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