In Vietnam, young women are employed by companies to advertise their products whether at the local supermarkets or at department stores. You can also find them at events such as car and motorbike shows standing in their 4 inch heels and flashing their impeccable smiles. They must have some knowledge of the product but their primary purpose is to draw in potential consumers with their good looks. The life of a promotional girl is glamorous and profitable for the girl who can make hundreds of thousands of VND in the span of a few hours, but then again the work is demanding and the turnover rate is high. There are always someone else waiting to seize the opportunity. Nevertheless, for many young women it seems like an ideal job.
I was born in Hải Phòng, and I am 20 years old. For the past three years, I have been living on my own in Hanoi. I only have one brother. I have been a promotion girl since I was a sophomore in college until the present. However, I have stopped working as a promotion girl for a while because I have been busy with journalism and and studying different foreign languages. However, when there are events that need promotion girls, I participate. Before, I worked for a company that provided its own promotion girls and receptions but I participated in this company’s events only in the beginning. After working for this company, I became a free agent.
I used to be a manager and provided pictures for customers. For instance, when wedding stores or newspapers needed to have sample pictures, I worked to provide that for them. In order to provide these sample pictures, I used my connections and relationships that I currently had and the years of experience I worked from being a promotion girl. My connections include all photographers from colleges and of business administration and Công Nghệ who like to take photos.
I send all the photos to the newspaper office or wedding stores myself, but I usually do not take any form of monetary payment because I do the job for my own enjoyment. It is only when I am modeling, then I charge them. However when I provide promotion girl photos, I do it for free. As a promotion girl, my job is to introduce people to the services of a company. The salary for sample pictures throughout the day is 600,000 VND per person for half the day only.
To become a promotion girl, the minimum requirement is to have a decent physical appearance. You must be attractive, and above 160 meters tall. I am 167 meters tall. But physical appearance is a small thing. Working as promotion girl, not only do you need the look on the outside but you also must be clever, good at socializing, and quick. During events like today, there are many conference meetings where promotion girls such as myself must know foreign languages. Promotion girls that know different languages have a better advantage. Nowadays, you need to have knowledge in whatever you do. The more knowledge you have, then the more advantage you will gain over your competitors. It is not simply just physical appearance that would make you successful as a promotion girl.
Recently, I participated in a motor show at the Giảng Võ market which lasted for six consecutive days. The morning shift started at 8:30 am -2:30pm. The afternoon shift started at 2:30pm-8:30pm. Promotion girls have the right to pick the shift that they want to work. So I pick the morning shift. The job of a promotion girl is just to stand in front of a car and introduce the product to the customers. If the customers have any questions, then I explain to them.
But besides standing next to the product and posing for pictures, promotion girls need to know a little information about the sample product they are selling. It looks very simple and when you ask everyone they think it is easy to be a promotion girl. They think that you just stand there and look pretty for the product you are selling. But that is not completely the case. For example, when the season is cold like this, the air conditioner keeps blowing at us while we are wearing very thin clothes and standing on 10 centimeters high heels. Our legs hurt a lot. Even though we are tired, we cannot show it and must always smile at the customer. When the customer asks, we have to explain in detail about our product and they usually ask us a lot of questions.
The motor show, was my first promotional event. Before, I only worked at conferences held at hotels in reception rooms, which required me to know many different foreign languages. When I participated in this type of event, I was shocked and very surprised. At these conferences, I only stood for two hours and then I could sit down. But at events like the motor show, I have to stand for a long time and it is very tiresome. But when I agreed to become a promotion girl, I have to accept the responsibilities that the job entails. They pay me 300,000 VND per shift. On the outside, it looks a lot but when you calculate the money and how much work a promotion girl must put into her job, it is not very much money. That is the reason why I said that if a promotion girl has the knowledge, knows different languages, and does jobs like guiding tourists then the job is easier with a higher salary. But if you just stand there, then the salary is not very high. That was one of my first experiences as a promotion girl. A problem with myself is that I will never do events like that again. Of course when doing events like these, I gain experience like understanding more about the car sample. That kind of information is very interesting to me.
Usually companies and customers will contact you when there is an event. Before, I used to send my application and post my application on several promotional girl websites. After working with a company for the first time, however, they usually call me back to work for another one of their events.
I like to work at conferences because I get to know more people, and open up my social network or enlarge it. When I work for a company, I like to work for companies that sell electronics or cars. I get to learn interesting things about the product. There are things that I usually would not know, but while working as a promotion girl I get to learn a lot.
I work while attending school and it is very busy, but I learn to accept it. I can neglect school work, but friendships fade away because I do not go out that much with them anymore. Honestly, I lost a lot of things that I cannot gain back. But right now, I am trying to gain it back. Now I am working less hours so I can have more time to spend with my friends.
The greatest challenge working as a promotion girl are the bad influences. There is a lot of opportunity to meet millionaires if you work as a promotion girl. Secondly, we are college students and the most important thing is studying. I usually get deeply involved into the work of being a promotion girl. Working as promotion girl, sometime you have a high salary so if you are not careful, it is easy to neglect our school work. Next is the way that customers treat you. Of course, nowadays there are a few of mean customers but there are also some nice customers.
Everyone probably receives news about upcoming events online via Vinagame. They have a powerful arm of PG girls who are very sexy. Talking about Game Online no one will be able to forget all the pretty promotional girls, of course their costumes are a little bit more sexy. They usually get the “not-so-friendly” look from other people. Sometimes it becomes a hot topic of discussion by people who participate. It does not carry a positive purpose or meaning. Sometimes we have to deal with negative reactions from customers, but of course I never accepted events like this. Honestly, every job has negative or bad sides to it. Several PG girls also accept “outside services” I am not too sure about it but it happens.
In the future, promotion girls will be able to advance their social status especially those who have the knowledge and know different foreign languages in this time of development in Viet Nam. There will be more events, especially events with foreigners. Promotion girls nowadays usually face more obstacles. There was a time when I sent in my profile to apply for a promotional girl position and they replied like this: I am very surprised that a promotion girl looking like you can have so much knowledge. I honestly do not have a lot of respect for promotion girls who only have the look, but the knowledge is empty. When I read this message, I was touched.
The maximum age for a promotion girl is 25 years old. First, being a promotion girl is a temporary job which starts based only on people’s personal needs like money or growing inner confidence. Maybe after being a promotion girl, a person can become a promotional girl manager or switch to another job. I never thought I would work in this field. I am only working as a promotion girl for the experience right now.
I am currently learning Korean. After graduation, I want to be a translator. Then I want to go to school for marketing and work for companies that put on events. I want to be a promotional girl manager. I want to participate at the events, but only as a helper. Honestly, when working as a promotion girl money should not be an issue. The important thing is when working as a promotion girl, I can gain more knowledge and confidence. Now I can say that I have confidence, but before I was unable to say that about myself.
Contributors: Mai Nguyen, Carol Nguyen, John Tran, Trương Minh Giang, Đỗ Thu Hương
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