Moving to Spain: 5 jobs an ex-pat might want to consider

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by Paul Symonds

More and more people these days are moving to Spain more sooner, a slower pace of life and to live the villa lifestyle. The one big issue that many ex-pats get to experience though is the issue of finding work. Life in the sun soon becomes quite harsh when the money dries up and work is sparse. Below 5 ideas for finding work in Spain.

1. By far the best way of succeeding for work in Spain is to have a job in the UK which you can continue to do from Spain. This is becoming a common situation, particularly with the increasing use and speedy connections to the Internet. Many IT workers can now for example, get by with working and living in Spain and just returning to the UK once a month or so for meetings. Can you keep your job and transfer to home working from Spain? Jobs you do not expect could be done this way often can and if you are a valued employee, you might be pleasantly surprised by what is possible, if you get to the point where you make an offer to your employee. This has worked for many people I personally know.

2. Finding a job locally in Spain. Certainly this is possible although it is often far harder than ex-pats expect. Wages and conditions tend often to be poor and speaking Spanish is often needed (and maybe Catalan if you are in Barcelona). To improve your chances, try and start learning Spanish as soon as you can, even before you leave for Spain. Study as hard as possible because it will increase your job prospects and will also help your cultural enjoyment of the country.

3. Open a business. This is in fact what a lot of ex-pats in Spain do, some very successfully and some not so. This is really your decision and the few pointers are to do as much research as possible into the business, the area you are moving to and the market. Make sure you create an extensive business plan and in for your finances, work out the costs and add on an extra 25% as you can be sure it'll cost at least that on top.

4. Don't work. Well, if you are financially able not to work or retired, then this is certainly an option. Working even part-time though can be helpful for meeting locals and it does help of course financially.

5. Consider going to Spain for at least a holiday in the area you plan to love to. This may sound obvious but so many people do not do this.

Paul Symonds writes articles about Barcelona Football Tickets and about Barcelona conferences.

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