Jobs in spain

[sjmbrighton]

Hello all,

Newbie here,

My wife and I are thinking of selling up and moving to Spain (Valencia), but things seem to be quite confusing. We are still young so would be looking to continue working, I'm a network engineer and my wife does admin type work. I've noticed there doesn't seem to be a great deal of jobs advertised and have also heard that a lot of positions aren't advertised as such and that internal candidates are prefered.

Have any of you guys had the experience of trying to find work before arriving or is it best to wait till you've settled in? also does anyone know if IT jobs are in demand in spain? I can't seem to find any details on it on the web.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated

many thanks : )

[SteveHall]

The simple answer is - there is precious little work available. Unless you speak FLUENT Spanish then your chance of employment is minimal except with the Brit/US multi-nationals.
Almost every company is laying off staff and in Málaga province some figures say that unemployment rates could hit 30% before they drop. 20% nationally is a very real danger within the next few months.

If you look through dozens of previous posts you will see I have precised a lot of the info. That said, you only need one break to get one job. I hope you get it.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by sjmbrighton

Hello all,

Newbie here,

My wife and I are thinking of selling up and moving to Spain (Valencia), but things seem to be quite confusing. We are still young so would be looking to continue working, I'm a network engineer and my wife does admin type work. I've noticed there doesn't seem to be a great deal of jobs advertised and have also heard that a lot of positions aren't advertised as such and that internal candidates are prefered.

Have any of you guys had the experience of trying to find work before arriving or is it best to wait till you've settled in? also does anyone know if IT jobs are in demand in spain? I can't seem to find any details on it on the web.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated

many thanks : )

Hhhmm, I think you should come over and do a bit of research first. Selling up is not a good move, house prices are apparently starting to rise in the UK and they definately are not in spain, in fact they're predicting another 20% drop over the next 18 months.

Jobs here are scarce, the tourist industry is very poor this year, the car industry is in decline and the construction industry has crashed! So there is serious unemployment over here, and thats amongst the spanish and the expats already here!

But as I say, you should come over and have alook and see what you can find out, you never know and if it doesnt work out you'll have had a holiday

Jo xxx

[SunnySpain]

Originally Posted by sjmbrighton

Hello all,

Newbie here,

My wife and I are thinking of selling up and moving to Spain (Valencia), but things seem to be quite confusing. We are still young so would be looking to continue working, I'm a network engineer and my wife does admin type work

IT jobs are in demand in spain?

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated

many thanks : )

Can either of you speak Spanish do at least conversational level ?

If not, a long holiday might be your best bet

[Xose]

Originally Posted by sjmbrighton

Hello all,

Newbie here,

My wife and I are thinking of selling up and moving to Spain (Valencia), but things seem to be quite confusing. We are still young so would be looking to continue working, I'm a network engineer and my wife does admin type work. I've noticed there doesn't seem to be a great deal of jobs advertised and have also heard that a lot of positions aren't advertised as such and that internal candidates are prefered.

Have any of you guys had the experience of trying to find work before arriving or is it best to wait till you've settled in? also does anyone know if IT jobs are in demand in spain? I can't seem to find any details on it on the web.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated

many thanks : )

Hello SJMBRIGHTON and welcome to the forum.

The first thing you could do is register with jobserve.co.uk and put in a filter of "spain". You'll find quite a few agencies posts looking for people for the Spanish market. Obviously they're not looking for people to run tcp/ip cable in buildings or helpdesk level 1 staff, but if you have a specialism, specially SAP, CRM, Oracle DBA and the like, you might find it very interesting.

Another sight worth a look is infojobs.net - this allows you to put in key words and not necessarily an area. So, you put in C++ or .NET programmer and you might get lucky and find a company advertising in English, though even then you are likely to need Spanish also. Defenetely worth a look though. Both the above can be tested before you come over.

Be aware that Spain is VERY paper oriented. So, if an agency from the UK gets you in because you have a demonstrable expertise in say, SAP FI, CRM or MRP II, then not an issue. But if you come to sell yourself, you will need paper to backup your claim. Generally this needs to go through a process that can take 9 months to make your UK qualifications, Spain recognised.

Bottom line then. If you're in IT and can get a job to come to via a reputable agency, do that. Also, if you get a job in say, Barcelona, the salary will conpensate for the cost of living there... or at least it should, and if it's SAP you're into, it most defenitely will. The benefit to Barcelona over Madrid is that (vaya, vaya, alli hay playa) they have beaches

Good luck and happy hunting.

Xose

[SteveHall]

Thanks Xose, good industry-specific information. As we all know, in Spain it is very often who you know rather than what you know so agressive networking is important. I have an interview tomorrow with a local company presidente. There is no vacancy advertised, nor is there even a specific vacancy but he heard of my telecom experience and thought that we should "at least have a coffee". Let's see, what have I got to lose? Nothing!

[Xose]

Originally Posted by SteveHall

Thanks Xose, good industry-specific information. As we all know, in Spain it is very often who you know rather than what you know so agressive networking is important. I have an interview tomorrow with a local company presidente. There is no vacancy advertised, nor is there even a specific vacancy but he heard of my telecom experience and thought that we should "at least have a coffee". Let's see, what have I got to lose? Nothing!

Someone said on here recently (was it you?) that networking can be a double edged sward.

In answer to your “self question” – what have you got to loose? – depends on the impression you leave him with, who he is (perceived as this is what counts) and who he knows.

Have a good one.

[SteveHall]

Thanks Xose. I have met him a few times and know enough of his organisation to know that there "could" be a match. (Been doing some digging this week too! All looks clean!) ¡Vamos a ver!

[Pesky Wesky]

You can also look at jobs up for grabs here
Jobs in Madrid - Spain - for English Speaking Professionals
Jobs in Spain employment vacancies and opportunities in Spain - Recruitment Spain

[Xose]

Originally Posted by Pesky Wesky

You can also look at jobs up for grabs here
Jobs in Madrid - Spain - for English Speaking Professionals
Jobs in Spain employment vacancies and opportunities in Spain - Recruitment Spain

Hola Pesky,
I loved the Recruit Sapin one. Thought to myself, blimey, looks like the technology poligono industrial that's just closed up near JoJo's moved to Gibraltar - talk about LOADS of IT jobs there!

Then I noticed some of them go back to 2006. Clearly they suffer from the same syndrome that I notice in most Spanish web sites - cost of building, not a lot, cost of ownership, not a lot either, and so hardly the most up to date sites on the web.

Still, good for contacts though.

Xose