Image credited to Lars_Nissen from Pixabay Reaching other lands, and countries, experiencing other climates and earning more than you could in your native country are one of the best things to happen in life.  If you’re contemplating working abroad, this guide can help you decide.    Why should I decide carefully before going abroad? Learning the hows of ifs working abroad helps you mitigate the risks. Maximize your earning potential  Find the right opportunities Avoid illegal recruitment   You can get most of the benefits of working abroad if: The salary offer is more than twice the job offered locally. For most Filipinos, a minimum of 50, 000 PHP worth of salary abroad is desirable. Your role, industry, or profession has opportunities abroad that pay well. You can’t find decent-paying work locally. You love to reach famous landmarks and other countries. You love to experience other climates (four seasons versus tropical and subtropical). You’re planning to immigrate to other countries.   It might not be Ok to work abroad if:   You can find a job with similar offers, approximates or greater than the salary offered abroad. You’re going to study at local colleges or universities for career improvements. Studying abroad is expensive and may conflict with your working schedule. There’s no one to take care of your children (if you’re a parent) unless you and your spouse are living abroad and can afford to sponsor your sons and daughters. There’s a travel ban due to war, pandemic and political causes in a destination country unless you can find alternative countries.  No one will take care of your loved ones (spouse, children, parents, and relatives) and you can find a job locally. You can’t handle the emotional impact of leaving your loved ones.

The Philippines constitutes a large population of citizens who work abroad. Some of these are working on working visas and others are already dual citizens. Others have already immigrated to other countries and given up their native-born citizenship. Most Filipinos go abroad for economic reasons or tourist purposes. Whatever the reason is, knowing the pros and cons will help you decide before going abroad and avoid costly mistakes. PROS Higher salary Usually, the salary abroad is higher than offered in the home country. Such an offer could be twice or several times higher than the local ones. Depending on the position and company, the package could comprise free accommodation, transport and meals. A chance to travel and see the world At some point in your life, you might already dream of going to other countries. If you’re living in a tropical country, you may already have a desire to travel to temperate countries such as Japan, France, the United States, Canada and Australia. These countries have four seasons - Summer, Spring, Autumn and Winter. Experience other Cultures Culture refers to the characteristics and knowledge of a certain group of people’s arts, cuisine, music, religion, and social habits. Travelling beyond your country’s borders will let you appreciate other nationalities and cultures. Learn another language Of course, you can learn a foreign language while in your country, but living in other countries will create more learning opportunities. You can meet native speakers of your target language. For example, you get more immersion in learning Japanese when you live in a Japanese neighborhood. An opportunity to assume other citizenship Perhaps this is the best perk of working abroad. If you’re in a country that allows a fast track to citizenship, a couple of years and residence status can lead to citizenship. You can also take dual citizenship if your current country of residence allows that. Example of countries that allow dual nationality includes Canada, the United States, France, and Spain. CONS Leaving your home country and family is heartbreaking Anxiety and sadness will slowly creep in once you start to say bon voyage and goodbyes to your family - parents, siblings, spouse, children, fiancé. You’re now in the situation where you’ve to get used to the new situation of leaving your comfort zone - the daily routines. Adjustments to long distance relationship Whether to your family or to your partner, being miles of land, borders and oceans apart can make you feel nostalgic and homesick at the same time. The feeling of separation can be eased by modern techs such as Messenger, Facebook, Skype, Zoom and other instant messaging or video conferencing apps. Safety issues You may never know what lies ahead in the country of your destination, especially with their hospitality and treatment to foreigners. You have to make sure about these situations: Peace and security - Is the neighborhood in the country’s locality safe? Are there wars, terrorist activities, discrimination, gang wars, and anything that can put your safety in a precarious status? Employer - Does your upcoming employer follow labor laws and the employment contract? Does the contract exist? Do they pay you the right salary, overtime and promote a healthy working environment? The upfront cost Moving to other countries is expensive. You have to get ready for everything - documents, money and personal things before you ride a passenger plane. The only things you won’t mind are those fees that job agencies and employers have to pay as mandated by the government labor agency (the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment). The following are the requirements you have to keep in mind though: Accommodation (Hotel, motel, apartment) Cost: Depending on the work destination Agency processing fees Cost: Depending on the agency Government-mandated benefits: Pagibig, Phil health and SSS Cost: PagIBIG, PhilHealth (2,400/year), SSS Legal papers: Police clearance Cost: (100~300), NBI clearance (100~400) Medical examination Cost: Depending on health conditions, clinics and hospitals Pocket money Passport Cost: P950~P1,500 Placement fees Travel accessories - Travel bag clutch bag, clothing

Photo by MART PRODUCTION When you ask kids what they want when they grow up, they may answer - I would like to be an engineer, teacher, doctor, and lawyer. But there are people who go for jobs that are uncommon because of the low number of people vying for such work. These jobs could be in the Philippines and other countries but they are less common compared to teachers, lawyers, call centre agents, web developers and other jobs supplied by graduates of common courses. Here are the jobs found here and abroad.   1.  Bouncers (Doormen)   Photo by Hans-Petter Fjeld and licensed under creative commons You might have already visited a nightclub wherein before you enter an entrance you have to be frisked or questioned by tall and burly men. What do these guys do? Those plainclothes or suit-wearing men are bouncers or security personnel tasked to secure night clubs and maintain peace and order lest bad guys spoil the night with broken bottles, bare knuckles, and cleavers. Famous bouncers and former bouncers include Vin Diesel, Dolph Lundgren, Mr.T and Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church before he entered the seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Aside from using brute force against troublemakers (if maximum tolerance is exhausted), bouncers are tasked to check drinking and legal age. They also may refuse entry to the intoxicated.   2.  Paranormal Investigators Dubbed as ghost hunters, paranormal investigators (PIs) check and explore structures and places that are notoriously haunted places such as hospitals, schools, hotels, cemeteries, churches, alleys, roads, and prisons. Some houses could be haunted because it could be standing on a former graveyard, and stigmatized place. How does PI get their living? Here, you may be called by a homeowner to check their residences after he/she complained of spoons and chairs moving by themselves or apparitions appearing at the staircase or you’ll be assigned to a paranormal investigation team with a mission to check haunted castles and mansions. Real estate agents/developers may need your help to make sure that their properties are ghost-free otherwise, they’ll receive reports of homeowners and tenants running from doppelgangers, poltergeist and demons or tenants enduring sleepless nights after hearing disembodied voices and seeing shadowy figures. You may use gadgets to detect ghosts or signs of hunting - thermal cameras, EMF (Electromagnetic Field) meters, EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) recorders and Point of view cam. If you have seen the movie, Ghostbusters, you can see how they do their job expelling otherworldly creatures lurking in the library or in an attic.   3. Petroleum Engineers    If you’re interested in the energy industry and analyzing 3D models of oil reservoirs or visiting oil rigs and wells, then this career is for you. Your work may vary from a clean office to a dirty site akin to a civil engineer’s construction site. You may wear a hardhat and use tools such as laptops and professional sophisticated equipment (downhole recorders, pressure recorders, external casing packers, and coiled tubing tools).  You may join a team that explores for black gold (oil), designs pipelines, tanks, and pressure vessels. At the office, you’ll be in the comfort of an airconditioned room and doing a computer job using software for analysis. Outdoors, you may scout a team to look for sites possibly rich in natural gas and oil trapped hundreds of meters below the earth’s surface either at land or ocean. To be an expert in oil and gas exploration, you’ll need a bachelor’s degree, and knowledge of thermodynamics, geology, and principles of engineering and certification. Other engineering specializations such as mining, civil, and mechanical may meet the employer’s requirements. Aside from their prestigious titles, petroleum engineers are the highest paid types of engineers - more than nuclear, civil, chemical and computer science. You’ll work in companies of petroleum exploration and production.   4.  Hyperbaric Welder (Underwater Welder)   Photo by Dr.E Lee Spence and Licensed under Creative Commons Hyperbaric means a welding process in an elevated pressure environment (usually underwater) although hyperbaric welding is also applicable inside a sealed chamber with gas. This job is similar to welders you see in a car repair shop or construction sites except - they weld underwater. Hyperbaric welders use a set of diving and welding gear such as electrodes, diving helmet, power supply, diving knife, backup gas, stinger (electrode holder) and diving suit. These marine welders work in bridge construction, mining, ship maintenance, dams, locks, offshore drilling rigs, nuclear power facilities, and docking facilities.  Hyperbaric welders are one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. They face dangers of depth pressure (called Delta P hazards) which can lead to drowning. Improvements in robotics, underwater ships and welding can make welding underwater safer. This job pays well in a short amount of time.   5.  Air Traffic Controller   Courtesy of Petar Marjanovic and Licensed under creative commons They occupy that iconic tower near the runway and watch blips on radar screens and high tech LCD screens showing inbound and outbound flights and flight data. In this profession, you’ll issue plan and flight clearances, provide instructions for orderly and safe landing and takeoff of the aircraft, direct the flow of planes, report any air traffic hazards/mishaps and assist pilots in the airspace. You may advise pilots and other ATCs of the weather situation.  To become one, you’ll need to finish a bachelor’s degree in air traffic control, understand the weather forecast, radar readings, and some knowledge of aviation. Like engineers and pilots, ATCs are also in the well-paid category. Their salary ranges over 30, 000 to 108, 000 per month depending on the position and experience.   6.  Beer Brewer/Technical Brewer   You may love drinking beer at parties or even alone when you relax from work or bask under the sun. This job will bring the joys of brewing until the beer is perfected. To become one, you have to finish one of these courses - chemistry, chemical engineering, microbiology, food technology, and food science. As a brewer, you may work in beer factories or breweries.  You’ll tackle tons of barley grains, use sophisticated equipment (vats, tanks, mixers), sample a raw mix inside the filtration tank, add hops and some spices for flavouring, operate a computer that handles data control systems of the brewing system. Then, you’ll work in equipment that adds yeast to start fermentation, and again in the filtration system that removes substances that cause a cloudy beer. If the beer passes your quality check, then those perfected liquid is now ready for bottling by a machine that can produce 1,000 beer bottles per minute.   7.  Crematorium Technician If you’re not squeamish and you’re brave to witness the reality of resting in the peace that humanity has never defeated, this job is for you. As a crematorium technician, you’re tasked to open the crematorium and its office, prepare the paperwork and preheat the oven. You may sign papers regarding the preparatory steps, legal paperwork (medical exam, certificates), and attach an identifying tag (a heat resistant metal) to the body before incineration to avoid mixing one’s ashes to other people (otherwise legal cases will follow). You’ll then prepare the body for burning by activating the conveyor machine to place the body into the crematory chamber.  After 2 to 3 hours, depending on the body’s size and sex (men yield more ashes than women), it will turn into bone fragments which you’ll have to collect using an array of tools - retort brush, clean-out tool, retrieval pan and transfer pan. You’ll retrieve a heat resistant tag to identify the person’s identity and avoid it mixing with other cremated remains. Then, using a multi-lift hand magnet, you’ll make sure that there are no pieces of iron and steel in the ash before placing it for grinding in the cremulator. Finally, you’ll then pour the fine ashes into an urn ready to be given to the family of the deceased. Interested in joining the people who operate such ovens like burners, you’ll need a degree in mortuary science and working knowledge of cremation.   8.  Food Taster   Photo by Pikrepo and licensed under creative commons Perhaps, this is one of the most exciting jobs since here you’ll do testing of manufactured foods such as ice cream, crackers, condiments, snack foods, candies, and chocolates. Some or most companies require applicants for this position to get a degree in food technology or sensory science.  This job has been featured on the internet as a highly sought one since food taster is thought here as munching on chocolate bars and eating gallons of ice cream but in reality, tasting is just one of the tasks of this job. In tasting, you’ll test the food’s flavour, colour, pungency, oil content and moisture.   You’re more likely to carry out food tasting sessions, record the food’s flavour, appearance, taste and smell, observe food samples using a microscope, refer to tables of viscosity, salt content, pH scale, moisture and solubility. You’ll use professional devices such as balance scales, pH meter, spectrometer, and distillation devices. In the end, you’ll observe test results and produce analysis reports. In the end, you’ll contribute to the food production by improving its taste, texture and appearance.   9.  Perfumer   Perfumers make perfumes, blend spices, and make sure that the perfect scent conforms to the company’s and people’s standard. In the end, they help companies produce scented cosmetics, shampoos and perfumes.  Perfumers use substances that are expensive such as rose oil, ambergris (whale vomit), iris-root butter, and agarwood and turn them into Eau de parfum, Eau de toilettes, colognes, conditioners and fabric softeners. A day in the life as a perfumer, you’ll likely perform physical and chemical tests, make an analysis of the product, make sure that the manufacturing process conforms to the quality standards and use gas chromatography to understand additives used in fragrances. As a senior perfumer, you may supervise staff to make sure of a safe manufacture process before sending to distillation.  To enter the club of perfume experts, perfume and cosmetic companies may require you to finish a degree in chemistry or chemical engineering and understand gas chromatography which is a method of quantifying and analyzing volatile compounds and using a gas chromatograph - a professional and expensive equipment costing $34,500.   10.  Sommelier   Sommelier is a wine expert. Here, you will work in fine dining restaurants, hotels and resorts known for luxurious food and drinks. You must know different kinds of wine, wine storage, food to wine pairings, and wine tastes. According to vice news, training for a sommelier is difficult as it involves the wine theory and history, serving wines, blind tasting and smelling. A few only pass the stringent exam. The most difficult part is identifying the name or wine type. Sommelier is a prestigious position that only less than 300 are master sommeliers in the world. Like other professions, to be a sommelier you have to pass an exam and certification. While passing this wine expertise exam can be difficult, the return of investment is high, as you can work in a high paying job in hotels, resorts, restaurants, and bars. In the Philippines, several training schools offer sommelier courses as part of the hotel and restaurant management degree or as an independent study offered by some colleges and hospitality schools.