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Arrival |
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Getting Around |
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Motorized |
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Phone, Post, Internet |
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Prices |
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Security |
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Doctors and Chemists |
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Long Term Stay |
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Language Schools |
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Students |
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Job Hunting |
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Flat Hunting |
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Socializing |
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Readings and Websites |
When looking for employment in Barcelona, personal contacts are an advantage, as unsolicited job applications are not given much consideration. If an employer is not interested, they often won't bother sending you a response, or might wait six months to offer you an interview. But take heart, the Catalan economy continues to grow and there is a healthy temp industry.
Websites for Job Hunting
- Exposure Leading job site for professional and multilingual jobs in Barcelona, Spain and across Europe.
- InfoJobs A leading job listings website in Spain and offers many qualitifed and professional positions.
- Loquo Barcelona The leading local announcement website addressing any kinds of needs, good for flat and job hunting.
- Habitamos España Web platform for classifieds in all of Spain, thus also for Barcelona jobs.
- ServiJob Service by La Vanguardia Spanish newspaper
- Eurojobs pan-European job portal
Professional job adverts appear in the Sunday issue of the La Vanguardia and the classifieds paper Laboris. If you speak Catalan and have your residency papers in order, you might consult with the Departament de Treball i Indústria of the Generalitat de Catalunya; search for jobs in your local Oficina del Servei d'Ocupació.
Also, the Centre d'Informació i Assessorament per a Joves (CIAJ) has job listings for "young people" (under the section Tauló d'Anuncis, Secció Treball). Or drop into the CIAJ offices on C/ Ferran with Avinyó and browse the job postings.
Recruitment Agencies for Temporary Employment
Work Experiences, Impressions
Nicky Smythe (England), 40, Plumber.
"When I came here I didn’t speak a word of Spanish. I had to give English classes as that was the only work I could do. It was hard for me because I didn’t really know much about English grammar, but it was quite easy then – I am talking about 17 years ago – to get a well-paid job as an English teacher. So I did that for a few years. Then I went on to work in a Youth Hostel which was a bit more enjoyable, working with young travellers. But until I could speak the language properly, I didn’t start to work in my actual profession, which is as a plumber. That’s what I enjoy doing and being English has helped me to get a lot of English clients. A lot of people who cannot speak Spanish very well don’t relish having a Spanish plumber they do not understand. Nowadays, I’m working on my own because what I do is domestic plumbing. The biggest thing I do is a central heating installations in flats, but usually it’s just water installations, which I can take care of by myself."
Kay Stiles (England), 40, Painting Restorer
"In London I worked as a social worker with mentally handicapped people. When I came here, almost 15 years ago, I did a one month course and became an English teacher for six years. Sometimes I felt really frustrated because I didn’t want to do it any more. I needed to do something more interesting and I thought about social work. But at that time – it was in the early days – I realised that you couldn’t be a social worker here without speaking really fluent Catalan and Spanish. It would be difficult to work with people with problems. So I retrained as a painting restorer. That was a three year course here in Barcelona in a School called Escola d’Arts i Oficis. So, I studied in the mornings and then I kept teaching English in the afternoons to have enough money to live on. But when the course finished I gave up teaching English completely and started working as a restorer. I normally worked for the same company. Mostly we restore wallpaintings. Sometimes, I work on Easel paintings but mostly I work on big surfaces like the insides of churches and ceilings or facades of buildings. Painting restoration is a very small field, so I know almost all the painting restorers in Barcelona."
Simon Davis (England), 45, Translator
"I came to Barcelona 17 years ago because I knew there was a good chance of getting a job as an English teacher. After six years I looked for a translating job, and in 1992 I started to work full-time as a translater. It was just a question of sending emails to all the translating agencies and asking for work. In the beginning it was badly paid. But when I managed to build up some experience and gain a good reputation things picked up. I work freelance from home for different people. It´s not easy to become freelance because there’s a lot of social security to pay, much more than in other countries."
