Non teaching jobs in Vietnam

Hi,

Most common and popular work site is vietnamworks.

I also look for a job in HCMC that is a non teaching position and it is slow going

Best in mind most companies can probably hire someone locally for less.

However it is not impossible as there are non vietnamese employers who od hire expats.

You may have to set aside a lengthy period of time before you get a reasonable offer.

I am trying to do the same thing as well. I have created a profile in vietnamworks few days go, but not seeing any responses from any employer yet.

I am trying to find a volunteering opportunity in language centers or Homestays to start with.

If you have degrees in F&B, consulting, or marketing, there are plenty of opportunities for expats in Ho Chi Minh city or Hanoi. Go to linkedin and start looking for vacancies at major companies.

You can always find a job if you went to Stanford or the likes, and/or have worked at big 3 or big 4. Corporate people in here especially love McKinsey & Co.

gimmethewine wrote:

If you have degrees in F&B, consulting, or marketing, there are plenty of opportunities for expats in Ho Chi Minh city or Hanoi. Go to linkedin and start looking for vacancies at major companies.

You can always find a job if you went to Stanford or the likes, and/or have worked at big 3 or big 4. Corporate people in here especially love McKinsey & Co.

If you had a fancy degree from Stanford or some other Ivy League school wtf would you want to work in VN for a minimum wage? Don't wanna knock on expats working in Vietnam but majority of them work as ESL teachers because that's all they can do since they can't find employment in their own country.

Just out of curiosity, graduating from an Ivy League School can guarantee you a good job in the states? Btw I worked in mining before, an expat that didn't even go to college makes about 200 grands per year and with the living expenses in Vietnam, they can live pretty comfortable off that much money. Also they get many attention from young girls.

How good is your Tiếng Việt?
If can read, write and speak then good chance for something other than English teaching.

Otherwise teaching English is about the best you can hope for. Also my experience is that if you want to be hired by a reputable English teaching school, they will want you to have some sort of Tesol Certifcation which will cost about $1,200 USD.
I have an MBA from a reputable University and best offer I had was for marketing with a PR firm at about 35k and I make about 6 times that now in the States.
Vietnam is an emerging contender country still and very poor in a lot of areas. Don't get your hopes up that everything is Champagne wishes and Caviar dreams in VN.

Texan71 wrote:

How good is your Tiếng Việt?
If can read, write and speak then good chance for something other than English teaching.

A simple rule of thumb would be to ask yourself if a Vietnamese who had experience in your field but spoke no English would be able to find employment in your home country.  If your answer is no, then look again at your own situation.

Obviously there are exceptions but I think they are mostly at or near the top.  Still, a lot of these positions are filled by career employees from the home country.  Middle management is pretty well covered by local university graduates.  In fact, like a lot of emerging economies, Vietnam produces more university graduates than the economy can absorb.

I was wondering that myself. I would really love to move to Saigon, but so far all I can find are jobs for teaching english.
I have a Master of Science and I'm about to do a CISSP certification with almost 6 years working experience as an IT-security consultant and project manager. That basically guarantees a job in the current market within days.
Unfortunately, I couldnt find any nice job offers yet (e.g. open ciso positions). I mean there is no point for me to switch to a job that maybe pays 36K per year, even when the living cost are much cheaper.

Darwin123 wrote:

I was wondering that myself. I would really love to move to Saigon, but so far all I can find are jobs for teaching english.
I have a Master of Science and I'm about to do a CISSP certification with almost 6 years working experience as an IT-security consultant and project manager. That basically guarantees a job in the current market within days.
Unfortunately, I couldnt find any nice job offers yet (e.g. open ciso positions). I mean there is no point for me to switch to a job that maybe pays 36K per year, even when the living cost are much cheaper.

Basically, they will employ a local at a much lower rate than a foreigner, hence why there are very few jobs for someone like yourself.

colinoscapee wrote:

Darwin123 wrote:

I was wondering that myself. I would really love to move to Saigon, but so far all I can find are jobs for teaching english.
I have a Master of Science and I'm about to do a CISSP certification with almost 6 years working experience as an IT-security consultant and project manager. That basically guarantees a job in the current market within days.
Unfortunately, I couldnt find any nice job offers yet (e.g. open ciso positions). I mean there is no point for me to switch to a job that maybe pays 36K per year, even when the living cost are much cheaper.

Basically, they will employ a local at a much lower rate than a foreigner, hence why there are very few jobs for someone like yourself.

Understandable, but still that kind of skillset is not hanging around in trees. Even here in Germany it'S highly asked for and not enough people.

Darwin123 wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Darwin123 wrote:

I was wondering that myself. I would really love to move to Saigon, but so far all I can find are jobs for teaching english.
I have a Master of Science and I'm about to do a CISSP certification with almost 6 years working experience as an IT-security consultant and project manager. That basically guarantees a job in the current market within days.
Unfortunately, I couldnt find any nice job offers yet (e.g. open ciso positions). I mean there is no point for me to switch to a job that maybe pays 36K per year, even when the living cost are much cheaper.

Basically, they will employ a local at a much lower rate than a foreigner, hence why there are very few jobs for someone like yourself.

Understandable, but still that kind of skillset is not hanging around in trees. Even here in Germany it'S highly asked for and not enough people.

Maybe so, but the mindset here is that they can do it. You may have to take a job with lower salary just to get into the industry here.

I don't know if there are international firms in IT that have major contracts as there seem to be in accounting,  but perhaps you could seek employment with a firm that has such contracts and then seek a posting to Vietnam.  A lot of the top management jobs of multinationals seem to be filled this way.  If the biggest companies (e.g. Coca-Cola, P&G, various pharma companies) have in-house IT, that may be a way to find what you want.  Hiring on in Europe should mean a higher salary.   There shouldn't be a cost of living stipend as in high cost locations like Tokyo but you should be able to keep your base salary.  One problem may be that it is sort of a revolving door where you are expected to move to other spots to advance.  These types of companies do not like keeping management people in one place for long.

Another possibility would be to consider might be University teaching.  I have no idea of salaries but they surely will be low by international standards.  However, they might be fine for living in Vietnam.

Darwin123 wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Darwin123 wrote:

I was wondering that myself. I would really love to move to Saigon, but so far all I can find are jobs for teaching english.
I have a Master of Science and I'm about to do a CISSP certification with almost 6 years working experience as an IT-security consultant and project manager. That basically guarantees a job in the current market within days.
Unfortunately, I couldnt find any nice job offers yet (e.g. open ciso positions). I mean there is no point for me to switch to a job that maybe pays 36K per year, even when the living cost are much cheaper.

Basically, they will employ a local at a much lower rate than a foreigner, hence why there are very few jobs for someone like yourself.

Understandable, but still that kind of skillset is not hanging around in trees. Even here in Germany it'S highly asked for and not enough people.

I think the only way for you to get full expat salary potential is to find a job through a European/US company that has clients in Vietnam. You would not be hired by a Vietnamese company directly, but by a Western company that's hired by a Vietnamese company. I'm pretty sure Vietnamese banks, for example, require advanced IT security knowledge that would be very hard to find locally.

PS: Just noticed that THIGV pretty much wrote what I had in mind!

My wife told me this evening that the husband of a friend of hers just got an H1B visa, family included, to work in North Carolina, presumably in the so-called research triangle area.  He is an engineer,  although I don't know what type.  This is obviously anecdotal but if Vietnam is sending engineers to work in the US, the level of local talent must be competitive enough to make it difficult for expats to get tech type jobs in Vietnam.

Do you know why there are a lot of graduates there from VN Universities (if you can call them Universities?)?
Because graduating from one is easy. Even the graduates aren't happy with the low grade education.