Job opportunity in Malaysia - Should I make a move?

Malaysia work culture (using the word culture might be a stretch) will make these look joyous. Not really known for the best work culture… known otherwise maybe. If you’re in any kind of competitive position of any type with other employees, look out.

I’ve worked in/with Malaysia and with Malaysians. Been there more than hundreds of times. But not lived there. Lived in Singapore.

Malaysia is more diverse and stimulating than Taiwan.

Where in KL? It’s a huge city, will never see all of it. And working/living area could be a decision factor. Driving across KL can take a long time and would not be a great commute.

I really like (almost love) Malaysia and the food. But have to understand/accept certain things about the culture. I would not want to work there unless I was in full control of my situation, maybe independent, or working with foreigners in a foreign run and functioning business. With flexibility/low stress to bail.

I do know about the culture part, but I was focussing more on the organization I will be working in the future.

My office will be in KL Sentral.

That sounds like it’s somewhere in the countryside.

Highly doubt that. What Taipei Main Station is to Taipei, is what KL Sentral is to KL.

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Very true, but this problem is very deeply invested here and I do not see signs of improvement. Being in IT for 5-6 years, I do not see myself making a longterm career in Taiwan.

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Move on and enjoy a multicultural and more international environment where you aren’t constantly pigeon holed as the ‘waiguoren’ and where you’ll probably get paid better too with a brand name employer on your CV.

To be fair, that pigeonhole exists in all of East Asia, not just Taiwan. Don’t know what the situation is in SE Asia. I guess it wouldn’t be as bad in more culturally/racially diverse countries like Malaysia and Singapore.

It seems much better in those places.

From my experience - Japan, Korea and Taiwan are the worst! Impossible to ever blend in. I speak fluent Mandarin, which did help a lot and sometimes, on the contrary, I was treated better than locals.
I think HK, SG and Malaysia are the easiest places in APAC regions to settle down and this is from my personal experience.

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Japan and Korea are worse than Taiwan too. I lived in Seoul for 6 years (and Japan for a few months).

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In SG is difficult to blend.
Apparently you blend, in reality not at all.
There is literally NOTHING to do, and expats and immigrants usually run aways after 2 years.
Extremely expensive, and if you have a family with at least one child, you should expect at least 250.000 a year to make ends meet.

Hong Kong offers tons of activities more, but it is also expensive and politically trembling right now.
I do prefer Hong Kong to Singapore tho, however Singapore is attracting the best of APAC while Hong Kong is converting to a purely Chinese business centre.

Malaysia I think is no more or less than Taiwan, actually.
However it has differences that an individual might value positively or negatively, and a better job market in IT than Taiwan.

I personally do prefer Taiwan, because I am attracted to Chinese culture, the language (that I do not speak) and because I lived for so many years in SEA.
You are probably on the opposite side, and wanna do the contrary and it is understandable.

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That’s a no from me. Some people like it, you can certainly enjoy a lifestyle upgrade vs Taiwan on a similar salary. But I’m happy I left. I’m much happier now compared to malaysia. I was miserable and sick every day.

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Could you compare the activities in HK versus Singapore ?
Personally I like both places which have their unique attractions, HK is a very special and vibrant city but is being ruined by mainland China.

You can’t find anything like this for about 750$ a month in Taiwan for sure. 3 bedroom, nice gym, pool, balcony. So I wasn’t living in some dump. Everything was cheap and I lived really well there compared to the average person. But it just wasn’t for me.

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Well you might want to be more careful about that because MYR is much more volatile than TWD, and I don’t mean that in a good way.

That’s the tale of numerous currencies of developing countries in the past decade.

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Except for the lifts didn’t work that’s WAY nicer than 99% of apartment blocks in Taiwan .

But nobody said hiding out with Bin Laden was going to be easy.

He should buy a house there, supposedly it’s easy enough to get a mortgage.

How is volatility assessed here, though? This graph doesn’t seem to show anything about the volatility of MYR, just its value relative to TWD in particular (which also changes over time). In any case, this only seems relevant for someone earning money in one currency and spending it in (or intending to transfer it to) another.

No. TWD never really changes much. It’s the same trend to USD.

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It is nice, but if you are in JB, you are living in a dump.
When you go outside your condo is depressing, and you are in the worst city of Malaysia.
This is what I meant.