Open letter from a repat: Why you shouldn’t come back to Myanmar if you are under 25

The below essay was originally published on Facebook by a female repat who wishes to remain anonymous. This edited version has been produced in collaboration with her.

“I cannot take it anymore. I need to say something before my head explodes.

There are a lot of opportunities in Myanmar in every possible sector. I understand why you want to come back. You are away from your country. You think you could do so much better in your home country. You could climb the corporate ladder faster than you could in a foreign country. You wouldn’t need a work pass that only shows your status as a second-class citizen, or to stay away from home to feed yourself and your family.

But, wherever you are, if you are an employee you will just be another monkey in the zoo. I apologize for being blunt but that’s what you are. I’m talking to you, the young ones who have gone out of the country to get a proper education and secure a job in a foreign country after so many financial and emotional struggles.

If you’re under 25, you should not come back to Myanmar. Here’s why.

1. You will end up doing everything but learning nothing.

The companies need repatriates who went through all the struggles to do all the little things in their companies. You will be learning a lot about operations, project management and human relationships, basically doing all the minute tasks in the company. But by the time you are 28, you will look at yourself. You have nothing other than this job experience to show for your time. What you can say is that this is the biggest company in the industry with the greatest market share. You have skill in what you do but you have no proof to show for. You will be no better than someone who recently graduated in the US. Let’s face it. People from US, they can talk the talk. Even if they don’t know anything, they will read and bluff their ways out. (Maybe I’m being unfair on this point. I only saw one. He or she lied on their resume and belittled the sacred nature of the field I worked in – finance.) This may not be entirely bad. That’s one of the amazing skills we need to have. Confidence and self-promotion talks are important to get what you want. We should not be shy about what we are good at. Just go for it. On other side, you cannot get promoted either as there will be some foreigner who is more skilled and experienced than you. I don’t mean to be anti-foreigner or anti-Myanmar. People aged between 25 and 28 are still considered too inexperienced to be given a high position in any well-organized company.

2. Get yourself branded.

If you haven’t branded yourself, do not bother coming back. You will be another ordinary human being in the market although your parents suffered a lot to send you to a foreign country to give you the education they never had. If you have no brand and have a miserable job in foreign country, no one knows. But in Myanmar, the market is so small and some people have so much time to check who got the promotion on LinkedIn, who moved to which company. They talk behind your back, celebrate other people’s miseries and spread false rumors when someone is successful. Myanmar is a very judgmental and impression-based market. All the time, you need to dress very prettily so that people think highly of you. Just look at the MBA classes in Myanmar. I don’t know what they are learning there but the students are doing more dressing up and doing make-up than studying for sure. If you don’t have the heart, don’t come back yet. Remember, your experience doesn’t mean anything if your degree is not from Harvard, Yale or Stanford…

This doesn’t apply to foreigners. If you are lucky enough, you will have a 23 year old foreigner lady boss saying, ‘Can I use her’ to your boss to put you in one project although you got educated at a prestigious school in the US or UK. There is a sad joke among repats: ‘We were discriminated against in foreign countries because we are Myanmar. We are now again discriminated against in our country because we are not foreigners.’ This is absolutely true. You may find yourself speaking English to get what you want sometimes. I don’t understand why some repatriates communicate in English either. Maybe that’s why our freedom fighters, battling against the colonial powers, ended up saying: ‘Myanmar is our language. We should respect and value our language.’ For me, I want to improve my English. It’s not easy speaking a foreign language and therefore, I talk to some very few of my friends in English so that my English skills don’t drop. But, anyway, off topic….

3. Don’t trust what employers say during interviews.

I would like to give you an example of this. There is a common phenomenon in Myanmar that men will court a woman to her heart’s content, giving everything she wants before marriage. But after marriage, they will treat her as nothing special. Same goes for job interviews. They might lure you with conditions such as, ‘I will give you a branch manager position or head of the company or promotion after a few years or if you meet our expectations.’ If there are conditions like that, just don’t take it. About 90 per cent of what they say, they won’t give you. They will treat you like another monkey in their zoo when you finally accept the offer as you have very similar skillset with other people in their company. Besides, they have you already. When you come back with a job offer, put everything in the legal documents. Check for gross or net salary. Check the title. Check the food and travel allowance. Check transportation arrangement in the contract if your job involves a lot of travelling. Just check and check and check and check. Confirm, confirm, confirm…

4. Set the boundary with expats.

Although I have met some incredibly kind foreigner colleagues, there are always some foreigners who think we, Myanmar people, should basically serve them: printing out papers, grabbing some water and running to printing shop for them when they are absolutely nobody and you have your own stuff to do. The worse thing is that they are not requesting a favor from you. They are demanding from you, with some big names they can drop. It’s OK to do these things if you are on friendly terms and you OFFER to do them as you like them as colleagues. We are reasonable people. But you need to set the boundary in professional way. You need to properly set them straight as well.

I have one friend telling me that some expatriates said this in a chain email: “Can I use her?” ‘Use’ is such a demeaning word. Use her for what? Slavery? Mopping the floors? Doing her laundry? Obviously, it quite angered my friend. The worst thing is my friend has a master’s degree from the US. My friend is not an unskilled employee in the market with a degree from the school of nothing. This didn’t happen in a Myanmar company. This happened in a reputable international company with a high number of projects in Myanmar. Obviously, my friend left the company. Upon leaving, HR was so bad that the exit interview was done by email. Checking boxes. There is absolutely no protection or support for Myanmar employees (financially or emotionally).

We, Myanmar people, are hospitable but we need to draw the lines. If anyone is treating Myanmar people with bad manners, abusing them, taking advantage or scolding horribly for no apparent reason, then step up, take charge, stand in front of them, protect them, find out the reasons and help them improve. We have our heroes in the ground already having fought for our freedom. We better not shame them by lowering ourselves or letting our fellow citizens be abused for no good reason. We have every right to protect our men when they are have done nothing wrong and improve them when they are in need of our help. Collectively, that’s one of the smallest things we need to do as fellow citizens to make our next generation have a more dignified life. Therefore, they won’t have a miserable life like you and I went through in university, catching up to people who already run 40 K several times compared to your beginner level in terms of knowledge.

Maybe my ideas are biased as the weather is very cold and I am incredibly sick and miserable for a few days. I will hold my open arms to anyone who would come back to Myanmar in this exciting time and wish them the best when they are really experienced and have a lot to offer for the country. However, I just don’t want you to come back when you are young before 25. I came back in my 24th year with nothing but with my vain patriotism with the screaming heart: ‘Myanmar is my country. My country needs me.’

I am not saying you should never come back. The country needs more educated people like you for better development, for sure. More youths, more energy, and more power to push the country out of poverty and give it the crown of ‘most developed and improved country’. Aunty [Aung San Suu Kyi] cannot do it alone. When she is gone, the duty will be upon you and me, all the small flies in the country. However, we should take a precautious approach in coming back and getting involved indirectly in country’s economic activities so that we won’t burn ourselves before we get to our goals.

To conclude, to all my friends out there: get your education first, get your experience first, and get your title first if you don’t come from a silver spoon fed family. Get involved in the social and economic activities of the country by helping in your own manageable way.

I once asked my professor, in university, ‘I am afraid, I want to make the right decision.’ My prof said to me, ‘You don’t make the right decision. You make the decision right.’ I have never looked back since then! I miss the lifestyle but I’m in a better position now! Respect, networking and growth has been exponential. The culture is the only thing that has blown up in my face. What I mean to say is: if we don’t want to be another monkey in the zoo, we just need to work harder, don’t we? If we stay in the foreign country, we will just be another monkey. If we come back with skills, talent and experience, we will at least be head of the monkey troop. Remember: if you are an employee, you will always be a monkey wherever you are. In Yangon, you can at least be a dignified monkey….You know what I mean. I am not trying to scare you. I am requesting you to work harder for yourself and for your country.

As far as the saying goes, success is when opportunity meets preparation.

All the best.”

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