New to Vietnam – Exploring Work Opportunities & Expat Life

@Navithutupally

Welcome on board, Navi !

Thank you for taking the time to introduce yourself to members. I would you invite you to read the Vietnam Guide for first hand info while waiting for members' feedback.

All the best

Bhavna

Hi everyone! 😊
I’m Navi from India, and I’m currently exploring the possibility of moving to Vietnam for work. I have an MSc in Digital Health and several years of experience in healthcare, including healthcare administration, patient/client coordination, service delivery, and digital health.

I’m particularly interested in exploring opportunities in healthcare, health-tech, customer support/success, and related roles in Vietnam.

I’m still learning about life and working in Vietnam, so I’d love to connect with people already living there and hear about your experiences, especially around finding work, work culture, and settling in.

Looking forward to being part of the community! 🇻🇳 - @Navithutupally

Hello, Navi!

I worked in Vietnam only two years, 2015 - 2017, in the education sector -- and no, I'm not an English teacher, but I taught in a school where all the instruction was in English. I taught music for students in Grades 6 through 12.

My school got all the work permits and TRC (Temporary Residence Card) that stood in place of a visa. I say this, because the head of HR told me, and many other colleagues, too, that getting a work permit to work in Vietnam is *very difficult* if the job requirements can be fulfilled by a person with Vietnamese citizenship. In my case, "native English speaker" was one of the job qualifications accepted by the gov't and so that would *exclude* most Vietnamese and clear a pathway for me, a foreigner, to get that job.

In my industry, education, there's another wrinkle: the differences in pay and benefits that schools regularly use to their advantage between what's known as an "overseas hire" versus a "local hire." Full disclosure, I worked in India and China, too, as a teacher before coming to Vietnam. An overseas hire will get a higher salary, moving and shipping allowance, housing or a housing allowance, income taxes paid by the school, and even a free airplane ticket to their country of origin every summer during the school vacation, and sometimes a pension benefit, too. A local hire would NOT get as high a salary, moving or shipping allowance, housing allowance, tax benefit, plane fare, or such a generous pension. Why? Because he school says, "You're already here and a resident, so we don't have to give you all that as an incentive to get you to Vietnam and our school." These differences are huge.

I don't know how these questions play out in other industries, but I do know that they exist outside of education.

All of that points to: if you can get a job before you get to Vietnam you might get a better package of pay and benefits.

Without that, you are here on a tourist visa and it is a) *illegal* for you to work and b) employers can pressure your pay and benefits package downwards because they know you are beholden to them for permission to stay in the country and work.

Within 2 kilometers of where I live in Ho Chi Minh City there are at least a dozen Indian restaurants which, when I go there are patronized by, well, Indians. There are two *Gujarati* restaurants within that group and a couple of Indian grocery stores, too. I say that to say that there are significant numbers of Indians doing business here and the numbers are growing, clearly.

And, by the way, from your post, I'd say your command of written English is first-rate, and that may prove to be the skill that tips the balance in your favor as you search for employment. I wish you the best in your search for a way to live and work in Vietnam.