Supporting Yourself in Thailand by Working There

Working in Thailand as a foreigner normally means occupying an English teaching position. Even though there are well paid English teaching positions in universities like Thammasat or Chulalongkorn, the vast majority of such teaching posts offer little pay.

In point of fact, don’t anticipate a high salary for any highly skilled job, teaching or otherwise. It does sound all bad, but actually if you want to live in Thailand for an extended period of time, such poorly paid jobs aren’t any trouble because the cost of living is very low in Thailand, the infrastructure is the best in South East Asia, it’s a safe country, and you can still rise up the career ladder because you can gain a great work experience in Thailand.

But there is a hidden dilemma that only presents itself after some time: you’ve been working in Thailand for a few years, you’ve gained great work experience, your pay isn’t great, but then again things are cheap in Thailand so that’s OK. BUT, guess what? You’ve not been able to save much money while you’ve been staying in Thailand. Airfares look incredibly over-priced compared to your pay in Thailand. The cost of living in your home country gets to panic you when you compare your Thai salary. This dilemma hits a lot of foreigners in Thailand a year or so after deciding to work there. Lasting future plans can often be delayed because you don’t have the nest egg of money to put into action any long-term plan like purchasing a house, buying a car, or getting married.

So when considering living in Thailand, also remember that you will find it incredibly difficult to save meaningful amounts of hard cash when considering the costs of your home country.

Even so, it’s not all about money is it? You can have a great time in Thailand, perhaps acquire the Thai language, make new friends, go travelling around the country in your freetime, and gain some valuable work experience.

So what kind of job positions can you find in Thailand? Looking at jobs-quality.com – a website listing jobs in and around the Bangkok and Chonburi areas of Thailand – they have listed HR job positions, Administration jobs, sales executive jobs in Thailand, safety officer jobs etc. Basically the types of work placements you’d find in your home country. While most of these posts may be seeking a Thai speaker, you will still find English-speaking prerequisites within many multinational companies.