As an economy that has grown fast and substantially during the past decades, Vietnam offers many diverse employment opportunities for international job-seekers. Hanoi – the country’s capital, and Ho Chi Minh City – its biggest city, are Vietnam’s hubs for expatriate professionals, with fast-paced and dynamic work environments, attractive career prospects in various sectors, as well as endless possibilities to satisfy any side interests. If you feel like making a career move to this country, here are 3 tips that you will find useful during your job seeking process.
1. Finding the right place to job hunt
Social media, especially Facebook, are widely-used in Vietnam, even for job postings and recruitment. Join Facebook recruitment groups or groups for expats in Vietnam and you will discover hundreds of hidden and newly opened vacancies that you wouldn’t be able to spot elsewhere. LinkedIn is also getting quite popular as a recruitment channel for multinational companies. There are job websites that are popular among both local and international job-seekers, such as www.vietnamworks.com and www.careerbuilder.vn for all level professionals. These sites are up-to-date, so you are always exposed to recent recruitment information. If you are at a job entry level or looking for internship opportunities, www.ybox.vn is the site you are looking for.
2. Polish your language skills
In addition to the emergence of global trends, cross-border and cross-continent trade happens on a daily basis in Vietnam. Next to having the appropriate job-specific required skills and experience, being able to speak foreign languages is highly appreciated by Vietnamese employers. While English has become widely spoken recently, some other languages such as Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, French, German and Spanish, are constantly in high demand. If you are fluent in one of these languages, you are already one step ahead of other candidates. For those speaking a ‘less-popular’ language, there might be some vacancies in companies with partners or clients in those specific countries, so don’t despair, but do your research well!
3. Speaking Vietnamese is always appreciated
Needless to say that the Vietnamese highly value foreigners that can speak the language. They are fascinated by the willingness and the effort of expats to learn Vietnamese. So, if you plan on charming local people and making a really good first impression on potential employers, speaking Vietnamese will definitely work in your favour. You do not have to be fluent, as Vietnamese is a very hard language to learn, but rather start with some commonly used terms like “Xin chào”, or “Chào” (pronounced as the famous Italian word “Ciao”) for “Hello” or “Goodbye” and “Cảm ơn” (pronounced as you slowly speak “Come on”) for “Thank you”. Fortunately (or not), outside the working environment or business settings, local people don’t use English as much and that will give you many opportunities to practice your Vietnamese.
Finding a job in Vietnam may seem complicated at first, especially for expats that are not familiar with either the recruitment system or the language. However, landing a job in Vietnam is mostly a matter of knowing where to look for the right position, being aware of the local culture and staying determined. The result will be rewarding!
Rita Nguyen
Careerprofessor.works team
