The Philippines has changed beyond recognition; let's reminisce about the work there a few years ago.

When I graduated, I switched jobs several times but none lasted long. Work for me was perhaps just a means to earn money. I had no passion for the jobs I did before, which might be related to the salary, job content, colleagues, and leaders. Last year, I found a job in the Philippines doing risk control through a recruitment website. Initially, I wanted to try being a probability engineer, but after several unsuccessful interviews and my interest in understanding the gambling industry and working abroad, I decided to go.

The salary for this job wasn't particularly high, and I could have found better in China, but I was interested in the content, so I decided to go. In the Philippines, several large buildings are dedicated to the gambling industry, mainly housing finance management and customer service departments. I've also seen entire floors of dealers dealing cards (similar to some scenes in movies). However, building management was strict, and elevator cards were restricted to one's own floor, so there was no chance to visit other floors.

There were many different ethnic groups there, including people from mainland China, Malaysia, and other parts of China, with mainland Chinese being the majority. Of course, there were also some local Filipinos. Filipinos' English was generally sufficient for daily communication (although sometimes hard to understand), roughly at a TOEIC score of 500-600, so there were no major communication issues in daily life. At work, most people would order takeout together. The cost of living wasn't cheap; a meal cost about 20 RMB. There were many fast-food restaurants, and ordering in simple English was not a problem.

The company provided dormitories, and the one I stayed in seemed decent at first, but later, the number of cockroaches increased, and there was a railway next to the dormitory, making it very noisy when trains passed. For entertainment, I'm quite a homebody and rarely went out. The internet, whether mobile or broadband, was very unstable and more expensive than in China, offering a poor user experience. As for sports, the company's dormitory had a gym and a swimming pool. I could also visit nearby shopping centers, but sometimes children would come up asking for money, which was annoying. I didn't engage in gambling or other forms of entertainment, feeling it wasn't safe without someone familiar to guide me.

Security was a concern for many. There were many police patrols near where I lived, and sometimes even convenience stores had police standing guard. However, I also heard about robberies, especially when encountering groups of young people, and it was best to avoid them quickly. Also, it was safer to use Uber or Grab than to hail taxis randomly on the street.

One of the main reasons I decided to leave was medical care. I catch colds easily, but the common cold medicine there was mediocre for me. I visited clinics several times, and the costs were not low, plus there were some communication issues, making the overall experience unsatisfactory.

Regarding work, I mainly did risk control, checking if players had abnormal gaming behaviors, such as money laundering. Initially, a senior colleague taught me, and I didn't need much professional skill, just familiarity with the system operations, and then report any issues. Internal communication was done via Telegram.

The company kept our passports, and we could only retrieve them when necessary. Usually, I could return to China every six months. The salary consisted of a basic wage (converted from USD to pesos) plus a living allowance, and the company provided dormitories. If choosing to rent independently, the company offered additional subsidies. However, exchanging RMB or USD at local banks was troublesome, requiring a passport and incurring fees. Many people chose to exchange money at nearby money changers, although the exchange rate was worse, but it was more convenient. There were also private exchange channels, but I was concerned about their safety, so I didn't try them.

My colleague and roommate were also from China, and the supervisor was from mainland China, so we mainly communicated in Chinese. However, sometimes I had to communicate with Filipino employees in English. Since gambling is illegal in China, the companies in the Philippines are very secretive, and everyone uses English names.

At first, I thought there were no issues with my colleagues, but later some incidents made me feel that some mainland Chinese were not trustworthy privately. In the end, I am grateful to the friends from China who helped me leave.

If it's your first job, I wouldn't recommend coming to the Philippines. Without certain work experience or care, you'll encounter many non-technical issues that are troublesome to handle. Whether it's worth coming to work depends on personal considerations. Besides salary, whether you can accept the living environment is also very important. From a living perspective, I think China is much better than the Philippines.

Future Career Plans

About two months after leaving the Philippines, I found a job as a probability engineer in Beijing, and I'm still in the early stages. My short-term plan is to engage more in game design and understand different types of game design methods. My long-term goal is to become a game director and design a game that I envision.