Teaching English is the ideal choice for a gap-year stud or a middle-aged gentleman of leisure who needs to get out of the house (or the bar) for a few days a week but it's hardly a career. Despite the poor prospects, however, Bangkok is awash with whiteboard warriors clad in their poverty-dictated uniform of a polyester tie, cheap shoes and a shoulder bag.

A man in his thirties dressed like this has clearly been here too long. When he says "I'm a sort of corporate facilitator developing core competencies in the management field" you can almost feel the heat from his burning sense of shame.

Teaching English amounts to career suicide. Regardless of how professional you might be, everyone assumes that you're just another John Mark Karr and, when you finally give up and go home, you've rendered yourself practically unemployable because your contemporaries already have ten years relevant experience.

Even if you're on an expat package, a stint in Thailand amounts to a stain on your character. Assignments in Hong Kong or Singapore might be good for the CV but, if you disclose to potential employers that you've been working in Bangkok, it's probably going to act against you.

Better to tell them that you've been in prison