What You Need to Know about Working in the Philippines

by Pradeep Choudhary

Posted on 15-October-2019 10:36:15 AM    0 Comments    803 view(s)

What You Need to Know about Working in the Philippines

The Philippines ranked among Asia’s 10 fastest growing economies in 2017. According to a World Bank report, Philippines has managed to sustain an average annual growth of 6.3 percent between 2010-2017 from an average of 4.5 percent between 2000-2009. The GDP is expected to grow by 6.4% in 2019 and 2020. During a recent conversation with Maria Carolina (Carol) V. Dominguez, President and CEO of John Clements Consultants, one of the largest human resources firms in the Philippines. I asked her about working in the Philippines, which industries are seeing growth, and the hottest job trends right now.

Vasundhara: Tell us about your career journey.

Carol: I have been in the workforce for 32 years and have worked in six cities (Manila, Chicago, New York, London, Milan, and Stamford) across three continents. I got my master’s in management studies from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and then spent 15 exciting years working for Citibank in the U.S. and Europe. When my father passed away, I returned home (17 years ago) to take care of his flourishing business and became the President and CEO of John Clements Consultants, one of the largest human resources firms in the Philippines. I realized I wanted to continue learning and went ahead and did the Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School.

What drives your passion?

My personal passion is to help build the Philippines—to make it a greater country than it is today. I also would like to show the world that there is more to the Philippines than the stereotypes and what meets the eye. This is what fuels my work at John Clements. I want to do everything I can to help build our country and provide jobs to Filipinos here.

As a firm that helps people get jobs in the Philippines, what trends have you seen?

Ours is primarily a service economy: Services account for over half of our GDP. The most prominent employers in the services sector are the business process outsourcing (BPO) companies. We are the back office for a number of Western companies, and there are over one million Filipinos employed in this sector. Other service industries that drive our economy include real estate, restaurants, and transportation. Our manufacturing base, particularly the export portion of it, is heavily electronics-oriented. Agriculture, including fishing, rounds out our economic profile.

Why does the services sector take prominence over others?

To make a service economy work, you need people with a service mindset, and I believe we’ve got the finest service mindset in the world. But don’t take just my word for it; listen to what Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks, had to say about Filipino workers: “We have Starbucks in 62 countries, but the culture, values, and passion of the Filipinos wearing the green [Starbucks] are the best we’ve ever seen.”

Filipinos are known for having empathy, a caring attitude, and warm, welcoming smiles. We’re very adaptable and flexible. This is what has made the Philippines the call-center capital of the world, and it is what has encouraged so many foreign companies to locate their back-office operations here.

Where are most jobs available right now? And which ones are they?

Based on our data and recent web scraping of local job portals, we found that most of the job openings are in Manila and the top jobs in demand for this year are Data Scientists, Accountants, Civil Engineers, Full-Stack Engineers, Market Research Analysts, Software Engineers, and Back-end Developers.

Is it easy for non-residents to get jobs in the Philippines?

Historically, jobs have typically filled by locals first, unless foreigners/expats are assigned by their companies. But in the last 6 to 8 years we’ve seen companies being open to assign non-residents, too, but typically on local salary packages.

What are the average salaries for an entry-level job?

Fresh engineering graduates would probably draw around 18 – 25k PHP ($350 – $475) per month. The high or low end of the scale depends on the engineering discipline, licensure, and nature of work to be done. In the accounting field, you could draw starting salaries between 15 – 22k PHP ($280 – $420) per month. Entry-level positions in the BPO industry would be at the same scale as engineering graduates.

What’s the best thing about working in the Philippines?

We don’t have a language barrier here which makes for successful collaboration at the workplace. Filipinos (from all walks of life) can speak and understand English, thus, it is easy for foreigners to work and live in the Philippines. We invest a lot in our people not just for their professional growth but also for their personal growth. We respect diversity and inclusivity. International studies of women in executive positions have shown that the Philippines has one of the highest proportions of female executives in the world (highest in Asia). There have been two female Presidents of the country. The chairperson of the nation’s largest bank (BDO Unibank), who is also the vice chairwoman of the country’s largest conglomerate (SM Investments Corporation), is a female. The former head of the country’s largest private employer (called Convergys at the time, now known as Concentrix) is a female.