Grisbone

Hello there
First post and hoping for some career guidance.

The backstory...

My wife and I are in the very early stages of planning a move to Spain. At the moment we're aiming to move in the next 2 or so years, likely renting a place for a year then seeing what happens from there.
The location is yet to be decided, though we've been looking at towns around the Alicante and Catalonia provinces.

We're both in our early 30s and therefore will need to continue working. We own a house in England and when the time comes we would rent this out which would easily cover the mortgage payments with money to spare.

Fortunately my wife should still be able to carry on with her current job as normal and work remotely from home, providing we have a reliable Internet connection.

And here is where I need a little help/guidance... I've worked in IT for the past 10 years with a local company providing It support mostly to education customers. Also, for as long as I can remember I've spent spare time/
weekends working with my Dad who is an excellent self-employed jack-of-all-trades (and master of most) - landscape gardening, building, painting and decorating etc. etc.

I'm trying to work out which skills would be most beneficial to improve and bring to Spain with me. My IT certifications have long expired and would need to be renewed, requiring quite a large amount of studying as well
as some financial investment. I'm also not sure how many opportunities there would be in the IT sector outside of the big cities.

The other option is to quit my current job and spend the next couple years working full-time with my Dad, improving my existing knowledge and learning everything I can from him and bringing those skills to Spain so I myself can work self-employed or find work with a local company.

Out of the two options I'm guessing there will be a larger demand for a tradesman assuming we move to an area with a number of older expats likely requiring these kinds of works.


So I come here asking for any guidance, advice or just any general thoughts on the above. Any help would be much appreciated

Rosemary

Hi and a warm welcome to the Spanish forum on BE. Myself and Fred James are the moderators for the Spanish forums whilst BEVS moderates Europe. Moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. This is so that members gain the information that they are looking for and find their experiences on the forums to be friendly and worthwhile.

Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderator who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are usually friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge about the issues of living in Spain. I hope that you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

Rosemary

Unemployment in Spain is extremely high especially in the trades that you have mentioned.

Do you speak Spanish?
Will you have enough funds to keep you for at least a year whilst you are trying to establish yourself?

Rosemary

Grisbone

Thanks for the quick reply Rosemary.

My Spanish is currently a work in progress, though I'm confident it will be adequate by the time we're ready to make the move.

My Wife's salary should be enough for us to get by on whilst I find my feet and get established self-employed or find full-time employment.

Would (un)employment rates vary much by area, or is it pretty much the same across the country?

cricketman

It takes years to get language skills up to a level required to do business in that language.

English IT qualifications mean next to nothing here

Gardening, handyman etc... well.. With 5 million unemployed you will need to stand out from the crowd somehow

Getting a job in Spain is roughly by my calculations 100 times more difficult than getting a job in the UK, and thats even if you were fluent in Spanish. It is not impossible though

mikelincs

In your time scale, the UK will probably be out of the EU, then other factors, as yet unknown, will affect your ability to move there. I suspect that people who have already made the move are unlikely to be affected, but people wanting to move, and needing a job, will almost certainly be affected.

Moses2013

There would be work in and around Barcelona, but again depends what sort of IT skills. With English, you can often find customer service jobs with IT, but often a 2nd language is of advantage (French/German/ Italian etc.). Salaries and working hours aren't always great either and you'd be looking at 20K (if lucky) which would probably be €1350 a month.

lupiilu

There are IT jobs in Gibraltar currently being advertised. The salaries are very good and you could live across the border in Spain. The border town to Gibralter is called La Linea, and though I've never been there, it looks beautiful and I hear positive things about living there. There are also other nearby towns from which you could commute.

Rosemary

Hi and a warm welcome to the Spanish forum on BE. Myself and Fred James are the moderators for the Spanish forums whilst BEVS moderates Europe. Moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. This is so that members gain the information that they are looking for and find their experiences on the forums to be friendly and worthwhile.

Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderator who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are usually friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge about the issues of living in Spain. I hope that you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary