degree, but I know for a fact that there are many English teachers out there without even the TEFL. Maybe it's just got harder in the past few years.

Well, without a degree you may find it difficult to come by quality I.T. work. Not impossible to find something I suppose. The company I work for almost never hires anyone (Thai or expat) without a degree. Technically it is not a requirement for a work permit, so if you can convince an outfit to hire you it should be OK. I don't know anything about agencies. You could try developing contacts on LinkedIn maybe. I get hit up on there by one company or another from time to time.

Thanks for that. I'll work on my LinkedIn, I have had an an account on there for a few years but probably need to bit the bullet and cough up the dosh (it's not a cheap site).

[Vaughan Green]

I have also been in IT in Thailand for the last 20 years. I have never had trouble getting work. But you need to network and develop contacts with people in the industry. If you don't need to land a job as soon as you arrive, then you can take the time to meet people in IT here and put the word out that you are available. Obviously, the more people you know, the better chance you will find something up your street that pays a decent wage.

If you really have good project management skills, I would shop those around first. There is plenty of work here. As anywhere else these days, universities are simply not producing enough qualified IT and computer science people to satisfy demand. It certainly isn't super easy breaking into the industry here, but it can be done. A solid skill set in project management or a current, in-demand technology is what will get you in. Good luck!

Thanks for that, at last a bit of positivity :-) Could you recommend to me any agencies and agents in particular who could help me please?

My current plan is to take a TEFL course and try to get an English teaching job for when I arrive. I'm told that it's hard to get one without a degree, but I know for a fact that there are many English teachers out there without even the TEFL. Maybe it's just got harder in the past few years.

Well, without a degree you may find it difficult to come by quality I.T. work. Not impossible to find something I suppose. The company I work for almost never hires anyone (Thai or expat) without a degree. Technically it is not a requirement for a work permit, so if you can convince an outfit to hire you it should be OK. I don't know anything about agencies. You could try developing contacts on LinkedIn maybe. I get hit up on there by one company or another from time to time.

In my experience, if your interviewer has any harsh experience of recruiting graduates who talk a good talk but don't deliver, if you can offer decades of hard-won experience in the real world, that is worth more than a MSc in Computer Science from Cambridge with a distinction :-)

However other countries such as Thailand may have a different attitude, I will have to wait and see.

Good news that a work permit can be obviated, gives me hope. Thanks again.

[Chicog]

Get into InfoSec, most of them do not have a clue.

[MikeyIdea]

I started up my first small IT company in Bangkok back in '93, I got lucky in '97 and got a consulting job with a big American multinational company and became a locally hired permanent employee in 2000 and I'm still there.

It was really hard work building up a new life from scratch, really hard. I could do it when I was in my twenties but I'm not so sure I could do it now. I doubt starting up your own company without contacts will work. No degree isn't a door stopper when you're 60 but not sure your skills are matching what's needed here either

3 options to explore:

1) If you are a native English speaker: Online teaching of anyone in the world, pays 400 baht an hour or so, probably need to fake a BA

2) Head hunter IT companies and let them take 25 - 30%. They won't give work permit

3) Take online programming jobs. That's probably the easiest path for you. Shouldn't be too difficult to beat the money the other options give

Good Luck

Edited July 22, 2016 by MikeyIdea

[Vaughan Green]

I started up my first small IT company in Bangkok back in '93, I got lucky in '97 and got a consulting job with a big American multinational company and became a locally hired permanent employee in 2000 and I'm still there.

It was really hard work building up a new life from scratch, really hard. I could do it when I was in my twenties but I'm not so sure I could do it now. I doubt starting up your own company without contacts will work. No degree isn't a door stopper when you're 60 but not sure your skills are matching what's needed here either

3 options to explore:

1) If you are a native English speaker: Online teaching of anyone in the world, pays 400 baht an hour or so, probably need to fake a BA

2) Head hunter IT companies and let them take 25 - 30%. They won't give work permit

3) Take online programming jobs. That's probably the easiest path for you. Shouldn't be too difficult to beat the money the other options give

Good Luck

Thanks for this. I had never anticipated an easy ride, and in part my optimism about finding work in Thailand is based on a friend who was headhunted for a job at Thai Farmers Bank (co-incidentally, in 1997). The lucky sod was paid UK contract rates and lived the live of Reilly in a penthouse apartment in Sukhamvit. Maybe westerners were more flavour-of-the-month then, at a time when there were fewer trained-up Indians to do the work cheaply.

As for your 3 options,

1. you're suggesting teaching via Skype / Webex? I would of course get myself a TEFL certificate first so that I know the basics.

2. I expect that my skillset is not of the kind to at the top of a headhunters 'wanted' list right now, so would have to give that one a miss

3. Would be very grateful for any pointers to job sites - a 20 minute Google didn't yield anything too promising

Kind regards

Vaughan

[Vaughan Green]

Get into InfoSec, most of them do not have a clue.

Yes, this :-)

Same situation exists in the UK...

[Vaughan Green]

OK, one year on... my job here in the UK has finished and I am now in a position to spend time out in Bangkok settling in and making contacts.

 

Last time I went over back in April, I paid a visit to the Microsoft Offices. The receptionist spoke no English, and I was surprised to see no westerners there.

 

I introduced myself in a polite and positive fashion (as one would in the UK or anywhere in Europe)  and asked the bloke who eventually shuffled out from an office if he could give me a list of Microsoft partners in the city.

 

He looked at me contemptuously and said "I believe our sales people may have such a list, but I doubt they would share it with you".

 

So, I walked out of there pretty disheartened, to say the least. It seems that they want jobs for Thais only, and are completely against any farangs wanting to come in and help them out. This would seem to me to be a pretty destructive and negative attitude, and I wonder if the guys at Redmond area aware of how their products are being promoted in other countries.