Working in Asia: here's how to start your job search and the ONE language you should learn

Moving your life abroad is a huge ordeal.

It takes a kind of gumption and attitude to uproot your life, change your comfortable environment, and rebuild everything from scratch.

It has been one of the most challenging, but also the most rewarding thing I’ve done for my personal and professional career—context switching and working across different cultural teams was the biggest takeaway from working and living in Southeast Asia. Additionally, I have friends around the world, connections at international companies, and places to crash at when I travel.

So you want to work in Asia? Here’s how to start:

1. You’ll need to decide what is most important to you. A couple of factors include compensation, language barrier, sense of community, level of difficulty for adjustment, and safety. If you want to work in Asian countries that mostly speak English, then Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, and Hong Kong are good options. Based on this report from InterNations, you can make a judgement on where you want to go.

2. Decide what you want your life in Asia to look like. Do you want to be set in one city with a job based out of there? Or do you want to be a nomad, work and travel to multiple Asian cities using digital nomad visas?

3. What’s your differentiating factor if you’re looking for a job abroad? Most Americans go to Asia to teach English because that’s the easiest differentiating factor they can market. When I moved to Singapore, I stressed my Silicon Valley background and experiences working at startups, as well as the benefits of connecting SEA to the rest of the world. Another friend built PM processes for a gaming company who lacked the technical talent to do so. Another friend worked in South Korean markets, and used her knowledge to become an account manager in Singapore that marketed to Koreans.

4. Find language meetups, professional networks, online expat communities with people from the country you’re from, and let your entire network know what you’d like to do and connect you to someone who is already living abroad or can refer you to a role. Do your best to get a referral when applying to jobs in Asia—many opportunities are connection based.

Featured Job Opportunities in Asia (for English speakers)

• Smart Workers Home - a job board that doesn’t only cater to US audiences, but also to remote jobs in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe

• Tech and startup companies hiring actively in Asia 2023

• Asia faces shortage of workers who can fill growing number of tech roles, says job portal operator. A search on job portals JobsDB and JobStreet, which are operated by Seek Asia, showed 57K+ jobs available under the information technology category across six Asian economies: Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.

Consider learning a New Language: Tap into your Broca’s area, the Brain’s Scriptwriter 🧠

The Broca area functions for language production and comprehension.

1. Speaking multiple languages has been shown to delay the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

2. You gain increased cultural awareness and sensitivity; you’ll gain a deeper understanding of their world.

3. Being able to speak another language while working abroad in another country helps you effectively communicate through nuances, tones, and even trendy culture. In today’s globalization and remote work developments, speaking multiple languages is an increasingly important skill.

The #1 Language You Should Learn if You Work in Biz is Mandarin (Chinese)

“You’ll either work for a Chinese or work with a Chinese.” Many jobs will pay you more, or take interest if you can speak, read, and write Mandarin.

Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Kushner are raising kids who speak Chinese too. American investor Jim Rogers has been bullish on Asia and China in particular, saying: “If the 19th century belonged to Britain, and the 20th century to the United States. Then the 21st century will surely belong to China,” he said. “Make sure your kids learn Chinese.”

My ABC (American born Chinese) friends are heavily immersing their children to learn Mandarin at a young age, positioning them to be ready for the workforce in the future. Some invest in their private schooling, whether it’s after school tutoring or language immersion programs in the summer.

I was recently in Japan and South Korea, and surprised to see vendors speak out to me in Mandarin. I asked how they learned Mandarin and they said, “We have to. How else will we sell to the Chinese? They come in tour buses and masses—they’re our best customers.”

Without diving into too much, here are some interesting things to know.

• By 2030, China’s private consumption is set to more than double to reach $12.7 trillion, Morgan Stanley analysts said in a report released Wednesday.

• There’s 1.3 billion people in China—imagine being able to communicate with that many people. That helps you hop over a huge language barrier to a specific market and culture.

• Also, don’t you want to know what the Chinese aunties around the world are gossiping about? Juicy. 🍑

Want a question answered? Email me at [email protected] and I’ll do my best to address it in the next newsletter!