Dear Feyma, I’m a foreigner. I am marrying a Filipina soon. She lives in the Visayas area. I want to live and retire there. I have some retirement money but want to work in the Philippines when I get there to live. What kind of work do you think I can get there? Thank you.
I got this email from somebody. Hmm.. Wow what will I tell this guy? Really hard to advise somebody that doesn’t really know a lot here. If I said something he might misinterpret what I say. Gosh I have to be very careful what to say. A lot of foreigners don’t really realize that it would be impossible for them to get a job here. Most Filipinos would not hire the foreigners, for one they immediately think that hiring a foreigner will be really expensive. I think only high up corporations are hiring foreigners to work for them.
Really I told him that I don’t think he wants to work here. I said that I don’t think he wants the low paying jobs here. He came from the West where even if he has the low paying job there compare that to the pretty good job here. He still has good money there, just bigger expenses. At first it will be hard for him not to compare the life and his paycheck. It will just make him more depressed then. Well he never mentioned what kind of job he had before, maybe he could work as consultant to the growing call centers here in the Philippines. I was asked before to work at the call center because I know how to communicate. I just can’t do it. I would probably enjoy talking with people but it is just not for me.
He didn’t really tell me if he really needs the money. He just said he wants to work here. Maybe he just wants something to do here. My concern for him is that he is not young to compete with the Filipino people for the job. As you know here when you apply for the job you have to fit the description the employer wanted. Here the employer can really ask freely everything from the age, looks, marital status, really anything. Just a sample for job wanted by the employer:
- Age : from 18 to 30 years old
- With pleasing personality
- Good moral character
- Preferably single
- Female
- Male
- College level
- College graduate
It can really go on and on. They just are free to advertise like that. I think a person from the West that sees that job description would be offended. But not here. To be honest I was shocked when I went to the States to learn that the employer can’t asked the job applicant anything like they asked here. I like it that they don’t discriminate against anybody who wants to apply there. If they are capable of the job they will be hired. Here even if you can do the job if you don’t fit with the description I don’t think they will get you. A lot of the companies here really want college graduate. As you know we have lots of college graduates that are on standby (No Job). I’ve seen and heard on TV every year lots will graduate some can go and work abroad, but a lot are still looking for job here.
I just had a feeling that this guy doesn’t know much about living here. He needs to read a lot of sites before coming here to live. It’s going to be a big change for him and his wife to be. I hope that he will learn from all of you guys comments. Any advice from all of you will be highly appreciated. I gave him the link to this website and told him that he can really rely on the advice here. I hope that he will take some good advice here and put it to use. To you that wrote me this email please don’t be offended I am just trying to help you. I really rely on the help of the good people here. It’s really up to you though. Good luck to you and your wife to be.
hello feyma,
if this guy is young and handsome mabe he can be an exotic dancer,hehehe,,,,just kidding my friend.not sure what else he could offer there.i have some friends in davao delnorte and they told me that growing and exporting banannas was the best for them.
salamat my friend
Actually, that’s a very good idea. The Phil is awashed w/ caucasian, or mixed breeds of models. So the guy just have to market himself. Maybe he can look into the call center industry.
Hi Roy – Good point there. I hope he is a good looking guy. You know here to apply for a job it states good pleasing personality. I think it also applies to good looks. 😉
Yeah being a foreigner he will be a good candidate for a call center agent. Can communicate well to the people in the West. He just have to have the proper visa that allows him to work here.
Thank you so much for your thoughts. Good to see you again here.
Take care!
Hi Ron – You made me laugh there.
Yeah I’ve heard some success of exporting stuff. Have to study more on that. Honestly I don’t really know what to say since I don’t know if he needs the extra income to live or just for him to have something to do here.
Anyway, as always thank you so much friend for always giving your insights here.
Take care!
Welcome to my world, Feyna. I must get a dozen comments on my blog or emails like this every week. Many times guys leave them apparently after they have read one of my many posts explaining why they don’t_really_ want a job here, and why they probably can’t legally work here, and a third big problem I don’t think I have toyuched on enough … jobs are often very different here.
In ur American pride/arrogance we seem to think we’re qualified to do anything, but many of us couldn’t do an entry-level job here in the Philippines without extensive instruction or OJT that many employers are not going to want to provide.
Example … I’ve had more than one person tell me he’s a qualified electrician and therefore should be able to get a job as an electrician here. Well, better read the Philippine Electrical Code and or look at some building plans from here. The materials (almost all from China or Eastern Europe, the standards, the hands-on methods for even simple electrical work is totally different. You might be a journeyman or better in the US, but here you’d be, at best, a useful helper/apprentice.
Another wrote me and raved on and on about what a good network systems administrator he was at a bank. Think it would be the same here? My bank move millions every day via their customer SMS (text) system which ties directly to the corporate mainframe. Any US banks with the customers able to pay their bills direct in the merchants POS bis their cell phones? Again, at best, this guy could make a good apprentice, he sure couldn’t move direct into a systems admin post.
Truck driver is always my biggest laugh. “I want to come to the Philippines and be a trucker. ” Haa. I’d like to see him negotiate the rotunda (traffic circle) near my house going in the opposite direction (counter flowing) in order to get into the large Nestle plant there.
Driving a truck or any number of other jobs you could mention just are very different here, and for many of them, American experience would be a handicap and not an asset.
I do drive trucks, even here in Kuwait and Iraq! But I would not want to be behind the wheel of one of the trucks in the Philippines. Crazy enough just to get on a motorcycle there! Hands down it takes a real guttsy person that wants to drive truck in the Philippines!
Hi steve Maust – Thank you for sharing. Thats what I thought. Honestly I never saw a foreigner driving truck here. I’ve see one foreigner driving taxi before here in Davao like 6 years ago, never saw him now.
Good to see you here. Take care!
Hi Dave – You really had good example there. Really I didn’t really realized so many foreigners asked about job availability here in the Philippines for them. My goodness not to be rude to foreigners they just don’t have the patience that the Filipinos have and work even if its low paying job.
Yeah I’m with you I would want to see a foreigner driving a truck here in the traffic area. I think he might leave his truck in the middle of the road. Some foreigners might have the patience. Amen to them.
The only thing they are not used to the life here. Take a lot of time to adjust.
Thank you Dave for sharing some thoughts. Good sample there too.
Take care!
I have been amused by some of the help wanted adds I have seen on some of the University websites, and others. You will need a University Degree to flip burgers at Jollibee !
Hi Bob New York – College graduate or college level to pump gas too. Thats the requirements I’ve seen on the ad from the gasoline station.
Nice to see you again here. Take care!
Hello Feyma
Depending where he wants to live I would say he has several options. The best solution for him would be to have his own business. Since filipinos LOVE to eat, why not open something related to foods? It could be a flavor from his home town that he wont find here or something that he could grow to sell afterwards. If he lives in a quite area not full of houses stuck together, he could rais live stock. Pigs or chickens are the best, however, he would need to learn from scratch for the chicken raising. Raising pigs is pretty easy..I remember my mother-in-law bought 4 pigs and made a very good profit selling the piglets for breeding purposes! Otherwise raise them till they are good for lechon!!!
Hope this helps him out…he has to think out of the box and not rely on getting a job there (salaray is WAY too LOW).
I wanta job in the RP;
Open a business, the law will allow this with much more ease that a Working Visa. Because you’ll be hireling locals and all governments like that. Type of business, a good bet would be something you have a little knowledge about. Look around where you live, identify what is needed, and is it needed enough to make money off . (Don’t try to sell lawnmowers to apartment dwellers). Every area has a need, Find that need and satisfy it. Example Buy empty container vans (there very cheap, as shipping companies will abandon them before paying to ship an empty one back to their homeport) and covert them into cheap portable housing units Storage sheds, parking garages or workshops.
I know many westerners here, owning many types of diverse businesses and doing well. Most starting with a modest investment of capital and remembering the rule’s 1, 2 and 3 of starting a business, is never having a partner. But then, I could be wrong about it all!!!!
Paul..sounds good to me..but! If all I have read here for so long a time suggests maybe what you said as for as “remembering the rule’s is…some what backwards or missing something..sounded ok untill I remembered that seems like I have read more than once that the sweet queen of the house is the head partner and CEO in most all things important and not important and the kano husband is 2nd or maybe sometimes last in command in all things important and not important…because the kano husband does not want the the queen of the house to become under the influence or spell of the Tampo God..of course I am not saying your wrong about it all!!!
So true Dan;
When dealing with my wife, who is my life partner, I use diplomacy and tact. When she wanted to open a Sari-Sari store, I said to her “Mahal, albeit a great idea, how much together time will we lose while you’re selling .25 centavo pieces of candy?” She decided she did not want to build it, not me!
Although I appreciate that you do not wish to discourage such people, Feyma, having tried a few businesses in Mindanao, many years ago, and having had foreign friends whom did the same, I think that your article explains the challenges, very well. Foreigners whom have been in Davao for a couple of decades can tell you about Eric Nagle’s “Down-under” restaurant or Mike Mulholland’s “Crocodile Dundee” strip club, neither of which survived. Perhaps, one day, the population of foreigners will be enough to patronize the right businesses, if those businesses are one of a kind. Working as an employee for a Philippine company, however, is, in my humble opinion, not possible. I think that it is better to be brutally honest with someone who asks such questions, rather than give them false hope. While it may delay their move to the Philippines, they will always appreciate that you have been a good friend to them by giving them sound advice. Any business that I may attempt upon my return, will be an exercise in keeping busy. I would never hope to rely on income generated from such ventures. This way, I will never be disappointed.
Mike
First and foremost learn to speak tagalog or cebuano if living in the visayas or Mindanao. If you are moving here and plan to earn a living here your going to need to be able to communicate. Your future customers will appreciate your sacrifice.
Notice I say “your customers’. As everyone else has said, opening your own business is your best bet. Use your imagination, ask questions, observe, listen to your wife’s ideas, etc.
A good “guy” business is veterinary/livestock supply. It is fairly easy to learn about and start, low cost up front and is a cash business. All those pigs and chickens have to eat something!
There are “opportunities” to work as a consultant out there. Experienced mining professionals, construction project control professionals and professional land surveyors (geodetic engineers as they are called here) are three professions that are currently in moderate demand by local and foreign companies. These will become high demand over the next few years IF all the proposed new infrastructure plans and mines come to fruition.
We cant all be licensed professionals though right? So, save some money, do some research, make a decision and dive in!
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell
that is the most importent thing to learn, learn your wifes launguage, my wife she speaks visayan, and cebuano, and old visayan too, she is alwasy telling me to learn her launguage, but here the only things to learn is tagalog or cebuano, visayan is different so i am trying to find that to learn, . its like a two edge sword,
Cebuano, Visayan, Bisaya… all the same thing, Tim.
Feyma – Hard to say anything if you don’t know what the person’s qualification is. Foreigners can only get contract jobs. Call centers as accent coach, or ESL teacher. If he is PADI certified, diving instructor. As an employee? as you pointed out equal opportunity doesn’t exist in the country (as in many other countries.) Alex
When it comes to “opening your own business,” you need to be aware of which occupations do not allow for foreign ownership (equity), which do and what percentage of foreign equity is allowed.
Rule of Thumb: No business entity can be 100% foreigned owned.
Practice of professions is pretty much limited to Philippine citizens alone. Other businesses may allow only up to 20%, 25%, 30%, 40% or 60% foreign equity based on what the business is.
Handy guides are the Philippine Foreign Investment Negative List A & List B:
http://www.bcphilippineslawyers.com/philippines-regular-foreign-investment-negative-list-a/
http://www.bcphilippineslawyers.com/philippines-regular-foreign-investment-negative-list-b/
Another source that can actually provide more positive help:
http://www.pwc.com/ph/en/publications/doing-business-in-the-philippines.jhtml
I need to clarify that “Rule of Thumb” – While there are business that can be 100% foreign owned, generally businesses that a foreigner would want to open would have limitations against 100% ownership.
I believe that a business that manufactures and destributes compost can be 100% foreign owned. While it may be connected with agriculture (0% foreign ownership), the product can be used by others (home gardeners, golf courses, landscapers, etc.), it isn’t fully a practice of an agricultural profession.
Foreign ownership restrictions are often skirted by putting the business in the spouse’s name. Not suggesting that per se, but it’s a common practice.
Femya,
I thought this was going to be my lucky day! I just knew you were going to tell me where I could find the right job for me in the Philippines!
The best business in the Philippines would be to put it in your wife’s name and stand behind her with your wallet out 🙂 ..Phil n Jess
Phil R hit the nail on the head! Don’t go to the Philippines unless you have money to live on. You do not want to try to get a job there. Best bet would be to start a company of some sort to support your life there. But if you go with nothing, expect to live like a working class Filipeno. ($200 a month)
wow, just becouse he thinks he married a filipina that he will be able to find a job and support her there, what is he thinking, me i also married a filipina, and want to live in the philippines, but the only way is to own your own business, and find one that will work in the area she lives in, it takes time and money, and your own work, just becouse you marry a filipina you think you have an open market, i am slowly working on something with a combination of work here int us and the philippines so that me and my wife can live for about 10 years and then finally retire, its a work in progress, and we hope to be able to live our dream to retire in her home.