Looking for jobs in Thailand?

I receive around 15 emails a week with a CV and a covering letter where some person is basically telling me they are God’s gift to my business and well, this bit is brilliant, they tell me ; ‘how they are ‘prepared to live in Thailand’

I must get an amount on par with recruitment agencies for work, I think the amount I receive is down to me being an online marketing agency in Thailand and they see my posts quite a lot then they are thinking  ‘wow a guy who works online on the beach, that’s where I want to be’. However, here is a very gentle (as gentle as I can be) kick in the nuts!

It took me 7 years of hard graft living on the real breadline (real breadline as in G/F pays the rent and you live off Jok,( insipid Thai soup), for a week or two). Sure I came here with cash, so does everyone, but that never lasts as long as you think! I have had to return back to Europe many times to work, after some project in Thailand didn’t work out, which cost me a few years  of time and money only to start again trying to make an original mistake!

‘Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn’

 The amount of expats who arrive here and are determined to find work and leave after around 2 years and are back at work in Europe, never to return, and dismiss the idea of business in South East Asia, is astonishing to be frank!  Well, there are always three fingers looking back at you when you point a finger!

Again the old adage is:

‘You are only a loser if you quit!’

There are three types of people who come to Thailand and in my experience of just over ten years it’s never changed.

The first type are the expatriates who were transferred here from their companies back home, to either set up or grow the Asia Pacific market, or bring their technical expertise mainly to Chonburi or Hat yai offshore projects in the Petro chemical Industries. Around these people you will see the financial advisors in abundance as these lucky people are earning around $2,000-$4,000 and more tax free each month, with kids at private schools. Sounds the dream life huh?

Most I speak to don’t get away from their jobs much, and those that do are really dreading the day the contract ends. The saddest little expat is the one at networking events who has just finished his contract is desperate to stay in Thailand with his new cutie he’s met, and has just had a stroke when he hears how TEFL teachers live!

The second types are the TEFL teachers who earn around B25, 000-40,000 Thai Baht a month, they live cheaply and they are mostly quite a happy lot, mostly in the twenties discovering the world and new cultures. They know exactly how much beer is in the seven Eleven convenience store, and a bar girl can spot them a mile off as being keenio (A Thai term for not being too liberal with their money) They are not often short of work as they have a strong network on social media, and can usually find work quickly and stay here for a good year or two.

The rest well; here is a motley crew made up of people spending their rent they get from home or their savings. They are here on Education Visas or multiple entry Tourist visas, trying to find a way to stay here, and everyone has the next best business idea, to set up a company, then when they have made it, Roberts your fathers brother and they spend the rest of their lives on the beach. Well that’s the dream! The dream however is so far removed from reality for so many.

 There are so many who live in South East Asia who sell goods online. I have a friend who runs market stalls in UK and on E Bay who then comes here for 3-6 months, spends a few hours a day buying goods to ship to UK. The rest of the time he’s on the beach and eating out and partying every night! Temper that with the 3-6 months he works every day in UK in all weather.

This group are all self-made Thai attorneys (Or at least they think they are, they have read enough stuff on Thai Visa website to be one) who know exactly how much it is to set up a company here in Thailand, and how many Thai nominees you need to be able to buy property. They set up business with their new idea, well they think it’s a new idea until their business plan is full of holes like not enough research and the Thai bureaucracy is killing them softly with the hidden fees and in some cases the kick backs.

The biggest kick in the pants is when these poor souls who live in Europe, read about what I pay for my rent and realise my overheads are less than their laundry bill, and they send me a CV and are hopeful they can just get off the plane and start getting $1000 a month plus which would be like getting $5000 a month back in Europe. Kiyoaski said keep assets high and Liabilities low, and right now a newbie just arrived, after a holiday in Samui last year, armed with a CV, is a massive liability to any business here!

Listen up:

Unless you have an amazing skill that comes under the skill sets that a Thai national cannot do, for a third of the price you do, you are extremely unlikely to get a job! in Thailand

your work permit will cost any business here in Thailand three other Thai people’s salary, so they have to employ three other Thais just to have you, think about it; You are going to have to be a very special person before any foreign run company even opens your CV!

If you think you can just open up a lap top and run a business, I fear you may be a few years too late! All the top domains have gone for Internet business and the online market for business in Thailand is fierce.

Fierce yes, but not impossible.

To see what advice I offer to online business start-ups, try my online marketing blog for Thailand business