Job Discussion Forums

[orangiey]

Hi
Planning to come to Madrid in Feb 2007 from China.
Have an EU passport, Celta, teaching experience and a pregnant wife! (She's also an EU citizen).
I am myself only looking for work in the ESL market BUT we will both (all) be needing a place to stay.
Any ideas/suggesstions/recommendation please? Where do we start?
Also looking for work in Feb, any thoughts here too?

We're coming here as China is just not ready for a blonde women with a baby (well, our town anyway) and we'd rather be in Europe for the big day.
Don't fancy ging back to the UK as we will need to still find a place to live and work for me (which will be harder) and it will cost more anyway to live there.
Thanks in advance

[Jyulee]

Try International House

www.ihmadrid.es

While some teachers like to whinge about them, you'll have job security and you'll always be paid on time. For someone with a baby on the way, I'd imagine this might be important!

A 2 bedroom flat in Madrid. Hmm.. On IH pay (somewhere between �1,200 and �1,400 a month, let's say), you won't be able to get anywhere super-central and very flash...

Somewhere central and nice with 2-beds would set you back around �900 a month, not doable if there's only one income!

Like this, say (Arturo Soria, �900)

http://inmobiliaria.segundamano.es/fichaI.cfm?id=54397436&total_anuncios=2183&categoria_id=69&subcategoria_id=5000&palabra=&precio_min=0&precio_max=0&m2=0&hab=2&idprovincia=28&idzona=54&idmunicipio=664&iddistrito=0

What I would do is look a bit further afield, like this one (Vicalvaro, �650)

http://inmobiliaria.segundamano.es/fichaI.cfm?id=54397436&total_anuncios=2183&categoria_id=69&subcategoria_id=5000&palabra=&precio_min=0&precio_max=0&m2=0&hab=2&idprovincia=28&idzona=54&idmunicipio=664&iddistrito=0

You might be looking at a longer commute into work (but it's still not far compared to London standards), and it won't be as stylish and/or as pretty as the centre of town, but there you go!

Good luck

[orangiey]

Thanks, I've spoken to IH in Madrid and they maybe able to offer me some p/t to start with (interview needed first upon arrival).
We'll take it from there. (baby due June so plenty of time to find suitable accomadation).
Thanks will check out the other info

[Moore]

I really don't want to sound pessimistic or anything: Madrid is an excellent city and I think Spain is a great place to have a kid, but I really hope you've read the posts on this forum about summer work very carefully. If you have a child and you are likely to be the only breadwinner for some time, then you really have to remember that contracts here in Madrid are only for nine months as work dries up badly summer.
Most teachers who manage to survive this do it by either living off their savings (pretty hard to save that much on TEFL teaching wages), by going to the UK and teaching summer camp (probably not an option in your case), or by doing summer camp in Spain (the vast majority of them are residential, so again, probably not an option).
You might want to consider going to somewhere in Europe where the wages are a bit higher and contracts run all year: perhaps ask the question on the General Forum? I absolutely don't mean to be pessimistic about Madrid: I love it here, but I just wouldn't like to see anyone run into financial problems at what is a very crucial and potentially stressful time of life.
If you do decide to come here in any case then you should maybe ask some questions on this Madrid forum site... http://spaintalk.multimadrid.org/eve ...it's got a lot of longer term ex-pats on it and some of them have had kids here and they'll be able to tell you about the technicalities of having babies in Madrid.
So please don't let me put you off, but do be wary about financial stability in year-round terms as a teacher in Madrid when you're earning for three.

[orangiey]

Thanks for the advice, not sure where else in the EU to go in Feb as I think most countries are the same with contracts? My wife insists the EU for healthcare etc as opposed to China! Any suggestions of places you've been to? We did think of Poland but the contract situation is similar and their healthcare is not currently great. We do have savings.
Cheers again

[Moore]

I worked in Paris for 3 years and was on a year-round salary there, which was not at all unusual: quite an expensive city, but excellent healthcare and social security (which of course you pay a lot for in taxes!).

[CMB]

This is a little off-topic since I don't have much knowledge of Madrid, but if you decide to come to Spain make sure one of the first things you guys do is look into the "subvenciones" that the government gives to families with babies and find out what paperwork you need. Here in Barcelona I think it's something like 200 Euros a month for the first year, which would come very handy at the start...

[tim hortons man]

two forums worth checking out www.britishexpats.com and http://spaintalk.multimadrid.org/

Unfortunatly having you won't be able to support 3 on a teachers salary the only way most Spanish survive is by both parents working fulltime.

Main problem is you can't expect to earn much more than 1200 to 1500 if you work alot of hours (say 30 hours teaching) and rents run in the 1000 euros a month range.

[jr1965]

[scot47]

You will find that supporting a wife and child on an EFL teacher's salary is not possible.

I fear that is the case not only in Madrid but all over Spain and in Europe generally.

[orangiey]

Thanks for the advice, my wife will be looking for work as well after the baby's born be it teaching/cleaning/bar work who cares so not as bleak as it sounds and as we don't do the drinking, eating out thing much we won't be worrying about finances that way!