Job Discussion Forums

[iknowwhatiamtalkingabout]

Hello all.

I've never lived or taught in Spain, but I've visited loads of times. I've considered Spain as a destination a few times in my career. I just don't understand how people do it.

Admittedly, my view never gets further than looking at jobs online. However, they seem to follow a fairly consistent pattern. 1000-1200 Euros a month, no accom. To me that seems unsurvivable once you take out tax, rent and bills and wish to have a social life.

I suppose my question has two parts.

1) Is there some kind of aspect to the market that I'm missing? I mean, I've met enough teachers who have worked there, and they didn't starve. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.

2) If not. How do people make it work? Another source of income? Lottery wins? Inherited money?

Spain seems to me like a fantastic place to live. I just don't see how it's possible for teachers.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[spiral78]

The general answer is that
1. most jobs aren't found online - better to come over and beat the streets yourself.
2. the region basically requires paying some dues. Finding the relatively few better jobs around means that you need a local rep, local language skills, and local contacts.

I'm assuming you're legally eligible to work in Spain (from your use of 'loads of times' ).

[Insubordination]

I did it by living in a small town with no entertainment or public transport. I drank 1 euro wines with the locals and went to Madrid once a month. Twas nice. Shop around for the apartment, as there are bargains to be had. It helps if you can speak Spanish, 'cos a lot of landlords don't want to rent to foreigners.

[PierogiMonster]

Decent teachers are charging 25 euros cash per hour in Madrid. It soon stacks up. And if you don't mind flatsharing ...

[jonniboy]

Pretty easily to be honest. I'll give you some exact figures.

I moved back there for a year 2011-2012. I lived in Valencia, the third city. I'd enough cash to live without working and briefly considered it, but decided to keep my finger in the pot. The fact I wasn't desperate helped as I was able to cherry pick jobs a bit more and reject low paying chancers. At first I took a job paying me a fixed amount of 900 euro for 14 hours a week. I then took a second paying me 180 for 3 hours a week. Eventually, I got greedy and took 8 hours at a third place which paid me 15 euro an hour net, but didn't pay me for holidays (factor this in by the way, there are loads of them in Spain.)

Total I was earning about 1550 a month. I was paying 150 a month for a flatshare at first, then got fed up of it and rented a studio in Valencia Old Town for 350 a month. A lot of flats in Valencia, including the one I rented, have no central heating. That's not so much of an issue as it was only really necessary for a 7 week period at the start of the year (it was still over 20 degrees in early January in the day) so that significantly reduced outgoings. Night times in January and February could get cold, so for February I borrowed an electric heater, which pushed the electric bill up by 70 euro a month. I didn't need it other months.

For food I often went for menu del dias, effectively a business lunch. I got a side salad, a starter, usually a paella, a main course (chicken and chips or the like) drink, desert, bread and coffee, for which I paid 8.50 euros. That filled me up for the day and occasionally I kept leftovers from the meal and made sandwiches out of them and ate them as snacks in the evening. Valencia is also so compact that it just wasn't necessary to pay for public transport so that also wasn't a cost.

All that said, there are negatives. Teaching Mediterranean kiddies and teenagers, I found, is an acquired taste (those in the ex-Soviet part of the world are SO much better behaved.) There is very little in the way of work in Summer, which has a big impact on your social security and your overall earnings. You need to have cash in the bank to get you through summer, save 25% of your salary each month or surrender to the hell of summer camps. Also, it's near impossible to find a school which pays you a decent rate *and* all of it legal. It's one or the other.

Definitely doable to make it work, but requires patience, back up cash and flexibility.

[iknowwhatiamtalkingabout]

Cheers Jonniboy, interesting stuff.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.