Vietnam is a promising land with famous landscapes, friendly people, a lot of attractive job opportunities and not-too-high cost of living, therefore, it has become increasingly popular as an expat destination in recent years.
Before the Covid time, number of expats living and working in Vietnam was 117,800 in 2019, 10 times higher than 2005, and 1.4 times higher than 2015.
Living in Vietnam will be a great experience if you are well prepared. In this article, Luc Mandret, an expat in Vietnam largest city of Saigon will share with you about the reason why he will extend his living in the country:
“I relocated to South-East Asia five years ago.
Initially it was supposed to be a 6-months mission with Publicis, delivering GTM strategies for emerging markets.
During my last holiday in France, many people asked me about the main differences between work in Europe and work in Asia.
My first reply is always the heterogeneity. Vietnam and Cambodia have a lot in common but so many differences. Many companies are operating their activities in Laos from Thailand, but still the cultural gap and behaviors are massive. Don’t consider “South-East Asia” as a global approach, multicultural and specificities will make your business more relevant.
Vietnam is now the country I know the best. I have friends here, I feel connected with this culture and atmosphere, I am a “Tây Mắm Tôm”. Mindset is what I like the most at work here: optimism and positive energy, can-do attitude, fast actions, willingness to learn, capacity to challenge and being challenged, multi-skills and multi-expertises.
When it comes to the communication industry, it seems sometimes Vietnam is far in advance compared to France: strategies are always full-integrated, KPIs are at the core of all proposals, and experts’ collaboration is mandatory to perform better. Agencies not working in that direction are dying or going to die.
On a personal note, that was challenging at first. Coming with a corporate consulting background, and even with strong digital skills, I had to supercharge my knowhow in e-commerce and social-commerce, in performance marketing and acquisition, in media strategies etc. And then connecting the dots make the beauty of it.
Vietnam’s GDP grew almost 8% in the first half of 2022 and the growth is expected to continue, with a major trend of shifting foreign investment from China to Vietnam. That will bring a lot of opportunities for sure. Economic growth for marketing and communication professionals will mean corporate reputation to build, competitive marketing performances to achieve and … more budget!
I work by cycles. Every four to five years I need new challenges.
Vietnam will bring a lot of challenges for sure, now it’s time to structure and make sure we will not face a growth-crisis in our industry.
Ready for 5 more years!”
@ Luc Mandret