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Which countries in South/East Asia match my resume?

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jrndv87

Hi all,
It's my dream to work and live in South/East Asia. I reside in Belgium, my country of birth. Getting a decent job is probably the main obstacle. I was wondering in which countries/cities my chances are maximized. A brief resume is shown below. I am not picky at jobs, but the salary should allow me to a live comfortably. Based on my internet research, China(Shangai) and Japan(Tokyo) seem to be the best match. But it's hard to verify and easy to forget things...  I would really appreciate your help! Also, should a job always be arranged before departure (avoid visa issues)?

-------- Mini Resume -----------------------------------
age 25, male, no wife, no children
2005 - 2008: Bachelor Electrical Engineering minor Computer Sciences, cum laude, Belgium
2008 - 2010: Master Electrical Engineering, magna cum laude, Belgium
2011 - 2012: Postgraduate Biomedical Engineering, magna cum laude, Belgium
2010 - 2012: R&D Engineer KLA-Tencor (19 months), Belgium
2012 - ... : Researcher at University, Belgium (>= 6 months)
1 publication in an international IEEE conference
English: very good, French: OK, Dutch: native language

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Job offers in AsiaWorking in TaiwanWorking in VietnamInternships in JapanInternships in Singapore
Aurélie

Hello jrndv8.

Welcome to Expat.com! :)

Hope you'll get some suggestions soon.

Thank you,
Aurélie

iamjames

I would strongly suggest you have a position before you move otherwise the paperwork and visas become a nightmare. From a language perspective Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore or Hong Kong would be good options. Another option would be to get a post with a company in Belgium or Holland where you would have a relocation option. That would be by far the best option as it would pay better.

gjfhiue

If you don't mind the heat, your western education can earn you from $500 to $2000 per month in Cambodia, depending on how well your business goes or how much you exploit the workers. You can pay them $80 a month and they'll steal your materials, or pay $200 and you'll make a great team (if they don't run off after giving them too much).

The reason I suggest Cambodia is because you can already live here on a 1 year business visa (only a valid passport and $285 is needed). So you can live here for half a year to see how things work and get business ideas.

People here can be quite uneducated and unintelligent. Even in some excellency family only one daughter went to university while the other kids cannot read or write properly. It's a big problem getting quality products and services.

So you can do something with electricity? An electrician here quite often doesn't know what a watt is. I wish I would be a mechanic because everyone rides motorbikes and there's always a broken one for sale which anyone can fix and sell again. I see a market for original sportswear, iso standard helmets, UV protective sunglasses and quality healthcare. Sometimes you cannot find the simplest thing or it's all bad thai or chinese products, and then somebody makes a nice living importing stuff from USA,  Europe or Japan.

I'm not sure what can you do with biomedical engineering but if it's of western quality and high standard, safe and not poisonous, then it's a money maker here. A korean guy imports UPVC window frames from Korea and there's no end of window orders. Glass is already here, so he only does measuring, cutting and putting everything together. Then he comes to install windows and listen to customer complaints and fixes them.

There's lots of competition in China or Japan for people with western-standard diplomas. In Cambodia there's very little competition cause not many have a masters degree nor does everyone go to school. One time a foreigner was looking for an egg timer in the market but the girl selling basic kitchen equipment doesn't know what it means to have a clock that tells you when the egg is cooked. We measure time, they just leave it cooking.

And usually countries don't allow job searching on tourist visas, except in Cambodia where you can get visa on arrival, check business/ordinary visa, give $25 and 2 passport photos and extend it later in a travel agency. You can live on it, do work, quit work and open a company without leaving the country. Awesome!

Wimbleton

All the above is true . However when u come the form on the airline will ask you fill in what type of visa fill in the Ordinary visa( used to be called  Business visa)  and once u have filled it in and when asked how long u are contemplating being in country mark 6 months ( so they dont confuse u want a tourist visa ) ... THEN TAKE APICTURE OF DOCUMENT  WITH YOUR PHONE , BECAUSE IF THERE IS A MISTAKE AND THEY GIVE U A TOURIST VISA , YOU CAN SHOW THEM PROOF . By the way many would NOT KNOW IF THEY ARE GETTING A TOURIST VISA  IT MUST START EI ............ ON THE LEFT OF YOUR. VISA .... Make SURE. U do not pay the 25 us if you do not see the Eixxxxxxxxxx no. If u get tourist u have to leave country and start again . a little expensive and INCONVENIENT.......it all in the details ....

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