Why working in Myanmar was the best career move I made

In an emerging market, you will gain experiences and face challenges that you would never find at home. It will change you as a leader and as a person.

- Kang Wan Chern

There has been a lot of talk, of late, about deploying promising Singapore talent overseas so that our young professionals can gain exposure in other markets.

International work experience, it is widely accepted, will equip Singaporeans for regional and global leadership roles or even senior positions back home.

The Government has rolled out programmes to encourage Singaporeans to dip a toe overseas. Our population is buying into this, and a Jobstreet survey published in 2024 found that nearly two in three local workers are open to relocating abroad, with 72 per cent of them being young professionals under 30.

Working in a developed market can, of course, be enticing. But what's often overlooked is the value of working in emerging markets, in places without the prestige, polish, or power networks of the more glamorous assignments. Here you will learn aspects of leadership, resilience and resourcefulness that no business school can teach you.

I discovered this first-hand when, at 36, I left a decade-long journalism career in Singapore to become business editor at The Myanmar Times in Yangon, where I was based from 2017 to 2021.

Founded in 2000, The Myanmar Times was the oldest privately owned, dual-language newspaper in Myanmar. It was published by Myanmar Consolidated Media (MCM), which was majority-owned by the late tycoon Thein Tun.

MCM published weekly English and Myanmar language news journals until March 2015, when the English edition began publishing daily. It stopped running on Feb 21, 2021, some 20 days after the Myanmar coup d'état, and remains suspended following Mr Thein Tun's death on April 18, 2022, at the age of 85.

It was not the easiest or most enjoyable work stint, but it equipped me with management skills for a lifetime. Here's what I learnt, and why more should consider stepping off the beaten path.

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