Job Discussion Forums

kathleenferrin · Joined: 13 Sep 2004 Posts: 1

Hi all.
I'm a newbie here, but I have been poking around for awhile. I have a question about Chiang Mai that I'm hoping someone can help me with.

Basically, is it possible to start my career out there? I am currently in the States and have pretty much given up on finding a job from here, so in a month I will be flying out to try my luck in person. I have my heart set on Chiang Mai, but for every 100 job postings I see for Bangkok there is perhaps 1 for Chiang Mai. Are there any jobs? And once one reaches the city, what are the best routes for finding them?

A little about myself for clarification: I am a native speaker, have a recent bachelor's degree, a TESL certificate and a bunch of voluntary teaching experience. And I am a very positive person who adapts easily.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

JosephP · Joined: 13 May 2003 Posts: 445

Chiang Mai is a bit unusual. It's such a nice place (I think so) that many sacrifice salary just for a chance to live there. 180 baht an hour and sometimes even worse! Those who have even so-so ESL jobs don't rotate out much -- meaning there isn't a lot of turnover. But who knows, give it a go. If you want to live in places outside Chiang Mai you might want to try Rajabhats in Chiang Rai, Uttaradit, or Lampang. Now is the time because you might get on with the upcoming semester in November.
Choke dee...

sigmoid · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 1276

As usual I would dissuade anybody going to teach in Thailand at this time. Unless you have absolutely no need to make money. i.e. you are rich or have a substantial pension.

As Joe P points out if you can find work in CM you won't make enough money to live on. There are plenty of jobs in the rest of Thailand, but the pay is similarly low. Laughing

Dex · Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 38

WQhat is your idea of a poor salary? how much do you think is a good salary for thailand?

sigmoid · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 1276

kenkannif · Joined: 07 Apr 2004 Posts: 550

Siggy,

What do you mean by an average person?

sigmoid · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 1276

Sheep-Goats · Joined: 16 Apr 2004 Posts: 527

As has been mentioned already, Chiang Mai is a desireable location for many (especially Americans, for some reason) and as such the wages are lower than they should be. However, there's also a lot less to spend your money on in Chiang Mai than in Bangkok (frankly, I spent three weeks there and was bored for 2.5 of them) so you'll be able to make do with much less. Rent is cheaper as well, and if you find a place with a decent location you'll likely be able to walk to 90% of your desired locations anyway. Take note that the traffic is currently horrendous in Chiang Mai, largely because Taksin is from there and he's pushed to have all of the roads renovated at once in order to try and make Chiang Mai some kind of trade hub in the next few years, or something like that.

My guess is that it's quite possible to show up in Chiang Mai and find work at the moment. Expect to make 23 to 25k baht a month, with overtime and/or privates thin on the ground. This means you'll probably have an adequate lifestyle, but you'll also probably pay for your to/from Thailand airfare out of your savings. Other than the jobs board at ajarn.com, your most reliable ways of finding English teaching work are to directly contact language schools in the area (these almost always have web sites), drop by the AUA (American Alumni Association, which does a lot of language teaching itself) branch and see what people there know, and scour any university web pages for director's or department heads' contact info. Also, ask the Thais if they know of anywhere else English is being taught and follow those leads.

While you're looking, stay at Libra guesthouse, Moon Muang Soi 9. My friend works there and it's probably the best value for your Baht I've seen in Thailand as far as accomodation goes.

wasana063 · Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 3 Location: Chiang Mai

[quote="Dex"]WQhat is your idea of a poor salary? how much do you think is a good salary for thailand?[/quote]

The good and poor salary is up to how you gonna spend them. The stadard rate for Thai people who have bachelor degree is at 6,350baht per month. Some people got less than that. Anyway, the foreign staff usually get about 20,000 - 30,000baht if they can get a job with work permit. For Chiang Mai, there are not many full-time jobs available, but there are still many part-time teaching jobs in language schools. We still require the native speakers to teach English nowadays.

It's good to stay in Chiang Mai as the cost of living is not really high as Bkk or other cities in your country. Also, we still have a good wheather here especially in winter. I was born and live here, so I can confirm about this.

By the way, good luck to you, kathleenferrin.. for your trip to Chiang Mai. You'd better start looking for a job as the second semester will start in November.