First off since this is my first post here, hi everyone! This is a great board, I've learned a lot already just by reading a lot of the threads.

I am strongly considering moving to Spain soon (by March or April possibly) and am wondering where the best place would be to live/work for someone of my trade? I am in the IT field as a UNIX system administrator and would like to, well eventually, do the same or something similar once over in Spain. I did a couple job searches and it seems like 90% or so of these IT type jobs are in Madrid. However, this was not originally my first choice of places to live. I was originally thinking more along the lines of Valencia or Barcelona, something along the eastern coastline. But it does not seem practical in the slightest to live in one of those two cities and work in Madrid. What are the odds of getting an IT field position in a city other than Madrid? Obviously they exist, just in fewer quantities. I just wonder if the demand is not high enough outside of Madrid I might have trouble gaining employment being a non Spain citizen and also non EU citizen. Can anyone shed some insight on this?

Thanks in advance!

-Loc

[originally posted by filbert on 09-18-2004 08:45 AM]

From my own experiences, and looking at various web-sites, I believe that Madrid is the place to find work, contacts etc. Even though Barcelona and Catalunya are regarded as being more prosperous. I also think that perhaps you should spend all your time in the place you really want to re-locate to. This may give you chance to talk to people, look at existing businesses and maybe even spot any gaps in the market.
One surprisingly good place to frequent is the Irish pubs (you find them everywhere). Here, as well as being able to talk to English-speaking expats who can give (good??) advice, you can pick up various English-language newsheets that may have contacts/tips etc.
Good luck, and make sure to spend some time enjoying your holiday!

Thanks,

Yes based on the fact that it seems job landing is along the hardest part in this whole ordeal, I think I am going to spend at least 3 of my 6 nights in Madrid. Madrid seems it will have the highest probability of employment for me. I do want to see Valencia and Barcelona, but will probably spend just one night in each of those places. Other than Madrid and possibly Barcelona, is there another place that may have at least a moderate ammount of IT jobs in the area?

So far I'm thinking either:

Madrid - 3 nights
Valencia - 1 night
Barcelona - 2 nights

Or:

Madrid - 4 nights
Valencia - 1 night
Barcelona - 1 night

Still debating that... I may make Barcelona my first spot so I can evaluate it on the fly.

As MM said it seems literally about 90% of the IT jobs are based in Madrid and the other 10% in Barcelona. When I first started I had the crazy idea of an IT job somewhere down in Andalucia! I've been going to monster's website for six months and can honestly say I've maybe seen one job down there but in a completely unrelated field.

I'm sure there are other IT jobs elsewhere but they never seem to appear on job websites and this is the only means I have of gauging...

I have seen jobs advertised for other cities (Valencia, Bilbao even Sevilla) on infojobs.net. The thing is they do tend to attract 100s of applicants for the one job. Also (like most places) a friend or contact in the right place is worth a lot (the Spanish call it enchufe). A friend of mine many years ago moved to Valencia to marry his Spanish girlfriend. Via family contacts he was then able to wrangle an IT job with Johnson Controls who are based in the area. So, it can be done!
I think if you apply for jobs online, at the very least you need to be able to provide a Spanish telephone contact number. I think the recruiters prefer you to be actually resident so they can meet you and weigh you up..

Yes it definately makes sense for me to focus on Madrid with these percentages. Once there and established I figure I can look to switch to a different area later on if that's what I still choose to do. Like I said in my original post I was at first looking to live more or less in the eastern coastal region. However, after much thought and of course this employment issue, Madrid may be more suited toward my needs. After all, I'm from the Washington, D.C. area, I'm sure Madrid will seem the most familiar to me out of all places in Spain since it is the most urban.

Thanks for all the responses!

-Loc