Jobseeking 2

As someone pointed out to me, I haven't said much about getting a job and working in Spain yet. This is partly cause I'd been a bit concerned about talking about employers etc but I'll just speak generally.

What it boils down to is this: if you are a native English speaker, you will be able to survive in Madrid. Even if you´re American, and don't have a work visa, you should be able to get by with particulares, or private classes. There are plenty of websites such as www.tuclasesparticulares.es that you can advertise on and by far most of the responses I've had are people looking for conversational English classes, so no training necessary. Theres also plenty of people looking for native speakers to look after or tutor their kids for cash in hand. However, if you don't have paperwork, expect no more than €10 an hour (which still isn't bad!).

If your a native English speaker with an N.I.E. number, in terms of employability and pay expectations, this beats a degree hands down! The demand for learning English is huge here and there are a load of companies and language schools competing for the various strands of business this produces, all seemingly always looking for teachers. You can expect between €10-€20 an hour for these jobs but some will want you to be autonomo, or self employed, which entails paying your own social security (€178 a month).

If your legal, a native English speaker and are fluent in Spanish... what job would you like? Every company wants more native speakers and you should just be careful not to undersell yourself!

I don't know why the demand for learning English is quite so high but in recent years I think there's been a lot of outsourcing to Spain and mergers with UK companies, and it certainly improves your job prospects as a Spaniard if you have good English.

My personal experience has been starting off at a kind of business English agency that sent me off to be embedded in various other companies to teach their staff, which involved some very good, if intense, training. However, they´ve only been able to give me 12 regular hours a week, which really isn´t enough, so I´ve just started wroking evenings at a language school as well. This is much more relaxed than the business side of teaching, and doesn´t involve any lesson planning which is a big bonus. I´m also working on contract for them which means they pay my social security, which works out very well for me! (Although I imagine I´m going to have a nightmare when it comes to filling in a tax return!).

I´ve really warmed to teaching English, I didn´t think I was going to be that suited to it, but now I really enjoy it and have become a bit of a grammar geek. The students are usually quite fun, especially if you have them week in week out at their work - its like a break for them. Spanish people have a good sense of the ridiculous as well so your often laughing your way through a lesson with them. I find it seriously satisfying when I see them improving as well.

So basically, if your a native English speaker, you´ll have no problem getting a job in Madrid (1st Conditional by the way), and if your an EU citizen with the right to work here, the pay is pretty good too. Not a bad way to ride out the recession I´d say, although I am very aware that the Euro may take a nosedive soon, while my debts undertaken to come out here are in Sterling...

I´m actually having all kinds of headaches with various bank accounts at the moment, due to various reasons, but the main one being that I´m in debt in one country and living in another! The caviat I´d add to what I´ve just said is not to expect to get paid instantly and bear in mind the start up costs like apartment deposits etc. I´m only just getting my first full pay cheque now, having moved here in mid-October but hopefully by mid January things should have levelled out a bit!

Travel Choas

Oh dear, its been a while hasn't it? Well, I thought my next post was going to be about going back to England and the strangeness of actually being able to speak to people properly, being able to find good coffee etc etc but no, it was not to be...

I was due to shoot straight off from work to the airport last Thursday, only to be reading about the huge amounts of snow falling in the UK from the BBC and friends Facebook feeds on Wednesday night. By the time I got to the airport, there was utter chaos at the KLM desk with one poor guy, who looked like he actually might have been the pilot of the plane, trying his hardest to keep his customer services face on while being yelled at in about 3 different languages. It's amazing how far a calm and friendly attitude gets you in these situations, and he came round to me pretty quickly when he noticed I was smiling and sorted me out very quickly. I might get to Northern Europe if I stayed in the airport for a day or two but the UK? Not this weekend, he said.

This left me in a pretty wierd situation though (bear in mind I was going there to answer bail!) and I had a tense day wondering whether the court would accept this as an excuse, but also unwilling and unable to book another flight (I am getting a refund, but I have to apply for it etc). And then, on Friday, Spain's air traffic controllers staged a surprise walk-out and grounded all air traffic in and out of the country for 48 hours, stranding thousands of people at Madrid airport and leading to the government calling the first 'state of alert' (emergency) since the end of military rule. Bearing in mind that they get paid six-figure salaries and decided to do this on the Friday before the 'bridge' holiday (I'll come back to this), people don't seem very sympathetic to their plight right now. Anyway, if I believed in fate, I would hazard a good guess that it didn't want me in Trafford Magistrates Court on Monday morning...

So, I didn't go back, and ended up getting sentenced in absence yesterday (I got a fine). Anyway, my travails aren't that bad compared to the other defendents pleading not guilty, who have a long trial ahead of them, and the other 6 who's trial starts in Febuary - you can support them and find out what happens here http://www.manchesterairportontrial.org/

Today is in the middle of the 'bridge' holiday - I've mentioned before the large number of public holidays in Spain, and this week there's one on Monday and one on Wednesday, hence 'bridge'. A lot of people take the Tuesday off and call it a week off anyway, hence their annoyance about the air traffic controllers.