Office job vs Doing Nails or Hair

[Jerry & Fiona 1]

It seems to me that many people who come here from Vietnam have a difficult time finding work. The default, from what I hear, is the nail or salon job.

My wife wants a normal office type job. She is going to nail school just to have it as a backup. She took a job this passed week for Allstate insurance. This particular branch is VN owned and operated I suspect from what she tells me. I wonder if they are taking advantage of her. The other people in that office are VN also. I digress.

Anyway, her English is excellent and she was an Administrative Manager for an architectural firm in HCMC before coming here, and really smart and good with people.

I think we are finding that with her resume, American employers are unable to do background checks, check up on recent employment and personal references because they are all based in Vietnam. It isn't necessary for her to work. I make enough to take care of everything. But she doesn't like to stay home all day. I don't blame her.

I am curious to learn about your personal experiences with this and looking forward to your ideas. By the way, we are in Dallas, Texas.

All the best,

Jerry & Fiona

PS. We are so happy here together.

Edited October 25, 2011 by Jerry & Fiona

[Dan_P 5]

Finding an office job is great, but she's going to most likely have to start at the bottom especially with no work experience in the United States and, i am assuming no degree from a US college. Heck, many people with degrees and work experience are having a hard time finding work. If she doesn't like to stay home, what about going to school?

[confusedasheck 21]

Maybe she could go to a community college first to get the basics out of the way and then transfer to a four-year university.

[luckytxn 2,265]

It seems to me that many people who come here from Vietnam have a difficult time finding work. The default, from what I hear, is the nail or salon job.

My wife wants a normal office type job. She is going to nail school just to have it as a backup. She took a job this passed week for Allstate insurance. This particular branch is VN owned and operated I suspect from what she tells me. I wonder if they are taking advantage of her. The other people in that office are VN also. I digress.

Anyway, her English is excellent and she was an Administrative Manager for an architectural firm in HCMC before coming here, and really smart and good with people.

I think we are finding that with her resume, American employers are unable to do background checks, check up on recent employment and personal references because they are all based in Vietnam. It isn't necessary for her to work. I make enough to take care of everything. But she doesn't like to stay home all day. I don't blame her.

I am curious to learn about your personal experiences with this and looking forward to your ideas. By the way, we are in Dallas, Texas.

All the best,

Jerry & Fiona

PS. We are so happy here together.

If she would rather work in an office then by all means she should do so. If she has a job at the Allstate then she should stick it out there until she gets a lot more experience and acclimated. Then she just needs to network now and again and keep her eyes and ears open until a better job comes along at more pay.

Nails and salons are not for everyone and only if one has the patience and the wanting to do that work should do it. My wife is doing the salon bit and managing it and I even built the business from an old house. She will own it herself within a few years and we plan on at least 3 salons. She likes it but for her and her friends she has hired it is like talk all day and when slow to eat talk and do each others hair. They have fun at it. They also all together drive me nuts when I am home as the back part we live in so they bother me.

Dallas area has a lot of VN there so many businesses there that need a VN and English speaker. You do not need a degree to work in an office. If you work for a large company then a degree is usually needed to move from the office to HR or other departments and upper management.

[brian_n_phuong 193]

If she would rather work in an office then by all means she should do so. If she has a job at the Allstate then she should stick it out there until she gets a lot more experience and acclimated. Then she just needs to network now and again and keep her eyes and ears open until a better job comes along at more pay.

Nails and salons are not for everyone and only if one has the patience and the wanting to do that work should do it. My wife is doing the salon bit and managing it and I even built the business from an old house. She will own it herself within a few years and we plan on at least 3 salons. She likes it but for her and her friends she has hired it is like talk all day and when slow to eat talk and do each others hair. They have fun at it. They also all together drive me nuts when I am home as the back part we live in so they bother me.

Dallas area has a lot of VN there so many businesses there that need a VN and English speaker. You do not need a degree to work in an office. If you work for a large company then a degree is usually needed to move from the office to HR or other departments and upper management.

Im in a similar boat (no pun intended) when my wife comes here. She has a full business degree from a major VN university, and speaks English better than most locals where I live (North of Dallas, no offense intended Lucky!). Fortunetly she works for major US based Resort Hotel, so the experience should transfer.

I am concerned about the university degree transferring, or at least most of the credits. Has anyone tried transferring thier fiance's/Wife's College transcripts?

[Teacher Mark 53]

She may want to consider taking the TOEIC test, as proof of her abilities in English. If the potential employer isn't aware of the test, I would suggest listing it on her CV/resume'.

http://www.ets.org/toeic

Vietnamese university credits normally don't transfer.

Your wives, or fiance's can go to The American Center in Hanoi, or HCMC, and get advice.

http://vietnam.usembassy.gov/irc.html

http://hochiminh.usc...gov/achcmc.html

There's also Education USA:

http://www.educationusa.info/hcmc

http://vietnam.usemb...ucationusa.html

Edited October 26, 2011 by Teacher Mark

[decker 1]

Linh opened a small coffee and lunch stand. She went home last year and bought a giant pile of "spicy" (two trips to the airport to get it home) and cooks all manner of food besides the ubiquitous pho and spring rolls. She also imported several hundred pounds of Highlands coffee which I think was the best move she made in all of this. She is doing rather well and it keeps her busy. It totally drained everything we had which caused considerable friction. I never knew Fairbanks Alaska had so many Viet Kieu but they came out of the wood work after she opened. Apparently they own the nail shops according to Linh. Sadly a good number of them were exceedingly critical of her. She came home close to crying several times. Restauranting takes a bunch of time and will empty your accounts and the returns are fickle, so beware if she is contemplating that.

Two bright spots. She did make a friend out of it though and oddly enough Mai owns the other VN restaurant in town. Been here since the early 70's. They have become good friends and help each other a lot. And right across the street from Linh's shop is a Tai Chi center that has a nice pagoda inside. The guy that runs the place lets her go there to give smoke so she has that again. Pretty good.

[luckytxn 2,265]

Im in a similar boat (no pun intended) when my wife comes here. She has a full business degree from a major VN university, and speaks English better than most locals where I live (North of Dallas, no offense intended Lucky!). Fortunetly she works for major US based Resort Hotel, so the experience should transfer.

I am concerned about the university degree transferring, or at least most of the credits. Has anyone tried transferring thier fiance's/Wife's College transcripts?

Not going to offend me. In Texas we have had many move from other states to here and thus our language has suffered.

I am sure this may be dated info but when I was running Laboratories and hired someone from another country and their degree needed transferring they would go to a local college and they would do a transfer. If at times a few courses were not transferable they could take the few needed courses and then get a degree from that college or university. I have been out of the corporate world now though for about 15 years.

[Teacher Mark 53]

It depends on the university. Vietnam National University and RMIT (Australian) are the 2 that appear on a few Google searches, as having agreements with US universities to accept their transfer credits. There's also a few US universities with programs here.

Having a degree already and getting a job with it is another subject. I guess it would really depend on the job or the company.

[luckytxn 2,265]

It depends on the university. Vietnam National University and RMIT (Australian) are the 2 that appear on a few Google searches, as having agreements with US universities to accept their transfer credits. There's also a few US universities with programs here.

Having a degree already and getting a job with it is another subject. I guess it would really depend on the job or the company.

It does depend on the company for sure. Major corporations will require more accreditation than a small company. No one needs a degree to work in an office though. Once you have experience in an office you become highly sought after when anyone needs office work. The main thing when starting work is to redo the resume and add any new thing you have learned and all skills.

[brian_n_phuong 193]

It does depend on the company for sure. Major corporations will require more accreditation than a small company. No one needs a degree to work in an office though. Once you have experience in an office you become highly sought after when anyone needs office work. The main thing when starting work is to redo the resume and add any new thing you have learned and all skills.

Well in my Fiance's case she has a Business degree from Da Nang University, and is already employed in a business position for a US based corporation. The same company in the US would recognize her as a valid former employee. The iffy part is if she seeks another office job in another company, they may only recognize the experience but not the education requirements.

I found this website and plan on doing some more research:

Transferring Foriegn Credit

[Sayha or bust. 71]

It seems to me that many people who come here from Vietnam have a difficult time finding work. The default, from what I hear, is the nail or salon job.

My wife wants a normal office type job. She is going to nail school just to have it as a backup. She took a job this passed week for Allstate insurance. This particular branch is VN owned and operated I suspect from what she tells me. I wonder if they are taking advantage of her. The other people in that office are VN also. I digress.

Anyway, her English is excellent and she was an Administrative Manager for an architectural firm in HCMC before coming here, and really smart and good with people.

I think we are finding that with her resume, American employers are unable to do background checks, check up on recent employment and personal references because they are all based in Vietnam. It isn't necessary for her to work. I make enough to take care of everything. But she doesn't like to stay home all day. I don't blame her.

I am curious to learn about your personal experiences with this and looking forward to your ideas. By the way, we are in Dallas, Texas.

All the best,

Jerry & Fiona

PS. We are so happy here together.

What ever makes your wife happy. I didn't expect much income from my wife's employment after she got here. She works in a nail shop and is very happy working 7 days a week, the money is very good . Granted I don't see her until around 7:30 each night, I've gotten used to it. Like your wife, mine didn't like sitting around the house either.

[tuandanh 3]

Hey Jerry,

My lady was also asked to sell insurance for one of those companies. I basically think it is a pyramid scheme. Probably better jobs.

[Jerry & Fiona 1]

Thank you for all of your replies. It gives me a rounded out idea of what to expect.

[ScottThuy 140]

It depends on the university. Vietnam National University and RMIT (Australian) are the 2 that appear on a few Google searches, as having agreements with US universities to accept their transfer credits. There's also a few US universities with programs here.

Having a degree already and getting a job with it is another subject. I guess it would really depend on the job or the company.

I can say from experience that VNU does has agreements with US Univs... And the way the degrees are accepted depends on what the degree is and which Univ granted it. Academic institutions here have services that evaluate transcripts and they decide what can transfer and what does not... A good idea is to enroll in the local community college and have them do the transfer work for you to see where you stand.

Thuy has been offered several jobs working in the nail industry and doesn't want to go that route for health reasons... She actually just got a call a few minutes ago from a friend trying to get her to manage the shop since she wont do nails.. in the fumes is in the fumes... no financial demand for her to work but as many others have found, boredom is easily addressed with a job...