AsiaLIFE

For many of us a New Year heralds a new start. For some, that involves a change of job or more drastically a new career. Is Cambodia a good place to try and translate those good intentions into reality? Johan Smits spoke to a few people in the field of human resources, to some employers and to a number of local expats who found a job here or took the leap to start their own business.

“Expect to take a salary cut when you start a job here in Cambodia,” warns Curran Hendry, Director of HR Services at AAA. His company offers professional training and HR services. “There may be exceptions for very specific skills such as high level engineering and so on, but these people are usually outsourced from abroad. Patience is the key.” According to Curran, there is not an overwhelming demand out there. Around 80 percent of AAA’s clients request positions that are for mid- to upper-level Cambodian management. But don’t despair yet – as a local expat you can be very interesting to a cost-conscious employer. “Local expats who are living here are already familiar with Cambodia,” he says. “They sometimes can offer the same level of skill sets as a relocating expat, but at a much lower cost, while repatriating an expat is expensive.”

Kevin Britten, managing director of The Secretary, believes there is a supply of young people here with a range of skills. However there’s a reluctance to employ non-Khmer speakers in a Khmer speaking/bilingual office. “The better ones end up freelancing and consulting,” he says. “This is good as the employers are breaking labour law by employing them without work passes anyway.”

So, what is the plus side about finding employment in Cambodia? “The job market is so small that it’s easy to meet people,” Kevin says. Curran agrees. “Networking is important,” he says. “There exists a variety of networking events in Phnom Penh for pro-active, outgoing individuals to go to.” Taking a professional approach to your job seeking is also important advises Susanna Coghlan, Director of Training at AAA. “Do just like you would at home,” she says. “It’s no different over here – for example writing a good CV and a follow-up letter.”

But this being Cambodia where everything goes, would it be acceptable to wander into your interview in flip-flops, wearing a Bob Marley t-shirt and brandishing the peace sign? “Absolutely not,” says Curran. “Attitude is key – be patient, act courteously, be on time, dress properly, wear a tie, be professional. Expect the same standards of interviewing as in the West.”

A Bleak Outlook

Knowing all this, what is the state of the Cambodian job market for local expats? Both Curran and Kevin agree that the supply is growing stronger than demand. “I think there will be more people in the pool with more experience so the less experienced will find it harder to get work” says Kevin.

According to Curran the job market is relatively fixed, but there is an increase in expats looking for jobs. The demand for certain jobs in the construction industry is diminishing, such as for people with a western civil engineering background and architects. After the recent boom in the construction sector, the current stagnation is affecting those kinds of jobs in particular. Add to this an increasing level of competition from Cambodian job seekers and the picture becomes rather gloomy.

“We decreased the number of expat employees because Cambodians are improving,” says Senaka Fernando, director of Price Waterhouse Coopers. “All we need is local people who speak good English and have the right personality. Then we train them,” he says. All of their professional Cambodian staff are put through a rigorous training course accredited by ACCA – the Association of Certified Corporate Accountants. “Once they have this qualification, they can find a job anywhere.”

Senaka now hires only local expats that have worked previously for PWC or for an international accounting firm, unless they have a good track record that can be traced. He emphasises the importance of screening perspective employers, referring to the recent incident of a foreigner arrested for paedophilia, who worked at one of the capital’s two international schools. Not that he wants to discourage expats coming over. “They can find a job if they really want to,” he assures. “But I really encourage employers to do a proper background check.”

Career Change: Fresh Perspectives

To many young people the exoticism of Cambodia and its pace of development make it an ideal environment to start a new life and try a career change. Do they have more of a chance here than in their home country in the West? Not according to Curran. “Cambodia is a small labour market,” he says. “A person with marketing or sales experience who suddenly wants to work for an NGO is going to have a hard time finding a job. It’s not a free-for-all market, you still need good skills and experience.”

Joep Roest is living proof that it is possible to find the job of your dreams in Phnom Penh. The thirty-one-year-old Dutchman arrived here in late 2007 to join his girlfriend. Barely one week later he started his first employment with a U.N. organisation.“It was unpaid and a real change of pace from my previous job but a totally new environment,” he says. “I was keen to be doing something as I was afraid that any extended period of joblessness would make it extremely hard to find work, stay in a relationship and stay sane.”
But his willingness to work without salary for a while paid off in the end.

“It was apparent to me that the internship was a stop-gap,” he says. “It would last me until I found something more challenging.” That translated itself four months later into a managerial position at a new start-up in the private sector where he felt he belonged. “Some aspects are similar to my previous work but the key difference is the scope of the work,” he explains. “Before I was working in a much more specialised role.”

Career Change: The Full Monty

Thirty-nine-year-old David Towers didn’t have any problems getting employed either. “My background was in strategic planning at universities and colleges in the U.K., but that became a bit boring,” he says. “It made me think, what will I be doing in five years time?” David initially wanted to work for Unicef or Unesco in South-America, but the amount of red tape involved and the low pay made him look at Asia. As he had no teaching experience, he first put himself through a teaching course in Bangkok.

“Cambodia seemed more attractive to me, less developed,” he explains. “Instead of watching a soap opera on TV, you could take part in one,” he smiles. It took him 24 hours to find his first teaching job. Initially he just wanted to teach but very soon he was offered the post of acting dean at a major university. The self-effacing Scot felt the position to be a little too grandiose, so he became ‘Officer in Charge’ instead. “The first six months I started teaching and watched all the chaos and observed all the problems,” he recalls. “Then I went to the vice-rector and proposed a series of measurements to help solve all those problems. Ninety percent of what I wanted to do got accepted. I really enjoyed it!”

Just like Joep, David wasn’t paid that much in the beginning. “But the experience was invaluable,” he says. His one regret is that during those three-and-a-half years he should have done a lot of networking. “I was very happy then and was purely focused on the job,” he says. By chance a friend told him about a World Bank funded project in management information systems in higher education. This led to a contract job in Tadjikistan and later to a position as project planner in the Sudan. After the project in the Sudan finished, David returned to a part-time position of scholarship advisor in Cambodia.

Landing the Dream Job

So there are opportunities out there, but how do you grab them? “Looking for work in Cambodia from Holland proved difficult, so I decided to make the leap and start searching once I arrived,” says Joep. “My feeling was that it would be easier to convince any potential employer of my worth in person than it would be by sending a C.V. that did not match what they were offering.”

In the beginning Joep started by thumbing through the job advertisements in the Cambodia Daily every morning. “My afternoons were spent exploring the city and getting through a pile of Sopranos episodes,” he recalls. “After one week of this, I came across an advertisement for an internship with a U.N. organisation. I applied and was accepted after a short interview.”

Are there perhaps any Cambodian-specific skills that might do the magic? “The biggest problem here is becoming too pushy and ambitious,” says David. “You first need to understand the Cambodian mindset. My experience at Norton University was crucial to comprehend Cambodian working practices.” He also found that actually being a part of an institution required him to support his colleagues, rather than telling them what to do. “As a consultant on the other hand, you have a client relationship – the rules are different,” he says.

Joep had a similar experience – to him it was all about communication.  “I am learning to communicate differently with my Khmer colleagues than with my western colleagues,” he explains. “Speak slowly and think about the words you are using. It is more difficult to maintain than you might think. It does pay dividends in the end however as many mutually frustrating miscommunications are avoided.” David believes his previous experience aided him a lot. “Coming here as a twenty-year-old without actual work experience would be a lot harder,” he reckons.

Learning the Local Lingo

Curran from AAA thinks that you should make the effort to learn the language somehow. “It may not be imperative for your job but it definitely helps,” he says. “It adds a great deal of value to your experience here in Cambodia.” Joep agrees. “It did not play a role in my job search but it would have helped,” he says. “Knowing Khmer is definitely important and much sought after by employers. It is something I have vowed to work on since starting this job as I see foreigners who speak Khmer get so much in return for knowing even just a bit.”

Kevin from The Secretary looks at it in a more nuanced way. “Language acquisition is based on need,” he says. “Cambodians and foreigners who need to learn each others’ language will do so. Bear in mind that ‘need’ is complex and is manifested at a number of levels.” That ‘need’ wasn’t there for David. “Learning Khmer is something I feel I should do rather than have to do,” he says.

So what advice do these successful jobseekers have for aspiring ones? “Get working as soon as you can,” Joep says. “Try not to find the ideal fit with your previous experience, it probably does not exist here. Come at it from the angle that this is an opportunity to do something new. Be cheeky and apply for anything that interests you and get in front of people, let them know who you are.”

To David it’s important to take into account Cambodia’s history. “If you’re coming from the West, you have to realise where Cambodia is coming from,” he advises. “Stop comparing [Cambodia] with your own country’s standards.” So is Cambodia the new El Dorado or not? The answer must be both yes and no. While there are a lot of unique opportunities around, the consensus seems to be that you only get out of it what you put into it.

Joep’s summary describes what many expat workers experience. “When I went back home I had a great many people telling me they would love to do what my girlfriend and I have done,” he explains. “Then comes the ‘but....’ We have been lucky but getting it all to come together has involved taking some risks and walking away from a lot. In then end we made it happen, nothing was handed to us and that is why we are here and they are not.”

Starting Your Own Business

Perhaps a more straightforward way of achieving that long-awaited career change is to take the leap and set up your own business – surely that would be a lot easier? Johan Smits sets off in pursuit of the answer to the million riel question. “I'd say, yes.” Kevin Britten is unequivocal in his support of the view that Phnom Penh is a Mecca for those wishing to establish their own business. “I know people from the military and construction industry who’ve re-invented themselves as bar owners.” Kevin himself used to be in Occupational Health and Safety training and education. “I've only been running my own business since I came to Cambodia,” he says. “Re-inventing yourself is an interesting idea, and quite possible here.”
So, why don’t we all start our own businesses then?

“You have to be very serious about it,” says Lionel Cadiot who runs his own company Endemic Mosquito Control. “It’s really hard work, you have to be professional and take good care of your customers – it’s a small village here.” He also advises that who you know is as important as what you know. “In the beginning, when I was in advertising, I had some nasty competitors who wanted me out of the country,” he claims. “Having good contacts here is very important. Once you know the right people here, life becomes much easier.”

There seems to be general agreement that Cambodia offers more opportunities for setting up shop than in the West. Lionel sees three major advantages in Cambodia compared to his native France. According to him, you don’t need much finance to start off with, the paperwork is cheaper and much less complicated and cheaper, and there are still many opportunities.  “If you have a good idea and it’s original, you can start,” he says. “There’s less competition here, you can still be the first.”

Getting on your Bike

Thirty-nine year old Mark Ellison, who started his travel agency Asia Adventures, has experienced more of a roller-coaster ride. His has been one of trial and error. Like many of us, he first came to Cambodia as a tourist and fell in love with the country. At the time he was working in the U.K. promoting cycling tourism, he noted there weren’t any cycling tour companies out here. He carried out further research in the U.K. and in 2004 he came back to Cambodia to set up his own cycling tour company.

“With hindsight I was very naive,” he admits. “I didn’t know anybody here. I didn’t know Cambodia. I didn’t know much about tourism in Cambodia.” The first few months he spent cycling around the country. He soon teamed up with another expat who had a small tourism business here. They worked together for several months before realising they weren’t really on the same wavelength. “Then I was approached by a larger tour operator and started working for them as a management consultant,” he says. “Those two years were really useful. I made a lot of contacts in the industry and learnt a lot about the tourism sector in Cambodia, how it really works and so on.” During those crucial years he also discovered there wasn’t really a huge market for bicycle tourism here. Instead he decided to set up a regular tour company with cycling as a niche.

Red Tape, Stamps and Certificates

Like Lionel, Mark agrees that setting up a company here is actually a pretty straightforward and simple process. “But nobody explains it to you, and the people involved make it more difficult,” Mark says. “It’s substantially cheaper than in the U.K. but there are a lot of ‘service charges’ with almost every civil servant you have to go through. Cambodia seems to be a country of stamps – I had to bite my tongue many times. Eventually I left all this to my Khmer partner.”

Lionel also had to overcome a major obstacle. “It was a nightmare to find the right people with the right skills especially in sales,” he says. “They all have an MBA but in reality it’s a different story.” This view is echoed by Price Waterhouse Coopers’ Senaka Fernando. “Qualifications are pretty bad,” he says. “All those MBAs don’t mean much – you pay, you pass.”

Child’s Play

For forty-year-old Valerie Jullien from southern France, starting her own business almost came as an accident. “I never considered starting my own business – it’s not what I wanted,” she says.
Valerie arrived four years ago to work with Unesco and was employed at the Royal University of Fine Arts on an archaeology and architecture project.

“My first experience was working with Cambodians in a Cambodian institution,” she explains. “Then I became a mother and decided to stay here.” She took a year’s maternity leave to spend time with her baby and then tried to find a job relating to her professional experience and background. It didn’t work out.  “Maybe it just wasn’t the right time for me,” she says. “I got the idea of making children’s clothes.” She talked to friends and less than two months later “6 to 6” was born, a small boutique selling children’s clothes at a space she rents at Elsewhere.

Like Lionel, she discovered there was very little competition. “At least not for the day-to-day style of clothes that I produce,” she says. “I think I’m the only one selling clothes for under-one-year-olds.” It’s not as easy as it sounds though. “You need to put in a lot of human effort, and there is a lot of learning on the job,” Valerie says. “I started making clothes for my little daughter and I picked up a lot from friends. One of them had been a professional pattern maker with an international fashion designer.”

There is also a lot of exchange involved with her staff. “I bring in a lot of ideas and my vision while I learn from them the more technical aspects,” she explains. Her challenges are more of a practical nature compared with Lionel and Mark. “It’s sometimes difficult to find the appropriate fabric and the level of quality that I want. I need to spend a lot of time going around asking everywhere,” she says. “Then there are also the small things like power cuts etc., but that’s the same for everybody else.”

For her, the most important factor in deciding to give it a go was the support she has received from her friends and the community at large. “When I told my friends that I wanted to do this, everybody wanted to help,” she says. Barely a couple of months in business, Valerie now employs five people.

Some useful sources
HR Inc. Cambodia, human resource and recruiting agency, www.hrinc.com.kh

American Academic Associates Ltd. (AAA), professional training and human resource services, www.aaacambodia.com

The Secretary Ltd., business services and facilities, www.thesecretarycambodia.com

www.Bongthom.com, website listing job offerings

www.expat-advisory.com, website listing job offerings

The Phnom Penh Post, daily newspaper with classifieds

The Cambodia Daily, daily newspaper with classifieds

International Business Club (IBC), 56 Sothearos Blvd., Tel: 023 210 225 www.ibccambodia.com

British Business Association of Cambodia (BBAC), 124 Norodom Blvd., Tel: 012 803 891 has monthly networking events for members and guests

ANZ Sundowners, regular networking event at the rooftop of ANZ Royal’s head office.