Sell Up Everything And Invest The Money
Another alternative to finding employment is investing your money. As you have read this far I suspect that like most of us you do not have a huge sum to invest and live off. Despite this, there are many who sell up all their worldly possessions and head to the Philippines to invest in the family fish farm or piggery. In most cases all the money is gone in a year or so and they are left dead broke.
The family fish farm or piggery may be a viable business but knowing how to manage your investment and protect your capital is vital. In my book I talk about investment opportunities in the Philippines and highlight many of the dangers. I also talk about whether selling up everything is a good idea in the first place.
I always advise keeping something in reserve. Always have enough for a plane ticket home and NEVER spend it. Never. If things get so desperate you need to spend it to survive, then spend it on what it was put away for, a plane ticket back to where you can sort yourself out.
Should you invest in the Philippines or leave it invested offshore, back home? My advice is to invest offshore and play with the left over in the Philippines. Unless you are a natural businessman and have had a lot of experience running successful businesses back home, be very wary of trying your hand in a foreign country with a very different culture and a language you don’t understand.
Keeping your money offshore also keeps it safe from the relatives you will inherit when you marry. Your new wife may be a perfect companion for you but who knows what her family might do if they sense an opportunity. Remember the recent global meltdown and the dot com crashes of a few years ago eroded the value of investments and savings for many retirees. While the value will creep back over time, meanwhile they might be doing it tough. Imagine how much tougher it would be in a foreign country, with perhaps some personal health issues and an pack of inlaws you don’t trust.
Give things some serious though before committing and remember, you can get money into the Philippines a lot easier than trying to get it back out again.
Finding Employment Is Difficult But Not Impossible
Finding work in the Philippines is not easy but it is far from being impossible as I explain in my book, “Making A Living In The Philippines”. I lived in the Philippines for a number of years and found employment with a number of different jobs. If you are seriously interested in finding work in the Philippines in order to live there then reading this book is a must.
The most important thing to have is the right mindset or attitude. There is work to be had. You do have skills someone will pay you for. Never lose track of these thoughts and you will be successful. To ensure success you might have to adapt what you consider as a suitable job, good conditions, fair pay etc.
The locals work longer for less and put up with more than we would ever suffer. In many ways we are spoilt back home as far as our working conditions are concerned. But you are not ‘back home’, are you? The whole reason for being here looking for a job is because you wanted to change your circumstances and take some chances.
The next important thing to have is a ticket home. Always have enough to get you back to where you came from and NEVER spend it. In 2004 I had to decide whether I hung in there a few more weeks and hopefully the man I was working for would come good with my salary and back pay… or cut and run back home for a few months to find a job, make some cash and keep the family alive. I took my airfare out of the bank and used it for that purpose before everyday living would have eaten into it and left me with far fewer options!
Look for a job long before you need it. People can sense when you are desperate and your chances of success drop dramatically for some reason. If you are in the fortunate position of wanting a job but not yet needing one, for some reason you get swamped with opportunities. It’s a bit like when you are single and can’t get a date then you meet a nice girl and all of a sudden every woman in town is after you.
Timing is everything and what usually happens to me is I get one job offer while still waiting to hear from the better job I applied for at the same time. You can avoid this by going for just the one position at a time, but then you need the luxury of not needing a job right away as mentioned above.
When you do have a job, don’t abuse it. Make sure you save at least 10% of your salary no matter how low the pay is. Pay yourself first, then your debts and then live with your means on what is left. Cut your cloth to suit and you are a free man. You can always resign when you want to and not fear being fired. I try to have three months living expenses stashed away so I can be flexible whether working for a salary or working for myself like I am doing now.
Finally, don’t be too proud to accept things are beyond your control and get the heck out of there. Get back to the States or wherever you can get a job, save up some money and then go back and give it another go if you feel you must. When I had to bail out and head home for four months in 2004 I copped a lot of nasty flak on the bulletin boards I posted on. So what? Remember, those that mind don’t matter and those that matter don’t mind.
Employment Conditions
Employment conditions when working for even international companies in the Philippines will usually be sub-standard to what you would expect back home. There are labor laws to protect your rights but exercising them and gaining redress is almost a pointless waste of time and money. In real terms and with a few large corporation exceptions, you won’t have much in the way of worker’s rights, so accept that.
The attitude is all too often one of ‘you are lucky I give you a job’ rather than being valued as a part of the team that helps the owner make money. The fact that everyone is replaceable and there are millions to replace you probably helps this thinking. Added to that the attitude of the well off in most Asian countries to the less fortunate is one we also had in our western societies, albeit back in the middle ages or during the industrial revolution.
Expect to work many hours. Not longer hours, they use 60 minutes as the standard there too, they just expect you to be at your desk for longer. Even if you and everyone else isn’t really achieving anything, it is the perception of how loyal you are to the company that counts. I have worked in companies where everyone has to be there on Saturday and the day is spent wishing we were with our families and doing little productive work if any. What’s the point?
The point is the culture expects people to pay lip service to the hierarchy in place. You will refer to your managers as “Sir Joseph” and “Ma’am Ling Ling”. They will also refer to each other by qualification such as “Attorney Bong” and “Engineer Gusing”. So that should give you an inclination of how the work place operates.
You might not get much of a meal break. You could be expected to arrive at 8am and not leave until 6om, except Saturdays where they will let you come later and go earlier… perhaps. Forget workers compensation if you are injured on the job. There is more chance they will fire you than pay for your medical treatment, something I have witnessed first hand at a Cebu ESL facility with one of the other American teachers.
If you are too ill to come to work, the local practise in smaller firms is to find someone to replace you from your family. Quite an acceptable practice in shops and on building sites but it doesn’t work for us in more executive positions. I had a fellow ESL teacher commit suicide because he was unable to return to work immediately after suffering a heart attack, had no money to return to the USA for treatment and saw no way out other than a bullet to the temple.
There are good firms to work for and if you come as an Expat with the fat cat salary pack, life is very, very good. You will be treated well and think things are little different to the office back home. But they are very different for the local employees and if you are ever a ‘local hire’, you will quickly see the differences. Having worked at a large firm in Cebu that had both expats and local hires as well as Filipino employees, there were three different levels of pay and conditions in force.
For more in-depth, first hand advice and information about this topic, check out my eBook, ‘Making A Living In The Philippines’, also available as a paper back from www.lulu.com.
Philippine Salary
You salary will have a lot to do with the type of work you get and your skill base but there is one thing you can be assured of. It’s going to be a hell of a lot less than you get back home (unless you have that Company Sponsored Employment). If you find a job paying between $1000 and $2000 per month you are still miles ahead of most locals, as many don’t even make that much per annum.
The best paid job I had was teaching English in Manila to Korean students. It paid US$1,000 per month in salary, plus free accommodation, meals (you learn to love Kim Chee) laundry and a flight back to my family in Cebu every month. Mind you, when the off season hits you might find the employer wanting to cut back on your salary and conditions and have you find your own place to stay.
The worst rate of pay I experienced was either working as a Dive Master on a per diver basis and there is a major problem with the tourist trade such as bad weather, international terrorism or a pandemic of some kind; or writing. I once wrote hundreds of short essays varying in language points, grammar useage and length for the equivalent of a tenth of a cent per word. You have to write a lot of words to feed your family at that rate!
I also had a job as Travel Editor for an expat owned company that paid less than US$300 a month plus ‘per diems’. This meant I had to live away from my family for several weeks at a time and stay in dumps of hotel room and eat on less than ten bucks a day. I did get to see a lot of the country though and it was quite an experience but as a money maker, not what I would call a going concern!
If you can arrange the expat fat cat salary pack before you go, then do it. You will get comparable salary to what you made back home plus allowances and freebies such as car and driver, maid, private schooling for the kids and flights home every year or so. Providing there isn’t another global meltdown or Asian financial crises, you should have a ball.
Local Employment Opportunities
If you cannot find that company sponsored job in the Philippines then finding work will be up to you – assuming you have acquired the required visa. Really, the list of prohibited occupations is not a big issue because most of them are very lowly paid anyway. Finding work in a Filipino company will be more challenging than finding work in a company managed by expats. I say managed as opposed to owned because the Philippine government place restrictions on foreign ownership of business and properties in the Philippines.
Of course there is always the ‘black’ job market. Plenty of legitimate businesses such as bars and resorts have expat managers who are not legally permitted to work. There are also many businesses owned by an expat that have a local front person, often ostensibly the ‘manager’, but reporting directly back to the quiet Kano sitting in the corner.
There are jobs to be had teaching English, mainly to Koreans, and also providing services that require either native English speakers or as talent in commercials. These jobs do exist and I have done all of them but TV and Radio work is often a case of feast or famine.
However, if you live here long enough, pretty soon something will come along. You might have a lot of competition for the post but then nothing ventured, nothing gained.
The Dream of Living in the Philippines – Can You Work There?
Many guys have the dream of living in the Philippines but are not ready to retire. The biggest factor stopping us from moving to the Philippines immediately is money, because most of us that don’t have a huge investment portfolio they can live off, need to make a living while living in the Philippines.
One of the first questions that occurs to many is “Can I get employment in the Philippines in my current vocation, or if not what type of work could I find in the Philippines?”. Most realize that they will need a special sort of Visa in order to work in the Philippines and anyone that takes that a little further will find out that obtaining such a visa is not easy.
The short answer is you can’t get a work permit before you arrive unless you are going to a pre-arranged job. You can’t get a work permit once you arrive and then go looking for work. Even if you lived here as a permanent resident with a 13A non-quota immigrant visa, you technically can’t work without a Mayor’s Permit. Having said that I have never had one of those in my life and I have held several positions here, including a few that were very above board.
Even if you had the 13A visa (which means you are married to a Filipina) or hold a 13B Quota Visa ( which will set you back a few grand but it’s cheaper than getting married in the long run!) as a non-Filipino citizen there is a whopping great list of jobs you CAN’T do. It is called the “6th REGULAR FOREIGN INVESTMENT NEGATIVE LIST”. It sets out all the jobs you can’t do as well as the businesses you can’t invest in and those that you can providing you have the right percentage of local ownership.
Just to give you some examples, you can’t; be a doctor, dentist, pharmacist, engineer, accountant, lawyer, chemist, lecturer or teacher unless you have a sponsor. In other words you can’t set up your own medical practise and charge the usual rate of about US$10 a consultation… but would you want to?
The same restrictions apply to plumbers, carpenters, electricians, mechanics and anyone else. The list is long and comprehensive. But of course, di is da pilipeens and that means there is always a way around these things!