Job in Sevilla, advice requested

I have an interview in March for a senior-level electical engineering position in Seville. Does anyone have any input as far as salary ranges for an experienced engineer (9 yrs exp)? Not that I need to know specifically for my particular area of expertise, but a reasonable idea of professional salaries would help to know the difference between a fair offer and a lowball.

Does anyone have any other advice that an extrajero might benefit from during my first out-of-US interview?

Thanks!

Living in Spain, working in Spain, right now is next to impossible because the government has a new law which freezes applications for residency and employment until after the elections, when a they will take a new look at the "problem." It will depend if the PP or PSOE wins, the PP being very anti-immigration, and the PSOE more pro.

I have lived here over three years and am still trying, in vain, to get my residency and work permits. Luckily my wife works (7 days a week at two jobs), and I paint to sell and also give art lessons under the table, but nevertheless I might have to return to the US to search for work.

My advice to anyone who is thinking about making the leap is to GET A JOB OFFER HERE FIRST. It is totally unrealistic to think you can get employment, legal or otherwise, which will support you, let alone a family, without a good, valid work offer. Without the job your chances of getting residency are nill. My wife had to wait over three years for her residency and work permits. Salaries are ridiculously low, not enough to make a living (even for legal work), and "pisos" (apartments) prices to purchase are around 250,000 € and up (in a barrio such as Alcobendas -- Madrid centro is double that).

The best thing is to have an independent business which does not need to be site-specific. This is why I started 1st Class Pinups (www.1stclasspinups.com).

Doug316, I wish you the best of luck with your interview. It's a bit of a shame we didn't have more information to give you here in this thread on expected salaries. However, from what little I've heard, it seems that whatever you were making in the US you can count on about 60%-70% of that in Spain - maybe even less. While it sounds shocking at first, the cost of living in SOME parts of Spain can be lower so your salary may go further. Plus, there are some things that money just can't buy like a way of life, a social culture surrounding you, the beauty of land-and-sea everywhere, and many many more things that make Spain appealing to many. Best of luck to you.

Martín de Madrid, it's good to see you " 'round these parts" again! There was a woman in another thread asking about the artists community in Madrid - I sent you a Private Message Board it.

Thanks for that useful and enlightening information above. I get countless emails from people asking how they can get a job in Madrid for the summer or, you know the kind, they're going to drop everything, board a plane, and make a new life for themselves in Spain. Just like that! Since you're there and you're going through the same thing, I'll direct these well-wishers to your posting.

Sincerely, MadridMan

If they offer me 70% of what I made before, I would be thrilled!

Assuming your present/past job and the new one are similar in level, that is.

Again, prepare for less since, well, they know you WANT to move to Spain so this desire might work against you on the salary end. I mean, if they THINK you'd be willing to take LESS just to live/work there then... well.. you get it. But good luck! We love success stories around here!

Saludos, MadridMan

Martin

what u mean by freezing of residency & employment work. When this happened.

I received my papers from Ministry couple of days ago. Now I have to apply in consulate to get proper visa.

Is this freeze gonna effect me also?

thanks

Basically any salary information for an experienced professional would be helpful information, thanks!

I'm not sure what experienced engineers make but here's what I do know...all of my friends (under 40) with similar years of professional experience make less than 3000 euros/month.

Hello

May I can give a hint. The engineering arena is totally different depending on the sector you are working on.

If we are talking about electrical utilities, salaries tend not to be excellent for permanent employees (these jobs are for the whole life). A project base contract is a totally different matter.

Giving frames is extremelly complicated without knowing more, but asuming you'll be in the technical/projects area (not sales, marketing direction...)and asuming you become a normal employee, you can expect anything from 35.000€
to 50.000€ (offers tend to be complemented with other things).

Nevertheless, if you want more info let me know

Wow that's quite a pay cut from those Bay Area $100k plus salaries! Time to do some cost-of-living research to find out if i could live on that much...(too old to live like a college student).

Assuming Nativo's 35,000 - 50,000 Euros estimation, that's about $44,756 - $63,931 USD. I would imagine you would live MUCH MUCH better than a college student on this much salary in Sevilla. But yes, still, salaries in Spain are MUCH lower than those in the US. Andalucía, they say, has a lower cost of living than most other regions in Spain.

Saludos, MadridMan

Hey Madridman, I'm no math major, but wouldn't 35,000 -50,000 Euros be more like 28,000-44,000USD? (more or less)The dollar is only worth about 75 cents to the Euro.

mencey wrote: You're right, mencey. You're no math major. hehehe.. (just teasing) I think you may have it twisted around. Don't worry about it. It still confuses me too.

1 Euro = $1.27 USD
$1 USD = 0.79 Euros

Things are more expensive because, for example, when you spend 100 Euros a hotel you're actually paying $127 USD.

So according to the Universal Currency Converter @ http://www.xe.com/ucc/ the conversion for 35,000 Euros = $44,523 USD

Saludos, MadridMan

One of the reasons that make Spain competitive on high skilled jobs is that real working time is longer and salaries are far lower than developed countries in for the same qualification.

One very important factor is the tax regime you will be supporting. To give some real numbers 60.000€/year make 2900€/month in a 14payments regime. Most spaniards will be using fiscal bonuses you will not be using (pension, mortgages). Take into account other compensation "advantages" example(electrical companies employees don't pay for electricity, probably lunch and food in the company canteen will almost free...)

Nevertheles I agree with MM that once you are in Seville, if you organize a little bit you should be able to enjoy lower prices tha nin the Bay Area

hI, i lived in seville last year. This is an inexpensive city to live in.You can get your own room in an apt for 200 euro per month. Beer is cheap. Heinekin 1.20 euro vs Usa 3.50 in a bar 5-7 dollarsin a club in boston or NY.eating out is inexpensive as well. Night clubs are 6 euros to get in vs 15usd in boston or 25usd in new york city. With your salary you should be able to save alot of money. I wish I had stuck with engineering, I would probably be in spain just like you will be. Best wishes and get ready for the best time of your life, sevilla is a very beautiful city and the people are friendly.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Anyone else have any advice for the interview? Any cultural issues to be aware of? If they make an offer, are their any expectatoins, like accepting right away, not taking first offer, etc.?

ha ha ha MM, sorry....I guess I wont quit my dayjob.I feel so sheepish....baaaaaaah

The son of a work mate of mine is an “Ingeniero Técnico” working in Seville for a good local/national firm. My work mate complained a few months ago that his 25 year-old-son didn’t have a good salary and also had to travel sometimes and spend a few days working in other cities. He told me that the salary was around 1100 €. He said it was the salary of a beginner (no experience)“Ingeniero Técnico” in a good firm. An “ Ingeniero Superior “ obviously must have a better salary!

Buena suerte en Sevilla.

Giving hints for an interview without knowing the context, is even more difficult than framing wages.

Let's assume it's a spanish company in the utility sector (not talking about aerospace industry here) and you are not supossed to be fully fluent in spanish for the job. In those conditions,if the interviewer is spanish, he will take care of the differences and he will tend to concentrate in your technical skills.

He may also lead you "to chat" about why you were there, wife, stories about your life,....shallow as it may sound is not gossip. In fact that is the moment in which they will be trying to grasp an instintive feeling about you being "normal or not". Believe or not it is a critical part of the evaluation.

Regarding conditions and salary they will verify also if your are being advised on the levels of salary that are normal.

You are not expected to take the offer right away. it is a reasonable thing in most cases to take two days to think about it.

Good luck

To underscore what some of the Spaniards have posted here, as well as from my own experience of living here in Spain...

Even if you *only* make 35,000€ a year in Seville, that is a nice sum of money. Seeing as the cost of living is considerably lower than in Madrid. I have been told that the median salary in Madrid is about 1,500€. If we use Mencey´s math skills (or not ), that works out to 18,000€. Note, this is the median salary, not necessarily the salary that an engineer would make. The cost of living in Madrid (except for housing ) is based loosely on this median salary. So, if one can make ends meet (modestly) on that amount of money, double that in a cheaper city should be a cake walk.

One thing you should be aware of is the "split-shift" working day. Enter the office between 8:30-9:30 am, break for lunch around 2pm and then return to the office around 4pm and work until 7pm, sometimes as late as 9pm depending on the culture of your company. One of my clients is an engineer for a major telecommunications company and usually doesn´t get out of the office before 8pm. For Americans who are accustomed to a straight working day and clocking out at 5 or 6pm, this can be difficult to adjust to.

My experiences with interviews here in Spain have been interesting. Granted, my area was sales/marketing particularly in the non-profit sector..certainly different from engineering... but I think the tendencies are the same.

Nativo says that you might be questioned about your wife... believe me, the interviews do get personal as I was asked if I was married, if I had children...if not why not, if not when...etc. Lots of probing on the relational aspect. As Nativo suggests, it´s all in an effort to get to know you as an individual and to see if you are "normal". For me, as a woman, I found such questioning disconcerting because I certainly didn´t want my responses to be used against me in the hiring process (being 36 years old, I am in prime motherhood age...maternity leave... the whole nine yards). You didn´t post anything about your family situation (whether or not you will be coming over alone or with family) so, obviously all this needs to be taken into consideration when evaluating if you can "survive" on a much lower salary.

It´s really hard to compare the $100k+ salaries from the Bay area to Spain. It´s not just about the money, it´s about the cost of living, and more importantly, the way of life here. I am earning about one fifth of what I was earning in the States (3 years ago...ll years experience)... and was not quite earning the $100k that San Francisco pays. I obviously don´t make anywhere near that kind of money... but am happier here.

Living overseas, different from traveling overseas, is not for everyone. It really depends on what you are willing to "give-up" (so to speak. I happily gave us a stressful, consumer driven 24 hour society for what I have here) and how adaptable you are. What works for one person may not work for others...so be sure to give it some thought...just not so much that you scare yourself from making the leap and miss out on a wonderful life experience!

Chica...you don't know how much I appreciate your posts. They always leave me with sense of hope. We are planning our move to take place in about year.

We believe we will are ready for the changes to come. Those being relying on a sole source of income (not mine), being a full time wife/mother, and SLOWING DOWN. All those things sound wonderful and terrifying at the same time. I've been working since I was 16. What will I be without a salary in US dollars? Will I have an identity crisis when all this comes to a halt? Will I paint, write, take pictures, or TAKE FLAMENCO LESSONS LIKE MISS MADRID? Will I transform into a version of myself that will inspire my daughters? For me, these are true issues. When everything you know is gone and you are left with just yourself, do you like what you see?

And to Doug...your thrust for making the change should be based on the direction you want your life to take. Visuallizing the end result, when you are old and grey (or maybe even today). Will you regret the Bay Area salary or the sights, sounds, tastes and memories that make life memorable? (one of mine being a inpromtu Flamenco guitarist atop the Alhambra lookout)

Sorry if my post is from Venus when the question came from Mars. I blame it on Chica..oh, and pesky constant self-examination.

Doug...one more thing. You might find specific info as this guy moved to Sevilla.

http://www.exploreseville.com/index.htm

Grayhighlights -- I am glad that my posts are helpful! I only wish I had found Madridman´s site four years ago when I was planning my wedding and move to Spain!

I chuckled when I read:
I arrived in Gandía, Spain the day after our wedding and one week after working 60 hour work weeks! In Gandía, the Valencian region, castellano is spoken, but the local dialect, Valenciano is even more prominent. With a husband who was traveling 4 days a week and me in a town with no ability to speak Valenciano... and no job... I had no choice BUT to slow down! What what great a period of introspection and self rediscovery. I discovered that many of my friends secretly envied me because I had the opportunity to "start my life over again". What a fun ride (not always easy!) it has been ever since!

I am sure, from having read many of your posts, you will get here to Spain and never look back! You will be too busy re-inventing your life!