How to hire creative talent in Vietnam
Vietnam has a young, fast-growing creative sector concentrated in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, with a strong animation and games production industry that has done outsourced work for international studios for years.
What the creative pool in Vietnam actually looks like.
Notably strong in 2D animation, illustration and game art, with motion design and video editing widely available. The animation outsourcing industry means production discipline is often better than portfolio presentation suggests.
- 2D animation
- Illustration
- Game art
- Motion design
- Video editing
Language, hours, contracts and getting paid.
- Vietnamese. English is common in the technology and outsourcing sectors but more variable elsewhere, so a brief in English narrows the pool more than it would in India or the Philippines.
- Six hours ahead of London, so the shared window is the UK morning and the Vietnamese evening.
- Payoneer and Wise are both used. Direct transfer is less common.
- Most agencies engage people here as independent contractors on a monthly retainer, which does not require a local entity. The contractor invoices you and handles their own tax locally.
The boards people in Vietnam actually use.
Job hunting is local. The global boards you already know have almost no audience here, and the sites that do are not in English and mostly will not take a posting from a company without a local presence.
Technology-focused board with strong English-speaking candidates.
High-volume platform popular with younger applicants.
Leading professional job board in Vietnam.
What catches foreign agencies out.
Written English is often weaker than the work. Do not use a written application as a proxy for skill.
The strongest animation people are frequently inside studios rather than freelancing.
Or skip all of it and post once.
Everything above is doable on your own. It takes a local number, a local entity on some boards, a translated description and somebody to read applications in Vietnamese. Elsewhere does that part for you. You write the role once in English, pick your markets, and upload examples of the work you want. We translate it, post it to the local boards, pay the posting fees, and score every applicant’s portfolio against your references before you see them.
- One job description in English, plus examples of the work you are looking for.
- Translation into Vietnamese, posting to the local boards, and the fees they charge.
- Applicants ranked by how closely their portfolio matches the work you uploaded.
Do I need a local entity to hire someone in Vietnam?
Not to engage a contractor. Most agencies engage people here as independent contractors on a monthly retainer, which does not require a local entity. The contractor invoices you and handles their own tax locally. Employing someone on a local payroll is a different question and does normally require an entity or an employer of record.
What language should I write the job description in?
Vietnamese. English is common in the technology and outsourcing sectors but more variable elsewhere, so a brief in English narrows the pool more than it would in India or the Philippines. Elsewhere translates your English description into the local language automatically, so you write it once.
Which job boards should I post on in Vietnam?
The boards that matter locally are ITviec, TopCV, VietnamWorks. Elsewhere posts to them for you and covers the posting fees.
How much overlap will I get with my working day?
Six hours ahead of London, so the shared window is the UK morning and the Vietnamese evening.
How do I pay someone in Vietnam?
Payoneer and Wise are both used. Direct transfer is less common.