I?ll preface this post by saying that I have been to Spain many times and would absolutely love to live there.  I also have friends in Madrid.  I am a U.S. Citizen, and am 23, college graduate, I work in Information Technology, and I speak elementary spanish.

I?d like to hear from others in situations similar to mine, and what their experience has been.

I have been considering a move to Europe for a very long time, of course the logistics as you all know can make it difficult (finding a job, work permit, visa etc..)

My mother is going to be living in Spain for 2 months over the summer of 2007.  I am getting frustrated because I really want to be in Spain or France and (short of joining the legion) don?t see a quick route of getting there.  I am considering quitting my job just before she leaves and going to spend the 2 months with her in Spain, and using that as a launch pad for a permanent move for myself.  I know that as I am not fluent in Spanish, probably my best bet for a while would be to teach english and do whatever else I can until my Spanish got up to par.  Bearing all that in mind, here are some questions I have for you gents:

1.  How long did it take you to become fluent, or atleast conversational enough to work in an entirely Spanish work place?  I know that to get an job in IT there (unless it?s with a U.S. company) I would need to be able to converse in Spanish.  But I do pickup languages very quickly.

2.  Were you able to sustain yourself teaching english or whatever else, or did you take a substantial amount of savings with you?  I have a substantial amount of money in savings, enough to support me in the states for a year, but I dont want to deplete it, and would like all together to avoid touching it, but I could easily have 4-5k saved up from now until I left.

3.  How is the I.T. job market in Madrid?

I know that with my IT background I could find a job back in Houston without much difficulty, I figure that I?m 23 it would be an adventure and I want to do something like this while im completely unattached.  I am looking to stay indefinetly and really don?t care about coming back stateside on a permanent basis, in other words I would be in this for the long haul.

Thanks for any advice that you guys and gals can give me.  This is something I really feel passionately about.

-Andrew

Hi Andrew,
You dont actually say where your mother is going to be for the two months she is over here but if she is going
  to be in Andalucia by any chance, I have a couple of ideas you could possible try out.
1.) You could always start looking into IT jobs in Gibraltar, you could still live in Spain, amongst spaniards, so
as to get your spanish up to scratch, earn higher wages and have no prolem with the language.
2.) In the province of Cadiz, there is a lovely little sea-side town called Rota. There is an American naval base
  there, you could always apply for an external job vacancy.
Just a couple of thoughts, I know it doesnt answer any of your questions but may be it is a help.
http://www.rota.navy.mil/navsta/index.html
  Regards Paul

pablosho

Thanks for the reply, my mother (and hopefully I) will be in Madrid near Avenida de America.  Gilbraltar is a great idea, ive been there before but hadn’t thought of that idea.  I was just crusing the Naval website for the Rota base, and it looks like there are jobs, but it may require a trip out there to actually see the postings, which I don’t mind doing.  I know IBM and Google both have offices in Madrid so im going to look into those as well.

Hi Andrew,
Glad to have been of some help. If you do decide to look into going down to Gibraltar or Rota and you need a hand with anything, just give me a shout. You can contact me at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Regards
Paul

Hi, I’m new here.

My partner and I are in the very early stages of planning a move to Spain on retirement. At present we are living in New Zealand having moved here from UK 3 years ago to be with our young grandchildren. It’s likely that, for work reasons,  my family won’t be staying here and without them there is no point in remaining as it couldn’t be further from anyone or anything! We miss Europe so much but have neither the finances or the inclination to return to UK, Spain seems like a wonderful choice.

My husband already speaks a little Spanish and I plan to start learning any day now.  We like a quiet life style and don’t have ahuge amount to spend on property , we don’t want to be part of the British scene.  A friend of a friend is living in Andulcia and loving it but, as yet, we have no idea of a good place to move and would welcome advice.

Kia ora

Benedicta

Hi Benedicta
You don?t say where your family are moving to but if it?s not Spain, presumably you would like to be fairly near an airport to be easily able to see them.
Andalucia is a mighty big place and there are lots of beautiful, quiet places away from the ?Brit scene?, as you put it but I would say that it is nice to be in a place where there are a few people who speak your language and can help you through their experience’s and local knowledge. In the first few months, settling in can be quite hard, especially if you don’t speak Spanish.
We have a family run relocation business that covers the province of Cadiz, Andalucia which is advertised in the business services section of this forum. If you would like to take a look at our website and see if this part of Andalucia is what you are looking for, I will be pleased to help you further. It would be helpful to know what your budget is and another thing for you to sort out would be your pensions, depending on you and your partners past employment history!
If I can be of any further help don?t hesitate to contact me.
Best regards
Paul