rrptownley
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In the hope of maybe stemming the perennial tide of posts regarding finding work in Buenos Aires:
The path open to you people eagerly reading these posts (I commend you on your read first, shoot later forum etiquette) or for those who are blindly firing more new threads into the haggled back wall of the firing range that is expat knowledge, all of you are wanting to come down to Argentina to either learn a Spanish dialect that no one else in the world can understand, learn to dance Tango because you are allergic to cats, or learn a different culture outside of your parents' kitchen and the sex-dungeon/ sports-hall perfumed corridors of your college/university halls, let this be at the front of your mind:
In this country you will be an illegal immigrant. You will be Pedro, the gardener or Razvan, the busker in the tube. Of course no one will deport you or look down on you as a second class citizen, ahahahaa, don't be silly. You have foreign currency.
Employment-wise though, do not have a sense of entitlement about you. Argentina is a well educated country with good colleges/universities and they feel that anyone with a degree from an institution in the northern hemisphere is not necessarily going to be an asset to them, nor will your native English/Dutch/German/French/Italian impress the, as Argentines are acutely aware of the fact that they themselves are all European and as such already speak those languages perfectly.
You, my adventurous friends-
You, my adventurous friends, will have to find more inventive ways to find employment down here:
So, please do read thoroughly. I personally validate that this information will be current until December 2015 when the next economic crash will hit. As to the actual facts and opinions written above, there are none. I only googled "You People, Tropic of Thunder", "popular Romanian names" and "argentino habla ingles". No research whatsoever. Maybe some corroboration in the replies below might help, so please take the above at face value; a bored expat writing in order to avoid doing something he actually needs to be doing on a Tuesday morning, expatrium-scripturam-ut-procrastinat-itis.
And yes it may appear I have become a bit sarcastic, banal and deranged whilst writing this, but experience generally is quite painful to recount and after all we are expats, we're allowed to do this. Like a farting dog or a racist granny.
- You can only obtain a valid working Visa if you have a company that has the correct paperwork allowing it to employ foreigners willing to sponsor you. 99% of people working in Buenos Aires in this category either work for a government or diplomatic job, or they have been transferred by a multinational.
- You may be offered work by companies independently exempt from the rule above, invariably you will find that they are clueless towards how to employ a foreigner, and, after having asked you to sort out the paperwork often baulk and withdraw their offer of employment when they find out what it actually entails at their end.
- The only other people I know who have obtained employment through a work visa in this country are thoroughly committed professionals who spent many months petitioning institutions and contacts in Argentina in search of a position, ie. proper teaching positions at private schools.
The path open to you people eagerly reading these posts (I commend you on your read first, shoot later forum etiquette) or for those who are blindly firing more new threads into the haggled back wall of the firing range that is expat knowledge, all of you are wanting to come down to Argentina to either learn a Spanish dialect that no one else in the world can understand, learn to dance Tango because you are allergic to cats, or learn a different culture outside of your parents' kitchen and the sex-dungeon/ sports-hall perfumed corridors of your college/university halls, let this be at the front of your mind:
In this country you will be an illegal immigrant. You will be Pedro, the gardener or Razvan, the busker in the tube. Of course no one will deport you or look down on you as a second class citizen, ahahahaa, don't be silly. You have foreign currency.
Employment-wise though, do not have a sense of entitlement about you. Argentina is a well educated country with good colleges/universities and they feel that anyone with a degree from an institution in the northern hemisphere is not necessarily going to be an asset to them, nor will your native English/Dutch/German/French/Italian impress the, as Argentines are acutely aware of the fact that they themselves are all European and as such already speak those languages perfectly.
You, my adventurous friends-
-Why did you choose Argentina anyway? I'm really very curious. It sounds like a nice place doesn't it? It is, it is. You will love it here. It's just like the U.S.A or Switzerland. Definitely like Switzerland. Ah, what the hell. I can´t mock. I only found myself here disembarking from a plane a few years ago, with a suitcase full of swimming shorts and polo shirts in the middle of winter, because some guy in a nightclub in Newcastle told me Buenos Aires had a beach and lots of palm trees. Reasons don't matter.
You, my adventurous friends, will have to find more inventive ways to find employment down here:
- Teaching English (yey). Good on you. contributing to the education of our South American cousins. There are many, God there are so many threads on this in the forum. Don´t worry about them being up to date and going off and starting a new thread looking for information that's not 3 months old. Everything you need to know is there. It is possible to find work teaching English, yes having TEFL helps I bit I guess, most schools or institutions here don't really care, even Pedro the gardener has a NVQ in tree surgery, so long as you accept the long hours and the pay that would make a west African diamond miner choke on his palm wine (that isn't true I'm sorry. A lot of them are HOSTAGES, which you will be if you have a kid here and the relationship goes sour, remember that) then you should find employment.
- Contacts, contacts, contacts. Good old-school hob-knobbing. Ask your parents and their friends for contacts here, all your friends, past employers, go to the chamber of commerce, embassy parties, expat parties and you will eventually find a contact with work. This can be very fruitful but it does take time. The most dedicated hob-knobber should expect 6 months of walking the streets between barren meetings and thorough hand shaking and card taking at events in order to reap the big succulent, fruity treat at the end. These jobs are few, but can pay in dollars and are generally interesting, uncategorised jobs. It takes a special sort to this though, depending on your contacts.
- Nanny/Babysit, clean, busk, private cook. It's been done all over the illegal immigrant world and it works here too.
- Entrepenurgghhrialism (close enough). Start a business! Yes, you can own and run a business here whilst being one of those darned illegal-immigrants/Perma-tourists. Crazy, right? You will be to go into to business in Argentina (check threads on this). One bit of advice: Get an Argentine business partner that you trust more than your mother and the talking-clock combined. Oh wait, you've just arrived in Argentina haven't you? Meh.
- Enter the diplomatic corp, or a multinational in your native country. Work there a few years then request a transfer to here. EASY!
So, please do read thoroughly. I personally validate that this information will be current until December 2015 when the next economic crash will hit. As to the actual facts and opinions written above, there are none. I only googled "You People, Tropic of Thunder", "popular Romanian names" and "argentino habla ingles". No research whatsoever. Maybe some corroboration in the replies below might help, so please take the above at face value; a bored expat writing in order to avoid doing something he actually needs to be doing on a Tuesday morning, expatrium-scripturam-ut-procrastinat-itis.
And yes it may appear I have become a bit sarcastic, banal and deranged whilst writing this, but experience generally is quite painful to recount and after all we are expats, we're allowed to do this. Like a farting dog or a racist granny.
