The South

UC folks just returned from HCM city, and I have been there several times. Since I’m going to work there in the next 2 or 3 years, I’d like to write about the city this week.

There is a fact people have concerned much about for a long time. Many northern citizens are moving to HCM city for job opportunities, I am included. These people, in the north, are always considered better than those in the south and generally speaking, there’s a widespread but inofficial belief among the Vietnamese that Northern people are smarter and they work better. This explains why most going to the South find a way to succeed. Even successful rate in HCM city is accounted by more of Northerners.

Northern people, in fact, are hardworking. Women are harder than men in their jobs. And they always have a heart for excelling. They always make efforts and sometimes they put work top priority rather than pleasure. So normally, they go out at weekends only; and they also come back home everyday before midnight, when most of whom in HCM city are spending time out enjoy nightlife. However, the business context in the North, as far as I know, has many problems. While workplace environment in HCM city is said to be very professional; people point out that it is more open and effective, employees understand fully their responsibilities and always take full charge of what they do, most of those in the North need observance and reminder all the time to finish work. I’ve experienced these characteristics when I had chance to work in some companies before. To be honest, I was really annoyed by the fact that my coworkers only care about themselves and they are not so ethical in minding others. Nepotism is what I really hate doing business in Hanoi or other Northern cities. Although some are much worse at their performance than others, they are covered by “ big shades” and remain still a liability in companies. This, in fact, rarely happens in the South. People are just more fair there; performance is the only benchmark for worker evaluation. Everyone has chance to espose themselves to equal opportunities. HCM city, seemingly, is more appealing and is talent magnet. Somehow, it’s not those who are Northerner are always better. It’s actually good workers that are mostly attracted to the South.

One more discrepancy which is quite interesting between HCM city and Hanoi is that HCM city attracts more tourists and investment because it is considered more “developed”(Vietnamese literal meaning). In reality, services in HCM city is way better than in Hanoi. Service providers there, pay a lot more attention to training their employees how to please customers. They show their clients that they need them. On the contrary, most services in the North keeps the perspective that customers come to them because they are in need, it’s customers who must find them; it’s not them who try to retain customers. Now that everyone is demanding more than they do in the past, bad service seems not to be a good “strategy”. I think I know two of the reasons that make difference: either Hanoi service players do not gain proper enough understanding of what is good or some of them think they are beyond good and don’t mind losing a number of consumers. In HCM city, infrastructure are better, people are more aware of their lives, at least they obey the rules while driving; those makes flow of everything in the place more effective and efficient.

Well, I may have complimented HCM city a bit too much, but this is also what Northerner like us should think about. Anyway, I’m going to work in HCM city and definitely I’m going back to Hanoi cause what I love is here. I hope to go back to a better place in the next few years.