‘Culture shocks’ jolt students returning to Vietnam

A dream job After four years of studying marketing at a university in the U.K., Pham Thi Thanh Huyen was looking forward, eagerly, to getting a dream job.  She’d worked hard to get an overseas degree and was ready to deploy her new knowledge and skills and reap its benefits.  However, the dream job has remained just that – a dream. It took a year after returning for Huyen to eventually find a job at a bank, which pays her around VND10 million ($430) a month, just enough to cover basic living costs in the busy city of Hanoi, making the same money as peers who studied in the country. “I find it hard to enjoy work as I’m only making enough to survive,” the 24-year-old said. Huyen’s plight, and that of many others returning with foreign degrees, does not end with lower than expected pay packages. They find that they there are other factors to finding jobs that they’d not considered before.  Many returnees find that the labor market in Vietnam doesn’t welcome them with special positions in companies. They come back to find that their foreign study has not added value to their resume.  “Most Vietnamese businesses don’t particularly prioritize recruiting returnees,” said Ngo Thi Ngoc Lan, regional director of Navigos Search, a leading provider of executive search services in Vietnam. Applicants are recruited based on how well they suited the company, and not their studies abroad, Lan told VnExpress International. For middle level management jobs, employers care… [Read full story]