category archive: Work in Asia

Writing about work

Saturday, 17 Mar 2007 | Work in Asia

I have never written in great detail about what was happening in my job search, who I had met and who I was talking to, because I felt it might hurt my chances. Many people when they get my email address ask me what ‘thirtyone.com’ is and most likely even more people google it. Imagine someone finding an article in which I describe what an awful person I thought he was when I met him at a networking event a few days before.

Similarly, I will not be writing in anything but broad lines about my job. I would like to share my experiences with you, but too many people have been getting fired for writing about their work on the web. Obviously I don’t want this to happen to me, so for now you will have to consult me through e-mail or instant messaging if I’m not telling you enough about whats going on.

I might somehow try and find a solution for it. I might write about something in an article, but not publish details in the web version. Only those who subscribe via email will get that information. I might password protect such articles on my site. Or I might decide to set up an anonymous site somewhere else on which I write about my work experiences. Or, I might simply keep this a private matter. Writing is a nice thing to do and it helps me in processing stuff, but some things are best left private. If you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Scouting trips explained

Tuesday, 6 Feb 2007 | Work in Asia

All these trips I am planning to make to a lot of different countries in the course of this year, are mostly what I call ‘scouting trips’. The purpose of these trips is to scout out the county and meet some people. How do I do that? Easy, prepare as best I can and just go and see what happens.

• Start with researching the general economy of a country, read up on current affairs and news.
  
  
• Then I start looking for networking events. There are specific networking organisations in most cities that have monthly or even weekly events to attend. These are a little more difficult to find, because their name can be pretty much anything.
  
  
• Easier is the full range of events organised by many represented countries. Each country of origin pretty much has the same setup, an embassy or consulat, a chamber of commerce representation, a business association (sometimes these two are combined) and a social club. So it’s just a matter of looking for them on the web, locating the events calendar or sending an email to ask for events. I personally do this with the following range of countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Singapore, United Kingdom, United States and ofcourse the Netherlands. Criteria? My country of origin, its surrounding countries and English speaking countries with large groups of people in Asia.
  
  
• After that I look if there are some interesting organisations I might want to go and visit. They would typically be in my field or profession, such as for instance the Project Management Institute. Even if they don’t have any events, it might be worth to go and have a chat.
  
  
• Finally, I look at the conference calendar and see if there is anything worth attending.
  
  
• And finally, perhaps there are people in my current network who have some contacts for me to talk in the city I’m flying to?
• Based on all gathered data, I decide on a week for me to be somewhere. I try to find the cheapest flights available for that week and make a schedule based on those flights and the things I have to do. If need be, I change the flights.
  
• The hotel is picked by looking at the first destination of each day. Locate a hotel somewhere in the middle and you’re all set to go!
  

Please remember that if you decide to do it this way, there should always be space in the schedule to meet these people or have a coffee with people I meet while attending the scheduled events.

Where am I looking

Monday, 5 Feb 2007 | Work in Asia

While I have written about it before, people tend to forget that even though I’m living in Thailand I’m not limiting my search for employment to this country. My search area covers East Asia and Southeast Asia.

Here are the countries in the covered areas and how I perceive my chances there.

Mainland China, Hong Kong (China), Singapore, Malaysia

These countries are the main focus of my search for employment. I hope to visit each of them a couple of times this year and think in the end I will most likely end up in one of them. Especially Hong Kong and Singapore have a strong economy going, China and Malaysia are both rapidly growing as we all know. All of these countries are also known to be rather friendly to westerners.

Taiwan (China), South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam

What these countries have in common is that the corporate world is not as open to westerners as one would hope. Especially the first three all have booming economies and are commonly known to be heavy into the tech sector, one of the sectors I am more likely to find employment. I will visit each of these countries at least once this year (Thailand more often, har har), because one never knows. They are incredibly interesting and appealing to me from a cultural and professional perspective.

Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei

These countries, however interesting and challenging they might be, are places I think the chances of me landing a job are fairly limited. I don’t intend to actively go out and search for something in these countries. But should I meet someone by chance and be given a good lead, who knows. I am not opposed to working in these countries at all.

Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, North Korea, Mongolia

In none of these countries will I be able to find interesting and challenging work, nor do I want to find anything there.

What I’m doing to find employment

Monday, 22 Jan 2007 | Work in Asia

One of the questions a lot of people ask me when I talk to them is how the job hunt is going. While it is one of the things I have early on decided I would not keep a journal about on this website, as I feel it not polite and it perhaps would have a negative influence. I have indeed been working on getting a job and have recently decided to step up that effort as well.

Acquisition

The first step each and every time is ‘lead acquisition’. After all, I’m simply trying to sell myself. I try to get these leads from a few different sources.

One of the most important sources for actual openings is regularly reading the classifieds in the newspapers. Most of them publish their classifieds online as well as in the actual newspaper. Thats why, even when living in Bangkok, its still fairly easy to read the classifieds for Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post and Singapore’s Straits Times.

Although seemingly bigger in the west than they are here, executive searchers are still a major player in the job market. And because these firms are hired to fill high-end positions, they make an interesting source of opportunities. I will be selecting a few respected ones and introduce myself by sending them an open application letter.

The most time consuming but also most fun part of my effort however, is networking. I have an existing network in the west which I try to use. But in addition, I attend events where I will be able to meet new people. Networking events, business functions and perhaps even trade shows and exhibitions make for good opportunities. It’s always great to meet new people, perhaps it is not those people who will be looking for someone like me. But maybe it is their friends, or the friends of their friends. And the fun thing is, everybody is there for that exact reason. So, while there is an etiquette involved, there is no shame in ‘plugging’ yourself. It will help someone determine who to introduce you to, which will help you on your way.

Follow-up

And after I get a good lead, which means there is certainly an opportunity for a job somewhere, I go to the next step of ‘follow-up’. These are pretty basic activities, but perhaps the most important of all to ‘close the deal’.

Writing letters is important. And a lot of thought goes into each and every one I send out the door. This goes for the open applications I mentioned before, as well as applications for a specific job. They of course can’t be too long, so I have to try and make every word count as much as possible. Writing a coverletter as well as customizing my resume (changing the emphasis slightly) for each application I feel is very important.

And of course I will be meeting people. Either because I met that person at an event somewhere, somebody referred me to them or because they invited me to their office to further discuss an opportunity.

Closing the deal

Well, I’ll let you know when it happens! One thing I have already learned is not to get too excited about a lead. Things are always super positive here and everybody is in a ‘can-do’ mode, but until there is a signed contract things could bounce at the last second.

No more than six handshakes

Saturday, 3 Jun 2006 | Work in Asia

When I first started considering moving to Asia, my mom suggested I try to get in touch with some people living in Asia or people that had gone through a similar move in order to see what their experiences had been. I actually did, briefly, but only after I had made the decision to move there. However, I couldn’t keep those conversations interesting for the other parties involved at that time - I guess because my plans were too vague and I didn’t really know what to ask those people anyway.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been getting and staying in touch with a few people who are in Asia or Bangkok specifically, or people that frequently visit Bangkok. I’ve gotten in touch with these people by chance, via this or their weblog or through expat forums like thaivisa.com. Some are just in passing, discussing a photo on their photoblog and then the odd exchange of comments here and there. With others, the exchange has been slightly more involved. There has even been someone who has sort of done the same thing I’m planning to do, a dutchie as a matter of fact! There is the occasional useful tip, mostly these are conversations of the chit chat and anecdotal kind. Most are also positive about my plan, which is ofcourse always nice to hear.

I have also exchanged ‘keep-alive’ messages with people I met in Bangkok on my previous trip. I’ll try to stay in touch with these people this way, so they won’t have forgotten me when I make my way back to Bangkok 10 months after having met them last.

Less so is the case for Hong Kong, but only because I know less people in Hong Kong and have not yet started researching jobs in Hong Kong other than the odd one I find in the jobs section of a magazine I subscribe to. I did receive a message from a lady I spoke to at the Dutch consulat in Hong Kong suggesting that the job market there was getting back on it’s feet and she expected I should be able to find something, which was very unexpected and really nice of her to do!

Read the rest of this article

Although all these messages are not terribly useful for any other reason than to stay in touch, I like exchanging them. It puts me in the ‘Asia mindset’ and as those close to me know - there is nothing I enjoy more at the moment than to talk about Asia. And because I’ve got some people I’ve been in touch with all that time, I will have some people to meet for coffee once I get settled in Bangkok. Never a bad thing, I think.

Professional contacts

Most of the emails I’ve exchanged are just personal messages. But there are also people that I discuss possible future employment with. I’ve decided to not actively hunt for a job from over here, as I’ve heard and experienced myself that companies seem reluctant to even talk to you. Or respond to letters, for that matter. Mostly, it’s a mutual getting to know eachother and agreeing we’ll talk more once I get settled in Asia.

What I’ve also found is that a lot of people have business contacts in Asia. I plan to ask for referrals to these contacts in a few months from now, not right away. Talking to them now would perhaps make for a serious opportunity, but which I then would not be able to follow up on due to my obligations here. I think better results will come from being able to act upon opportunities. And I think those contacts will appreciate it more as well, as I won’t be wasting their time.

The best feelings are left by chance encounters. From sources you least expect it, you are suddenly presented a connection, contact or even possible employment lead. Or just someone to have that coffee with sometime.

Intercultural management and communication

Wednesday, 12 Apr 2006 | Work in Asia

A while back I was reading Het Financiële Dagblad (a dutch financial newspaper) and saw an article on western managers in Asia. It wasn’t a very interesting article. Most of the warnings were about how western corporations perceive asians to ‘not be so smart’ and have an arrogant attitude and about the extreme importance of (sometimes invisible) networks and relationships over there which sometimes cause negotiations to seemingly last forever. Fairly obvious stuff.

However, there was a reference in that article to a book published by the Royal Tropical Institute, a very well respected independent dutch centre of knowledge and expertise in the areas of international and intercultural cooperation. Grenzeloos Ondernemen (borderless business) touches on the issues mentioned above and many more. I got the book and have been reading it, but it’s proving to be a very tough read. The language is as dry as Sahara sand on a hot sunny day and not very stimulating at all.

As I was on the train today on my way back to Amsterdam from a meeting, a lady sat across from me reading a book called Managing across cultures. I started talking to her and it turns out she is a professor in intercultural communication. As we were talking about her and my book, she gave me a couple of pointers to books and other resources she thought would be interesting for me. She also gave me her card and asked me to tell her what I thought of the books, which I intend to do. Talking to her did remind me how much academics love models, which I love to make things clear to myself and then usually let go.

I’ve recently decided that with more free time on my hands once I get settled in Bangkok, I was going to do some studies of intercultural management. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to read a couple of books on the subject in preparation of a new job in Asia. Here is what I have now deemed my ‘first bit of study material on intercultural management and communication’ …

• Grenzeloos Ondernemen by M. Gadourek, dutch, ISBN 9068325817
• Managing Across Cultures by Schneider and Barsoux, english, ISBN 027364663X
• Intercultural Communication In Business and Organisations: An Introduction by Paul Verluyten, english, ISBN 9033445344

She also pointed me to the work of Geert Hofstede, who it appears is one of the authorities on the subject. But she said there is a summary of his work in and that should suffice. He has a really interesting website though, which I’m sure I’ll have another look at soon - if for nothing else than to read his Thailand profile.

The world is full of surprises, isn’t it!?

Making connections

Tuesday, 11 Apr 2006 | Work in Asia

As the circle of people familiar with my plans widens, I’m starting to get some referrals to friends of friends of friends who are in China, Singapore or Bangkok. As I was making a ‘to do list’ for the upcoming months, I figured out a way to deal with possible leads to employment.

The problem is that while I have the time right now to talk to a whole lot of people, my departure is so far away (well, it feels like it is anyway) that I think talking to people now might ruin the momentum of a first contact. I obviously can’t speak for others, but when people ask me for referrals or help seeking employment I either do it right away because I can or don’t do it at all unless I happen to stumble on to an opportunity. Then again, for business opportunities I am always on the lookout for my friends and myself and do try to actively seek them out. Anyway, for personal referrals (which is what I’m talking about here), I don’t. And I think that unless you’re a headhunter and this is your business, you do the same.

I’ve decided I’ll deal with them as follows:

• Serious leads, an actual opening for a position I feel I could fulfill is obviously something I need to act upon right away. I’ll just be open about my time of departure and hope they are starting recruitment well ahead of time. I’ve actually got one of these already!
• Casual referrals to people in Holland, who might or might not be able to help me with leads or employment in Asia. I’ll talk to these people in the last month before my departure. I’ll also try to plan some meetings with local recruiting agencies trying to fill a position in Asia in this same time. The latter mostly ‘so they know’ and if something does pop up in the future, they would hopefully remember me.
• Soft leads and people I’ve met in Asia on previous trips will obviously be followed up after moving. As you know I’m planning scouting trips to different locations and I think I would do best in contacting these people in the month leading up to a scouting trip to one of these destinations. Then again, maybe I should contact them first and plan my scouting trips accordingly.

I chose this approach because I feel it renders maximum effect from leads. Hopefully this will result in me finding employment fairly quickly, I feel positive about it. We’ll see how things turn out!

Scouting trips

Tuesday, 15 Nov 2005 | Work in Asia

During this trip to Hong Kong, I figured this is the ideal way to scout out different cities around the region. So I think once I live in Bangkok, I’ll start making more of them.

I start browsing the internet to find information about a city/region, send out some emails, try to find some Dutch and other western events to visit. Perhaps I’ll respond to some job openings, etc, etc. This all about a month before the actual visit, depending on when would be the best time for the visit. This also allows me to try and make a tight schedule for meeting people, so I can make the stay as short as possible. I might add a ‘sightseeing’ day for each city too. I’ll book my ticket and a hotel well in advance, so I don’t have to pay a premium price - this BKK-HKG return cost me €170, while I’ve seen them go for as little as €60. And after staying in the city for a few days, I’ll have a good idea of what I can do there and what not.

I think some interesting places to visit on these trips would be Singapore, Taipei and Hong Kong. Perhaps other tech-oriented places around SEA that I have not been able to identify just yet? I’ll leave the obvious South Korea and Japan out of it at first, since they’re quite far out from Bangkok at 5-6 hours flying.

Base of operation

Sunday, 23 Oct 2005 | Work in Asia

After having had the slight setback last week, I’ve been updating some people again on what is going on (appearantly, not everyone reads my blog!) and in the process found myself slightly adjusting my own expectations of Thailand after my move next year.

In the past, I always thought I would move to Thailand and find a job there . But considering going for a shorter lead-up time last week, I found myself having to conclude that finding a job in Thailand might prove to be to big of a challenge.

My plans haven’t changed for my move to Bangkok late june of next year, but I now plan to use it as a ‘base of operation’ instead of trying to find a job only there. I’ll focus mainly on trying to find a job in places like Singapore and Hong Kong, so my chances of landing a job are a bit better. We’ll see where I end up eventually, but Bangkok seems to be a good place to operate from since my money will go further there and flying around Asia is fairly affordable from Bangkok.

Still pitching

Sunday, 16 Oct 2005 | Work in Asia

I’m still working on that sales pitch. The biggest risk (that Arjan pointed out to me) is people labelling me as ‘another one of those single guys’. When I discussed this with my coach earlier this week, he suggested the quickest way to defuse such a feeling is by calling it. He said perhaps I should work that into my introduction … like “yes, I’m indeed looking for a job here in Bangkok. It will probably prove to be difficult, because of how people perceive young and single men like me over here, but I am really here for the long haul, etc, etc.”

I’d ofcourse have to back that up with credible arguments, but careful not to point out imperfections. Some things ..

• business in asia is about relationships, I like working in such an environment. I love that in my current work too!
• my knowledge of the western marketplace, combined with the openness and intrigue towards asian cultures makes for an interesting combination - i think in time i’ll be able to function as a bridge between the two.
• i’ll have a basic command of spoken language, which ubdoubtedly will at least be appreciated.
• i’m young and flexible in many respects.

And there is nothing wrong with throwing some humor in there too. A comment about how the sun always shines in Thailand probably won’t hurt. Yeah, I know, it’s far from being a well thought out strategy and even further from an actual sales pitch. I have to sit down and bounce this around with someone who knows the marketplace - good thing I’m going over there soon! (hi Arjan;-)

Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving

Saturday, 15 Oct 2005 | Work in Asia

Although Intermediair Management Training refused the complementary training I requested, I did sign up for “Personal Effectiveness”. It’s about trying to figure out why you behave a certain way in specific situations and presents some tools on how to change that if you want to. It’s been a really interesting experience, on all kinds of levels. And the ride is not over yet! I meet my coach in December again.

Perhaps still slightly under the influence of the training (things always seem so clear-cut right after), but one of the things I discovered is that my current job as a projectmanager doesn’t really suit who I am. Although something I’m pretty good at and actually love doing, there is no genuine passion in it for me. Most of you will recognize me as being a very ‘feeling’ person, which perhaps is also where my real strengths are. So, while remaining critical, I am indeed open to other options. No clue what those are yet. No, I don’t think I’ve got a career as a social worker ahead of me. But perhaps this is an opportunity to open my eyes to other things than the career path I have set out at the moment.

Whats interesting is that I’ve done a Keirsey personality test several times in the past and I’ve always come out as being an ENFP (Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving) personality. I only just now realised that this matches the conclusions of the training! Read a profile here.

On the other hand, I do realise that what will get me hired is things I know and have experience in doing - such as projectmanagement. And I know I would have a great time doing that like I do now. But who knows what other things can happen! Doing it in a different environment such as Thailand would be a big challenge in itself. And because relationships and politics are so important over there, perhaps the ‘feeling’ part will come in handy in being a projectmanager!

Sales pitch

Saturday, 24 Sep 2005 | Work in Asia

As I’ve explained before, I am open to move anywhere in Asia but have chosen Bangkok as my destination if no opportunities present themselves. In doing so, I’m not really making life easy for myself. Bangkok is a very popular destination and so the jobmarket for expats is a very competitive one. Especially because both locals and veteran expats feel newcomers are only there for a limited amount of time to enjoy the weather and the women, young single men such as myself in particular. And I guess there is a certain truth in that, which they have learned through experience. Although aware of this, I never really made a big deal out of it. Especially since I am going to apply for jobs at large international corporations with lots of expats, I thought the chances of me running into that sort of stereotyping were slim. Arjan recently sent me an email that said otherwise.

Arjan told me he had been thinking about a better sales pitch for me than “I was here on holiday, kinda liked it and so decided to move here”, which I agree is a very limited view of my arguments and will certainly not help getting me hired. On top of that, I will also have to explain why a company is better off hiring me than a local. So I’ve got my work cut out for me. The latter I’ll probably be able to work out myself. I haven’t spent any serious time contemplating it, but I should be okay. However, what to say to the question “why are you here?” is a little harder to think of. Things that come to mind are my long standing desire to move abroad, my fascination with Asian cultures, etc. But no real strong arguments.

So I thought I’d ask you. Since you’ve known me for a while now and we’ve spoken about this move too, I’m curious to hear why you think is my motivation. I’m not asking you to write an essay on it, just a few lines perhaps is just fine. Hopefully it will help me in making a sales pitch!

Picking a course

Monday, 8 Aug 2005 | Work in Asia

Although I’ve already decided to start taking a course in Thai - I figured it could never hurt to know more than the few holiday phrases I learned - I am now also looking into some professional courses that might be useful for me when making the move to Thailand.

Why focus on what seems to be such a minor detail? Because I’ve been so busy with work this year, I haven’t been able to touch my educational budget for 2005. Last week I was told to sign up for a course before August 20th, or the budget would be blocked. I’m deciding together with my boss what would be the best one for me in relation to my current job.

But maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to think about signing up for another course. I’ve been a regular customer at Intermediair Management Training for so long. I must have spent over €10.000 with them by now. So I think when I sign up for another one, I should try to make them give me a course for free or at least discount it. I don’t know if they will, but I’ve heard they do do that. So I should at least give it a try.

Read the rest of this article

Question is, which course should I take? I think it should be one that is primarily useful for me when making the move to Thailand, something that will look good on my resume or will help me in finding a job there. A couple of options I’ve been looking into:

• Summerschool in innovations: teaches concept development for products and services, how to maintain further development and strategic innovations.
• Summerschool financial management & performance measurement: how to interpret financial reports, make decisions based on that, install control systems and measure results.
• Accountmanagement: gain more insight in customer relations and sales, use your own personality to support that process.
• Salestechniques: learn more about the dynamic of salestalks and how to make them work for you the best way possible.
• Professional growth: learn how to grow in your position, based on personal ambitions and qualities and those of the organisation you work for.

I picked these based on the brief descriptions and printed the full brochures for bed-time reading sometime soon. But if you have any ideas which would be interesting and why, please let me know!

Career development

Saturday, 6 Aug 2005 | Work in Asia

As I’m thinking about building a career in Asia, I am increasingly becoming convinced this will not only be a nice move for me personally but also professionally. And not just something for a year or so.

Basically, this is the perfect age for me to be making a move like this. I’m experienced in and good at what I do, have identified my strengths and weaknesses, but still have endless options for continued professional development. If the current rise of Asia on the world stage continues, there is obviously going to be an ever increasing demand for experienced professionals able to operate in both the west and in Asia. If I start gaining knowledge and experience in the Asian marketplace now, it puts me in a perfect position to cater to that need 5-10 years down the line.

So, now I basically need my first job.