Hiring Practices of American Companies in the Philippines: Jobs for Americans in the Philippines?

For whatever it's worth, most of the US companies with offices here hire only a skeleton force of Americans in the most senior management positions, and hire a Filipino workforce for everything else. Some don't hire any Americans at all. IBM Philippines for example, has a totally Filipino workforce, from the president of the company on down.

The only expats reside in the regional office in Singapore. Microsoft is much the same; all Filipinos, reporting to an American regional manager in Singapore or Hong Kong.

There are some American companies, such as Intel, that have established manufacturing and/or assembly plants here that have a couple of Americans in senior management posts. Also, the large American agri-businesses such as Dole hire a few Americans in similar positions.

Five or six of the large US-based consulting companies are here, all undertaking various development projects financed by various donor organizations. Even those however, hire only a handful of Americans, and most of the expertise they use is local.

In short, the employment picture for Americans desirous of coming here to work for an American company is not encouraging. However, for those interested in pursuing such a move, the American Chamber of Commerce, headquartered in Manila, may be an excellent starting point for figuring out which companies are here.

Regards, Michael