Hello, everyone! I'm new to this website and think it's awesome. I'm looking for some advice on living and working in Spain. A friend of mine is starting a language program on October 1 for four weeks. She will live with a family in Seville. I want to join her and continue to live in Spain for a year. However, I would need to find a job and a place to stay. I'm giving up a pretty decent job and apartment in Philadelphia, but it's my dream to live in Spain. I have a college degree in Communications, four years post-grad working experience in my field, and 16 years of babysitting experience (I love kids). I prefer to live with a Spanish-speaking family. What are my chances of finding a job? I'm open to anything as long as I make enough to provide the essentials (shelter, food, etc.).

Just to clarify...I want to live and work in Spain legally. I've looked into being an au pair, which under Spanish law, requires me to attend school and obtain a student visa. However, I would like to know what other options are out there. I would appreciate any advice. Thanks!

To live and work in Spain legally you will have to obtain a visa. Contact the Spanish Consulate/Embassy for your area to find out what you'll need. I was ready to start the process earlier this year, but my mother-in-law became ill and we were told that her daughter moving home would be too much excitement for here to handle.

As far as work goes, I know many Americans who are teaching English there.

Good luck to you.

Take some time and do a SEARCH (you'll find the search feature under Post A Reply on the right hand side of your screen). There is a wealth of info on living in Spain and getting a job. After you have had a chance to go through some of the info you should have a better idea of what you are faced with and some solid questions - we'll all do our best to help answer those. Good luck!

hi everyone, we {my partner} and i are new to this site. we desperately want to move to spain. I am a qualified nurse for people with a learning disability and despite extensive searches on the web cannot find anything appropriate. we would appreciate any advice anyone can offer. thanks

Hello bucks! Welcome to our Spain-loving forum!

While I'm only guessing, I imagine your specific kind of nursing experience would be more difficult to match in Spain. EDIT: I WAS going to offer the website http://www.nursingspain.com because it was mentioned in this forum before but apparently it's now owned by a domain name registration company. Ugh! Good luck!

Saludos, MadridMan

Hi bucks... My wife and I knew a couple a few years back that came here to live in Madrid. He was Spanish. She was from New Jersey. She had a nursing degree and was working steadily in Jersey before they moved. She looked for a nursing position for about 6 months and never found one. The couple returned to the US really frustrated shortly afterwards.

I don't know all of the particulars about 'how' you get a job nursing here in Spain and I'm sorry to post some info that's not positive (that's not my style....), but I think that you probably should know that you might find yourself in a difficult field.

Now.....putting my positive chip back in again... I'm sure, given your immeasurable talents, that you'll have no problem at all. Best of luck!!

Just wanted to give everyone an update...I'm joining my friend in Sevilla for the five-week language program. I leave the U.S. on September 27, just two weeks away! I've spent hours reading threads on this website, particularly those that discuss living and working in Spain. I must say that some of the posts were disheartening - it's obviously very difficult to get a EU work visa.

Surprisingly, many people at my current job have been to Spain and I'm getting lots of free and well-appreciated advice. I'm using every connection and contact I have to help in my job search. I'm not a spontaneous person by any standard, so the fact that I'm hopping on a plane to a foreign country without a job waiting for me is very out of character! But I'll never know what could happen unless I do it, right?

When I have good news, I'll share it here! Best of luck to everyone who is in the same boat!

mercdrag--
Yes, definitely keep us aprised of your happenings as you embark on your great adventure in Sevilla.
I am interested to know what kind of work you find. I too am looking to move to Sevilla to live and work in the near future.
Can you email me and let me know how you are going about your job search? Maybe we could provide each other with connections and contacts. We have similar work experience & years of service. Email me at pepesarah17@cs.com. I tried to send you a private message, but you're not set up that way.

Mucha suerte y felicidades!

Sarita

Bucks

I remember seeing a tv prog here in London a year or 2 ago which looked at the number of Spanish docs and nurses that were coming to the UK. Apparently they have more than enough to go round, while we are just the opposite, so los of them were coming here. I don't know if that's still the situation, but as tonytorero suggests, I think it might be a tough field to find work in. Then again, you are qualified in a specialist area, so that could help I guess.

I don´t mean to be discouraging, but.... I have been living in Madrid for almost 2 yrs now..I first worked for a UK company which was great and gave me a chance to get my Spanish up to speed but about 4 mo ago the co. decided to stop building here and sort of left me hanging. My wife is spanish so that was never a real problem just a real hassle. I am returning to the US next week after beling away for 11 yrs to work and I may be returning to Spain in 6mos depending on how things go. I mean being able to have jamon any time you want is certainly worth the trouble and those fresh cañas..ummmm with the seafood boy I am certainly going to miss a few thing here. But one thing to remember the Spanish like to hire Spanish no matter how good you or you qualifications are. Look for foreign companies especially if you speak spanish, since the spanish do not really speak any languages(kind of like the US and the UK)this would be a real advantage. By the way, make sure you have savings since the "inem" or unemployment is practically non-existant. Good luck and just keep thinking about the jamon!

In your search for foreign companies, do not overlook Spanish multinational companies as well (Telefonica, Repsol to name a couple). I teach English in a few multinationals here and am always pleasantly surprised at the high level (bilingual) of English a good percentage of the Spaniards that I teach have. In three of the companies where I teach, English is the official language and all business in conducted in English. To say that the Spanish don´t really speak anything but Spanish isn´t quite a fair statement (one needs only to read posts by our very own PIM, Fernando, Miguelito, Antonio, Castiza, Nativo and Andrés and others!). I think that the Spaniards are much more open minded about learning languages than Americans are (can´t speak for our British friends). In my journey I interact regularly with Spaniards who are not bilingual but rather multilingual.

I think it´s more of a situation where they may be embarrassed to speak to a non-Spaniard (when they don´t have to for work purposes) in English. Be it for the accent, pronunciation, etc. I loudly applaud the efforts made by all our native Spanish posters (and even moreso when they dare enter the chatroom that is full of English slang at lightning speed!!). It´s not easy! Maybe I should arriesgarme more often and post in the "Spanish only" forum!

Chica,

The "three companies that you teach at where English is the official language" - curiosity makes me ask - are these Spanish international companies or are they headquartered in an english speaking country?

I want to back up Chica's statement with some additional information. Moranberlin- its not so much that spanish companies only want to hire spanish, but by law they are forced to do so. Also, the paperwork and hassle to hire someone non-spanish isn't something companies want to spend time and money on, especially when there is no guarentee that their efforts will be supported later by the Ministry of labor. Also, as you said, your wife is spanish, and working there has given you some level, but maybe for what the companies were looking for, well, you weren't the best candidate. I think its also important to keep in mind that if we want to or not, as Americans, we have a kind of attitude about us, that comes across in the wrong way when we're dealing with people outisde our culture, and need to keep in mind that we need to hold back a bit. I'm not saying this was true in your case, but its a possibility.

Last but not least, yes, why wouldn't they look to hire someone from their country, who understands better than a foreigner (no matter how many years they've been there) how the people think, what makes them tick, etc. American companies do the same. Although frustrating for those of us trying to cross those bridges, I'm not going to point the finger when everyone else does the same.

Puna -- Point well made. One of the companies is UK based and the other two are US based. However, in two of the three cases, Spain is the European HQ. Interestingly enough, the multinational companies that I dealt with in the states (Elf Atochem, Yves Rocher, SAP, Henkel to name the a few) did not have the same policy in place where the official language of the company was that of the corporate HQ (French or German in this case). It must be that English dominating mentality!

Point taken. Sorry if my point was a bit misunderstood. I do understand quite well how US Americans can be perceived abroad since I have not lived in the US for some 12 yrs. My intention was (sorry) not to point fingers at the low level of the Spaniards english but rather to point out an oportunity to a new job seeking ex-pat. I think I need to explain my viewpoint a bit so as (maybe not to come across as a trad. arrogant American. The last place I lived before coming to Spain 2 yrs ago was Germany. I lived in Germany for 10 yrs(not a soldier) and from there I worked on projects in Poland, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden, traveling quite frequently to these places. Now when I compare the Lang. abilities of these countries as well as other N.Eur. countries, sorry but Spain´s languge level as not all that hot. But of course much much better than the non-existence of a 2nd lang. in the US and the UK(I worked for a UK co.)
I did´nt mean to step on any toes, Spain has been by far the most friendliest place I have worked.
Why Spanish hire Spanish.
Quite frankly I don´t know and I do not think The previous commentator added any more light on the subject. But I came to Spain as an ex-pat client so looking for a job was not an issue. I must say though that coming from Ger. and having worked w/ many US&UK co.s the organizational abilities from the consultants and contractors that our company hired were not up to the standards of N.Eur. As a foriegn client this can be a bit frustrating. It is not enough just to understand the local market, their is a definite need for people who understand BOTH. So again not to point fingers here, this is as well just to point out to those of you with organizational abilities who are looking for work. you may have something to offer here.

Again Good Luck!!!

Could you perhaps tell us which those companies are, for the benefit of those seeking employment?

D

In re spaniards appearing not to speak foreign languages, Chica makes an important point about spaniard's reluctance to feel silly if the accent isn`t right - of course this is human nature in general. But you would be surprised at how many spaniards have a good working knowlege or actual proficiency in english. The spaniards wouldn't feel awkward in their command of english if the brits didn't take such pains to dismiss them and their language skills, and the spaniards should instead finally begin to ignore brits and their close-minded attitudes and look to americans as an example of how to just dive in, regardless of proficiency - I myself just haul off and get my thoughts across in spanish any way I can and never have a problem with giggles from my surprised listener, nor do my spanish interlocutors ever have any problem w my fractured spanish (it isn't really all that bad), and when I come up with a phrase or two in valenciano, we all crack up for a good laugh (they say it is as surprising as if a sofa just began talkiing, lol). A yankee cobbling together a french sentence in France is a different story of course, don't get me started, lol...

Hey Dimitris! My parents taught me full well the value of sharing. And my business experience has taught me full well the importance of competition and keeping the mouth shut. (Which I don´t do often enough ). That said, the best way to start searching for jobs teaching English is to check the newspapers (Segundamano for example) and also the "bolsas del trabajo" online. I have had tremendous personal success with www.infojobs.net

So, without directly giving you the names of the companies that are my bread and butter I shared two of my successful strategies with you! Good luck!

You are right! It never actually crossed my mind that you may be competing with others in teaching English to those companies!

English is not my mother tongue and I wasn't planning on teaching it. What I really meant is "for the benefit of those seeking employment, and need to work in an English-speaking environment as they don't speak good Spanish yet".

Myself, I am an Information Security specialist with only an elementary knowledge of Spanish, hence the query. Oh well, I will keep looking at infojobs!

Dimitris

Dimitris -- check out www.sia.es . My sister-in-law is also a specialist in online security and most recently worked for this company. She recently left to study in England for a couple of months and really boost her English skills. SIA requires English skills on the job and works closely with a few American information security firms in California. Might be a good place to start.

Additionally, most of the multinational corporations in Spain have an English speaking environment. Honeywell, Volvo, The Phone House (a British multinational), Ford, just to name a few. Infojobs will be a good resource for you as it was first launched as an online job resource for people in the computer (informática) field. Also try www.computrabajo.com and www.monster.es

Good luck!

argh! How silly I am! All those online job posts are in Spanish and you said your level of Spanish is about elementary! Sorry! Try looking at www.monster.com and indicate Spain as your geographical preference. The Wall Street Journal also has online international classified listings. Go to their home page and follow the links for the classified ads!