One year on, still no work.

[jojo]

A word of warning. Its never a good idea to post personal information on the forum. Its seen by spammers, companies/people sniffing around for business, advertisers...... and they're the good ones!! You simply dont know who you are letting into your personal life. So please use the PM facility

Jo xxx

[awilki]

Hi Greg,

Have you thought of looking for remote work? As long as you have an internet connection, many companies are now recuiting permanently & giving one off jobs to people in any location. A couple of good websites (uk based) are people per hour . com (won't let me paste the link) and e-lance. You can bid for suitable jobs for free. I am based in Portugal with a property in Italy that is not selling & know a few people who earn a living this way.
Good luck !

[thecapaccino]

I think that is an idea for ALOT of people...

[dub79]

Hi Greg,
I suppose you have you tried contacting the translation agencies? Sometimes they're looking for native speakers to proofread English texts. How about teaching English? I think many Italians are looking for conversation classes, maybe also in the university of Modena. A friend of mine just emailed local companies offering English teaching classes and like that he got a few clients.
Good luck!

[Gregv]

I have. I keep hearing that there is loads of demand, but found very few places that were interested. Some places said "maybe" but they wanted TEFL, ESL, and a background in education. Even consulting or translation places weren't interested.

I thought I could at least do technical translation. There is loads of engineering work in this area and their english documentation is often impossible to understand. So far no luck.

A wonderful lady at Lamborghini said she would try to present me to a few people this week as she also felt many people could use my abilities. Hopefully she will be able to and some success will result.

[misslancslass]

Have you tried Ferrari, they may consider you because of your engineering background!

[markfxy]

The only work about seems to be in solar PV try looking for work with renewable energy companies especially the big German companies.

[Giacomina]

good luck Greg! I couldnt do it! After three years I had two english students, which did pay for my groceries at least. I left Rome then and returned years later with my husband who works remote.

My friends in Rome didnt find work either. Some people find work writing for newspapers as foreign correspondents. Several had their own businesses, but these were shady interprises, I doubt you are desperate enough to try that. I hope not! One managed to get part time work but I heard she left Rome anyway, its so difficult to support oneself on low part time wages. She was young and spoke Italian fluently, as the years go by it becomes more difficult to cope for some reason, not easier.

I know that a lot of people are leaving, even people who are very wealthy and have bought homes for investments here, there are literally thousands of country houses in Umbria for sale!

I am sorry for these examples, but if I knew of one success story where someone didnt have family connections or a stipend of sorts and had actually made it on their own (I just mean being able to pay rent, and the bills and to eat) I would be happy to relate it. Whenever I hear of an english speaking woman who has a job or business, she is always either married to an Italian or the mistress of an Italian man, that is how it goes here.

Getting quality of life is so expensive ! It used to be simple to exist in Italy on very little, I hope those times return to us.

[Gregv]

Thank you!

I had an interview in Milan, but it's not an area I like. I can be very happy here with just enough to support myself, but I at least need to be where I like it! Working on numerous business ideas here, in Switzerland, UK, even Dubai. Maybe I'll have to move to build up some financial security again, but I hope to return. There is no better place.

[Gregv]

(Pay for the Milan job is terrible, maybe 1/8th of what I made doing the same work in Canada, and not nearly enough to support oneself.)