I keep fantasizing about moving to Spain, coming to this website, then getting overwhelmed and discouraged and deciding to drop it. 

Except I can’t drop it.  I keep thinking about how Europe has such a good quality of life and how I’d really like to move there and raise a family there (don’t have kids yet but want to).  I just can’t see how it would be anything less than a monumental task to do such a thing.  It’d be sooooo much work.  And I’d probably not be able to find a job doing anything other than teaching English which would mean this graduate degree in International Relations I spent years getting is all for nothing.  I coulda just skipped it.

I speak (LatinAmerican) Spanish pretty fluently.  I love Spanish cinema.  I really, really like the European lifestyle.

I think I’d move to Madrid on the .000498% chance I might be able to find a job in my actual field of expertise (non-profit sector, human rights stuff)... but no, that’d be silly.  If I go to Spain I’ll never end up doing any more human rights work professionally.  That’s probably just a given.  So do I want to give that up and teach English instead?

I don’t know… I just don’t know.

Go for it!! I did and have never regretted it and you speak Spanish (I didnt) - OK Latin American - so you will still be understood and you will soon migrate to a more natural Spanish! Many jobs and opportunities are not on the net - go there - build up a network and find the opportunities!

Hey Barb,
Have you considered working for the WHO? They occasionally have some positions open up in Spain.

Also see our new, improved and authoritative jobs in Spain page which provides, what I believe, to be the most comprehensive list of job sites for jobs in Spain on the entire net. I’m hoping to develop a new feature for the site that will help people look for jobs and avoid having to slog through the 20+ sites out there… but for now you’ll have to go through them manually.

Have you seen http://www.madre.org (speaking of nonprofits and such)...
As well:
http://www.learn4good.com/jobs/language/english/search/job/13719/

Very interesting article here

Thanks to both of you!  Considering I’m not having much luck finding jobs here in the States maybe I don’t have much to lose after all…

I think I’m going to do it.  Maybe I can go for two weeks next month as an exploratory trip.  If anyone has any recommendations on where to look for a relatively inexpensive but comfortable apartment in Madrid, I’d be grateful.