# Moving to Spain, San Sebastian (Donostia) need work life advice.



## Cifu

14 years ago I married my wife who is from Spain. She is from Donostia. We have lived a good life in the Big Apple (NYC) we have good careers and a decent work life balance. 4 years ago we were blessed with a baby girl. Now we have decided to move to Spain and back to her home town where we have a pretty big family. We have some money saved and in order to buy a flat I might need to stay here in NYC a bit longer while they move to Spain.

My question for you expat experts is: How can a 40 year old moving to Spain find a job in either sales or the finance department? What are the best ways to go about it? Are there employment agencies that actually work with you there in order to help find a new career?

I do speak write and read Spanish. I am also willing to become trilingual (Euskera) if it is something that will help build my ability to hold a decent job. I am also under no illusions, I do not expect to make what I'm making now in terms of salary.

There is also the issue of legally being able to live and work in Spain. I definitely need some advice for this.

Other than that, I find San Sebastian a beautiful city. I love the people and their culture. My in laws and extended family there are the best you can ask for. I feel my daughter will prosper in this environment. And we already have an idea of what school she will be attending.

Thx fellow world travelers! Any advice will be helpful!


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## Pesky Wesky

Cifu said:


> 14 years ago I married my wife who is from Spain. She is from Donostia. We have lived a good life in the Big Apple (NYC) we have good careers and a decent work life balance. 4 years ago we were blessed with a baby girl. Now we have decided to move to Spain and back to her home town where we have a pretty big family. We have some money saved and in order to buy a flat I might need to stay here in NYC a bit longer while they move to Spain.
> 
> My question for you expat experts is: How can a 40 year old moving to Spain find a job in either sales or the finance department? What are the best ways to go about it? Are there employment agencies that actually work with you there in order to help find a new career?
> 
> I do speak write and read Spanish. I am also willing to become trilingual (Euskera) if it is something that will help build my ability to hold a decent job. I am also under no illusions, I do not expect to make what I'm making now in terms of salary.
> 
> There is also the issue of legally being able to live and work in Spain. I definitely need some advice for this.
> 
> Other than that, I find San Sebastian a beautiful city. I love the people and their culture. My in laws and extended family there are the best you can ask for. I feel my daughter will prosper in this environment. And we already have an idea of what school she will be attending.
> 
> Thx fellow world travelers! Any advice will be helpful!


Well, it won't be easy , but the best way, as you have said, is to show willing with Euskera and then use your contacts unashamedly and make more. Look at _Meetups Donostia_ where you'll find all sorts of groups for making friends and possibly business contacts and don't forget the Bilbao area which probably has a lot more opportunities than Donostia.
The Cámara de Comercio in Bilbao might be able to give you some ideas of where to go, what to do, list of companies??? There is this programme. I think it's probably aimed at people 50+, but...
https://www.camarabilbao.com/ccb/competitividad_innovacion/programa_edad_y_talento
In other parts of Spain infojobs.net seems to be the best place for looking for professional work - not sure about the Basque country.


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## Overandout

Be prepared for a rough ride.

I also came to Spain for love! I also spoke reasonable Spanish when we made the move. I am University educated and had a professional career, company car etc. in the UK.

At fist I tried to get a job before moving but that just proved impossible so we moved anyway.

For the first 3 months I had no work at all. Zero income.
Then I got a tele-operator job which paid very very little (in the region of 15% of what I was earning in the UK).
After a while it became obvious that it was not sustainable so I started teaching English for a private academy in the evenings. That brought my income up to around 20% of what I had been earning in the UK, but I was working 14 hour days, plus travel time and with no lunch break.
Over the years I changed jobs several times (6 different jobs in the first 5 years - this was before the crisis when there were more jobs available), and eventually I got to a level of earnings and professional responsibility that I am happy with, but it will never be equivalent to the UK in real terms. I never buy brand new cars or go on intercontinental holidays as I used to when I lived in the UK for example.

What I am sure that I will never recover is the work-life balance. Spain is very poor at this, most workers resign themselves to dedicating 100% of their time to the company from Monday to Friday and hope to have a stress-free weekend for family time.

It sounds like I am painting a bad picture of the situation, but remember, I am only talking about professional life. The other aspects of life in Spain do outweigh the negatives!!

Edit: Move soon! Most Spanish employers like young cheap workers above older, more experienced, but more expensive workers. At 40 you still stand a chance of getting employment, get nearer to 45 and you may struggle.


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## sansylivin

Hi Cifu,

I´ve been in Sansy for last 6 years, but came here with a government program and (hopefully) the promise of a permanent contract (age 40). Would I come here with the aim to find a job? It depends how much of a financial cushion you have, Sansy is very expensive and if you are hoping to live with the quality of life you enjoy in the US you will need between 2-3K per month minimum. There is work here, much more so than other cities and Sansy is blessed with one of the lowest unemployment rates in Spain- only 12%! But as OverandOut says it is very difficult to find work and particular so if you don´t speak fluent Spanish. There are exceptions if you have particular skills, science (my case) or engineering for example, but sales or finance, both areas that are very different from US- sales absolutely would require fluent Spanish (or Euskera), anything to do with finance is more complicated than you can imagine (most things are). Forget trying to learn to speak Euskera unless you are particularly talented at languages, however this is compulsory for work in public sector. Also be careful with schools they start at 2 here, getting a kid in as a 5 year old can be very tricky unless you want an ikastola (everything in euskera).
My advice, if you are already connected with global company explore possibilities, as Peskywesky said Bilbao will be much easier as many large companies/banks there. As for agencies etc., not really worth it for the type of job you would be looking for, best to look at websites of companies, or better still ask your inlaws to look around- the English teaching is always an option but personally I think not worth the struggle. Good luck!


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## Pesky Wesky

sansylivin said:


> Hi Cifu,
> 
> I´ve been in Sansy for last 6 years, but came here with a government program and (hopefully) the promise of a permanent contract (age 40). Would I come here with the aim to find a job? It depends how much of a financial cushion you have, Sansy is very expensive and if you are hoping to live with the quality of life you enjoy in the US you will need between 2-3K per month minimum. There is work here, much more so than other cities and Sansy is blessed with one of the lowest unemployment rates in Spain- only 12%! But as OverandOut says it is very difficult to find work and particular so if you don´t speak fluent Spanish. There are exceptions if you have particular skills, science (my case) or engineering for example, but sales or finance, both areas that are very different from US- sales absolutely would require fluent Spanish (or Euskera), anything to do with finance is more complicated than you can imagine (most things are). Forget trying to learn to speak Euskera unless you are particularly talented at languages, however this is compulsory for work in public sector. Also be careful with schools they start at 2 here, getting a kid in as a 5 year old can be very tricky unless you want an ikastola (everything in euskera).
> My advice, if you are already connected with global company explore possibilities, as Peskywesky said Bilbao will be much easier as many large companies/banks there. As for agencies etc., not really worth it for the type of job you would be looking for, best to look at websites of companies, or better still ask your inlaws to look around- the English teaching is always an option but personally I think not worth the struggle. Good luck!


And English teaching will not give a salary anywhere near what "living the good life in NYC" gives ...
I agree with sansyliving that you'll need fluent Spanish to get anywhere. I thought you said in your original post that you spoke the language, but see now that you say read and write it...


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