Jobs other than teaching english?

[Neilcampbell31]

Hey all,

I'm heading to BA in January for 12 month to learn Spanish.

I am currently a Chartered Surveyor working in commercial property in London, although I am applying to real estate consultancy firms in BA at the moment, I'm pretty sure my lack of Spanish will be a major hurdle

I did plan to teach English but from these forums, I have been recommended against it as it is difficult to be self sufficient without eating into savings.

I would like to know or get some advice on whether there are any other jobs other than teaching English?

Any advice would be really helpful.

Kind regards,

Neil

 

[AlfajorEfi]

Can you elaborate on the scope of work you currently do in the UK? Where in BA are you relocating to?

 

[kwalarking]

Hello Neil,
I came from Cambridge and I am currently working here in DOwntown, BA. I was head hunted from there and from what I have gathered so far, it seems it may be better to secure a job for yourself before coming over if you do not want to go down the English teaching route. Just my humble opinion.

 

[Lennn]

Hey Neil,

If you do not want to go down the English teaching route, I started a project to hire Personal Assistants to Dutch companies: www.virtualjobassistance.com

As there are a lot of people like you arriving, many have difficulties finding a job as a non spanish speaking person, I let them do jobs that they can do on a distance. All our assignments come from Europe (netherlands).

If you are looking for an entrepreneurial project, let me know, would like to extend my horizon and also work for more non Dutch speaking entrepreneurs from Europe.. You are always free to send me a PM and we could talk about it.
We might co-operate in the use of the site and share reciprocity in terms of marketing and other costs.

good luck!

 

[Neilcampbell31]

@AlfajorEfi - I currently work in Asset Management / commercial real estate valuations, and have 3.5 years experience + professional qualifications. In terms of where in BA; that will be reactive to where I could find an appropriate job.

@kwalarking - wow that’s excellent, were you fluent in Spanish before you arrived?

I hope to apply to the international property consultancies but I little faith due to the language barrier.

Neil

 

[AlfajorEfi]

Ah you will find the market and valuations here are just made up by the developee. It is very different from any place in the world...here when a price is set and property doesn't sell, they raise the price rather than lower it.
So lack of Spanish is the least of your problems..

 

[Neilcampbell31]

Thank you - but my research seems that the BA market operates like any another market and is not completely supply-led i.e. not an oligopoly of developers pricing the market.

I found this [slighltly dated] report quite interesting : )
http://issuu.com/colliers_buenosaires/docs/research_report_2010_q4_-_office_market?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true

However...this still doesnt help my language problem though : (

 

[kwalarking]

Hello Neil, The longest phrase I can say in spanish is si. lol I am currently looking for a class to join. I am finding it difficult though as I have to work till 7pm everyday and all the language schools I have contacted will only offer private classes at that time, something i am not very keen on