I left Germany a decade ago. Never looked back.

From $1,000/month in Hanoi to VP-level compensation. A decade in Southeast Asia. 3 remote jobs. 3 promotions. Zero office days in the last 3 years. Here's how I escaped the geographic salary trap—and how you can too.

Years in SE Asia

3×

Local salary

Office days · 3 yrs

The story

I booked a one-way ticket, and never looked back

I was 25. A degree, a marketing stint at Universal Music in Berlin, then radio-ad sales in Mainz where I'd just broken the sales record. On paper, the rulebook was working. And it felt wrong: a trajectory I could already see to the end.

So that December, I bought a one-way ticket and left. By the time I turned 26 that February, Germany was behind me for good. Nine months of travel later — reading business books the whole way — I landed in Hanoi and knew I wasn't going back.

The journey

How it actually happened

At 25

Left Germany

A one-way ticket out. No job, no plan, no safety net.

2017

Made Asia home

Based in Hanoi, leading sales across the APAC region.

2020

Ran two markets

Country Manager for Singapore & Malaysia — mostly remote through Covid.

2022

Went fully remote

Marketing Director for a European tech company, working entirely from Asia.

2025

VP — and remotework.coach

Promoted to VP Growth Marketing, now hiring and leading a remote team of my own. Started remotework.coach to help others make the leap.

What I believe

Three things I'd tell my younger self

Where you live shouldn't cap what you earn.

Your skills are global. Your salary is just badly distributed.

You don't need permission. You need positioning.

Why I do this

The salary trap is invisible

I watched friends earn a fraction of what their work was worth, certain that was just "how it is" — when a European company would pay them three times as much for the exact same job.

The problem was never their skill or their qualifications. They were competing in the wrong market, positioned as a discount instead of a peer. That's the gap I'm closing.

Your first step

Start exactly where I started.

The free manifesto is the mindset shift that changed everything — the one I wish someone had handed me at 25.

Get the free manifesto →