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While difficult to do, securing a position in a Thai company when one is a foreigner is definitely possible. Tens of thousands of Europeans and Americans already live that dream.
Expatriates are of three kinds in Thailand: most of them are retired, investors or employees. This guide will focus on employees: in other words, people who need to make a living in order to stay in Thailand and who don’t have considerable savings.
General information about employment in Thailand
It is prohibited by law for most foreigners to perform low to mid-level jobs in Thailand. This includes the following positions: administrative assistant, waiter, sales assistant, entry-level managers, etc…However, jobs such as teaching and mid and top-level managing can be performed by foreigners.
Salaries are usually paid monthly in Thai baht by bank transfer.
Thais tend to be a bit more formal than their Western counterparts in the workplace. Employees should always act in a professional manner and treat their superiors with respect. Conflict is generally frowned upon in Thai society. If one has something to say to a Thai employee, it is better to do so in private, never in front of his colleagues.
Some conversation topics such as politics or the Royal family should be avoided. Foreigners should remember that criticizing the King or any member of the Thai Royal family is a criminal offense.
Visa and work permit
In order to work legally in Thailand, an employee needs a Non-Immigrant B visa as well as a work permit. The application process takes between two and four weeks and requires a trip to a Thai embassy abroad for the visa as well as several visits to the Immigration office for the work permit.
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The work permit comes in the shape of a blue book and only allows its owner to work for the company which supplied them with the paperwork for it, and only at the address mentioned on the application form. In other words, if a company asks its employee to work at another location, such as a customer’s office, that employee is technically working illegally.
A lot of foreigners, especially teachers, work illegally in Thailand on a Tourist visa. This can potentially land them in serious trouble. If an expatriate is found to be working illegally in Thailand, he is usually arrested and placed in detention at the Immigration Detention Center. This prison has been the focus of much attention from NGO’s such as Amnesty International for the way it treats its inmates and is definitely not a place where one would want to spend a few weeks or months.
The three main types of careers for expatriates
The best jobs in Thailand are actually those one can secure in his or her home country. By signing a contract with a Western company which happens to have offices in Thailand, expats are usually entitled to the same salary than what they would get back home, along with a substantial relocation package. Those jobs are typically hard to get and attract hundreds or sometimes even thousands of applicants.
If a foreigner tries to find a job while they are in Thailand and they have at least a Bachelors’ Degree along with a few years of relevant experience, then securing a mid to top-level management position should be their goal. Typically, most of the candidates for these kinds of jobs are found via networking. Online job databases do exist in Thailand but most of them cater to a local audience and offer jobs which are restricted to Thai nationals. Networking in Thailand can sometimes be as simple as spending a few evenings a week in expatriate pubs in Bangkok. This allows job-seekers to meet tens of foreigners at a time, most of them currently working in Thailand. For additional networking options, one may want to attend the various social events organized by the Thai-British and Thai-American associations.
If a job-seeker can’t secure one of the positions listed above, then teaching may be their only option, at least on a temporary basis. Language teachers, and especially English teachers, are of course the most sought-after. However, it is also possible to be a math, sciences or history teacher. Working at an International school is generally considered as the Holy Grail of teaching jobs in Thailand. However, teaching for such a school requires the candidate to be a licensed teacher from their home country. If the job-seeker lacks credentials or experience, it is also possible to teach in private or government-run schools. Most shopping malls in Thailand also have private language schools which constantly hire new teachers. A teaching job in Thailand won’t make one rich, but it will most likely allow him or her to live a decent life.
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