Inside OV: three things we built for moving to Vietnam
Moving to Vietnam is the top reason people join OV. This month we built for the three questions almost everyone asks: is there work for me, what do I need to know, and who can I ask?
Moving to Vietnam is the top reason people join OV. Some are planning a move. Others are curious, or want to spend more time there. Almost all of them start with the same three questions: is there work for me, what do I need to know before I go, and who can I ask? This month we built something for each.
Is there work for me?
Most people who think about a move weigh one thing above the rest: whether it fits the career they have built. Until now, finding out meant searching dozens of company websites and local job boards, many of them only in Vietnamese.
OV Jobs puts the roles in one place. Every day it reads the careers pages of the employers Overseas Vietnamese want to work for, in Vietnam and across the region, and keeps the professional roles. Roles written in Vietnamese get an English version. Anyone can browse every role and sign up for a weekly alert. Members also see which OV members work at each company, and can ask one of them for a chat about the role.
What do I need to know?
The questions about a move repeat: which papers you need, how you will earn, where to live, schools, money, family and language. Members have answered them in OV sessions, at the OV Summit and on the OV Podcast, but the answers were spread across dozens of recordings.
The OV Guide to Moving to Vietnam brings them together for members: ten lessons from Overseas Vietnamese who made the move, each linked to the session it came from, with an 18-step checklist at the end. We update it every month as new sessions add to it. One section is open to everyone: How to test a move to Vietnam before you make it.
Who can I ask?
A guide answers the common questions. Your own situation needs a person. Coffee Chats matches members one to one every two weeks, on what one can help with and what the other needs. Someone weighing a job offer in Saigon might meet a member who took one last year.
Members asked us to bring Coffee Chats back after OV moved into its own app. We kept it simple: opt in once, and a new match arrives every two weeks.
What comes next
More is on the way, and we will write about it here. If you are thinking about a move and want people around you who have made one, that is what OV is for.
More from the blog
See all- Vietnamese Women, by the NumbersVietnamese women work, lead, do research and own businesses at rates above the world average, while still doing most of the care at home. Seven charts, from the Trưng sisters to OV's own members.
- Buying property in Vietnam as an Overseas VietnameseWhat Overseas Vietnamese can legally buy, why central apartments pay little, and five checks before you buy into a project in Vietnam.
- Choosing a school in Vietnam for your childrenHow to choose a school in Vietnam: set your purpose first, judge value over tuition, weigh curricula, and plan for Vietnamese literacy.
