When the first job goes wrong…

After graduating in Myanmar, studying German in Berlin and traveling all over the world for a while in search of my place on the planet, the time has come to stop for a while and start working. My first successful job hunt took place in Bangkok, Thailand, but sadly nothing went as it should…

There are many ways of finding a job these days and one has to be creative, brave and bold to stand out of the crowd. I’ve figured out that my passion for travel, ability to speak multiple languages and a past internship in one of the leading Destination Management Companies in Asia makes me a perfect fit to work in the travel industry.

Instead of going the traditional way and applying for the jobs posted on various websites, I’ve decided to take the matters into my own hands. I’ve found a number of tour companies with offices in Bangkok, prepared a nice e-mail and CV and approached them directly to apply for a job which wasn’t advertised and therefore technically didn’t exist.

To my surprise, I’ve got plenty of responses and attended a few interviews, which eventually resulted in getting two job offers. The first one was in a large international and well-known Destination Management Company. They’ve wanted to train me from scratch in various departments to see which one I’d enjoy the most and be most useful in. The salary was satisfactory given that it would be my first real job. The only drawback would be that I’ll need to take care of my own visa and work permit as the company is too small in Thailand to help in organising it.

The second offer was to become a Product Trainee with a potential future promotion to Product Executive in a “fast growing Asian Destination Management Company with specialised focus on Thailand, Indochina and United Arab Emirates.” The company is also “an online wholesaler of global non-air travel inventory with its focused distribution in the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent & ASEAN region.

Despite of a slightly lower salary, I chose the latter as the company promised to sort out my visa and work permit. The first version of the proposed contract didn’t include it so I’ve asked for the revision and got it. I’ve accepted the offer on one Friday and was supposed to start on the following Monday.

I had bad feelings from Day 1. It turned out that I’m supposed to be a Product Trainee/Assistant to the Product Manager who is based in India. I quickly got a feeling that he didn’t want to work with me and the only reason I got the job was that the Thai Managing Director seemed to be confident in my abilities. The day hasn’t even ended when the Thai Managing Director said that there will be problems with my visa and work permit and that most likely I’ll have to work remotely and perhaps even return to my country as soon as my tourist visa expires…

On the next day the management has decided that they don’t want me to be a Product Trainee anymore, but they want me to get familiar with their products and work as a salesperson for them in Yangon. That’s definitely not what I agreed for, nor what was in my contract… My mid to long-term plan also included living in Thailand. After all if I’ve wanted to live and work in Myanmar, I’d have found a job there…

Since my visa was expiring in about two weeks and I had nothing else to do, I’ve decided to go with the flow and see what happens. On the same day I got sent to inspect Sea Life Bangkok Ocean World, Madame Tussaud and one of the dinner cruises on Chao Phraya river. Prior to venturing off, I’ve asked the General Manager in the office who also happens to be from India to give me his phone number just in case. He did but not without saying something along the lines of “If anything happens, I don’t know you.” Encouraging, huh?

I was back home at 11pm, which marked my first 13-hour workday naturally without any additional compensation. I got full 4h of sleep since I had to start over again at 6am to go for my inspection. That was another long day consisting of visiting Damnoen Saduak Floating Market and writing some reports in the office.

The following day also started early, but I was back home in the early afternoon. Knowing that tomorrow I’m supposed to go to Pattaya for a few days to inspect attractions there, I’ve asked the Thai MD for the rest of the day off so I could catch a breath and prepare. She agreed saying that it will be deducted from my salary. Pissed off that my aggregating overtime counted for nothing I went to the office where I had to fight hard with the Indian GM to get some refunds for expenses incurred during my inspections.

I went to Pattaya (work all weekend, more overtime) feeling tired, sleepy and disappointed with the way the company has been treating me so far. I came back being almost certain that I won’t continue my relationship with the company upon my coming up return to Yangon for a while. I gave it a chance, however, and showed up in the office on Monday marking my full week at work without any breaks.

I’ve finally met the Thai Managing Director who was in Phuket all the time. She told me that it would take 4 months for them to process my visa and work permit (seriously?) during which I have to stay abroad. Claiming that she has come back solely to meet me (I seriously doubt that…) she gave me two choices: I can either do sales for them from Yangon for the next 4 months or do nothing, come back in 4 months and we’ll have a fresh start as soon as my paperwork is done.

I’ve quickly consulted the proposal with my partner and we came into an agreement that we will take the “do nothing” option since I’m most likely going to quit anyway. I haven’t even managed to talk about this !
to my boss when she said that there’s been a change of plans and there are no options anymore. It’s either sales or get lost…

I got home and I felt that all the tiredness and perhaps something else caught up with me. I started to have a high fever and other symptoms of a typical flu. I’ve decided to take a day or two off to recover and then quit hoping that at a very least the company would pay me for the days I’ve worked so far.

Thai Managing Director agreed to my 2 days off. On the third day which happened to be a public holiday in Thailand and the office was closed for business she sent me a message that she needs to urgently meet with me before she goes to Phuket again. Since I still didn’t feel well, I refused and said that we can have a Skype call on the next day. She accepted, but a few hours later send me an e-mail terminating my contract due to problems with visa and work permit…

Thankfully I got paid for the days I’ve worked. An extra benefit was having free trips around Bangkok, to the floating market and Pattaya with plenty of attractions to which a ticket normally cost between a few hundred and a few thousand baht. I’ve also learned that a written contract means nothing in Thailand and some businesses would do whatever they like, change their minds multiple times and generally screw you over at their convenience.

Even though it was short, I don’t regret my experience. I came back to Yangon today as the last thing I’d like to do would be to break Thailand’s immigration laws. I’m planning to spend some time with my family, see my friends, regroup, rethink everything and try again.

After all “(…) It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward.(…)”