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!