Amélie Poncelet (EDHEC BBA 2006) is an expatriate living in Bangkok and head of marketing for a private hospital

Comments taken from expatvalue.com

Amélie Poncelet (EDHEC BBA 2006), a 35-year-old wife and mother of three, has been living in Bangkok for 10 years. Her goal (together with her then boyfriend and now husband) was to travel to Asia to find work. They both looked together; he found a voluntary overseas position which required one year’s training in Paris, while she managed to secure a fixed-term post. 12 months later and they were on their way to Bangkok!

A young graduate in Bangkok

I arrived in Bangkok at the age of 25, having completed 4 years of higher education and with work experience limited to a few internships and one short-term job. I wanted to find my dream job in marketing/product development with a major firm, but I quickly realised that neither Chanel nor Cartier had any need for a young French graduate without a word of Thai (I’ve since learned to get by in everyday life, but I could never work through Thai). So I changed my strategy and started flooding the market with my humble CV via the Franco-Thai Chamber of Commerce directory. I applied through local job offer websites, but fewer than 5% of the offers were for non-Thai natives. My initial experiences were disappointing, but with a bit of patience and determination better opportunities began to present themselves.

A job in marketing – the Holy Grail

In Bangkok work permits and visas make things complicated. To hire a foreign national, firms have to offer a minimum salary that is higher than that paid to locals. They also have to justify that the person isn’t taking the job away from a Thai national. So it’s impossible to do “small jobs”. Not to mention the fact that there’s a list of jobs that foreign nationals are prohibited from doing.

When you work for a Thai firm, you have to be willing to accept 6 to 10 days’ holidays per year and in many cases surprisingly low wages.

Some sectors recruit a lot of foreigners (IT, finance, construction, etc.), but it’s harder to find a job in marketing. The main obstacles are language, culture and a very different set of codes.

Bangkok

However, Bangkok is a very cosmopolitan capital city. Foreign nationals are very well represented and are targeted by many firms. That’s how I found my current job.

“I’m head of marketing at a private hospital in Bangkok for the expat community. I’ll soon be celebrating seven years on the job!

One part of my job involves promoting the hospital, in particular by developing links with key players in the expat community (embassies, chambers of commerce, international schools and associations, etc.), as well as organising and sponsoring events. I also monitor our brand visibility both on and offline. The other key aspect of my work is optimising the patient experience. I identify failings and correct them. Basically I make myself available for patients in need of assistance, whatever that may be: interpretation, coordination or insurance.

In the past I have had to contact embassies to identify unconscious patients and locate their families. I have also had to provide support by accompanying terrified patients into the operating theatre. Not to mention the long hours spent talking with doctors, which I back up with online research to make sure I properly understand a complex diagnosis. This is to ensure I can correctly explain the diagnosis to a patient or their family, acting as a kind of bridge between the two parties. So my work varies from one day to the next! I work mainly in English.

However, I often wonder whether it was the right career choice to head overseas immediately after my studies. But then I say to myself that if I hadn’t left France my career path would have been more or less laid out for me. I probably wouldn’t have discovered and developed this social dimension that offers me so much, a dimension that has given me such intense human experiences while at the same time allowing me to develop my marketing skills in a niche area that isn’t really developed in Europe.

Seniority

In France, or indeed in another foreign firm in Bangkok, I would probably be positioned higher up in the hierarchy, but with the same level of responsibility. Hospitals are a slightly unusual environment in that management is mainly made up of doctors and nurses. There are few opportunities to progress when you’re a foreign national without medical training. Fortunately, that doesn’t prevent changes in the positions and working conditions.

I work 5 days a week, from 9 am to 6 pm with a 1-hour break. I get 10 days’ holidays a year; I started out with 6! However, fortunately I’m able to take holidays without pay. We are lucky enough here in Thailand to have someone we trust to look after the kids at home. So I probably run around much less than a working mother in Paris (at least that’s what I tell myself whenever I start complaining), although I run around the place quite a lot all the same!

In Thailand, as in many other Asian countries, children are raised by their grandparents while their parents go to work to meet the needs of the family. Working conditions are still very traditional (clocking in/out, set working hours, uniforms, etc.). We are a long way from telecommuting, reduced hours and casual Fridays!
Maternity leave lasts 3 months from the time you give birth (usually by planned Caesarean). So if you give birth naturally, you hang on till the end. The employer pays for 45 days and the Thai social security system pays for another 45 capped at the level of a Thai salary. I’ve seen young mothers come back after a month and a half to receive the 45 days’ wages paid by social security as well as their salary. The mentality here is really very different.”

No Rush!

To conclude, my advice would be not to move too quickly. Try to get a sense of what things are like in the country, meet people to better understand how things work. Some people got in touch with me just to go for a coffee. I like that approach. Sometimes I was able to put them in touch with other people, who in turn put them in touch with others. Bit by bit, you make connections and make a name for yourself. Hooray for networking!

Don’t be afraid of taking a different path, it’s what you have to say about your career that will give it meaning.

Don’t throw yourself at the first job that comes your way! I’ve met a lot of people who, eager to work at any cost, took jobs for employers who were disorganised and had no resources. That’s the perfect combination to damage your ego and erode your self-confidence (two things that are essential for productive job-hunting).

Comments recorded by Gaëlle Grégoire, editorial manager at Expat Value.