I need an international job
December 28, 2009 4:41 PM Subscribe
What kind of non-sales work or career can I transition to which would allow me to travel between the U.S. and Europe? The story and more below...
Long story as short as possible: I was an IT project manager at a large publishing company in New York City. It was a good job, pretty well paid but more than anything, I managed my own time so long as I did my job well and delivered my projects. That was a key factor in my happiness with the job. In '08 after a tough divorce, I quit that job and spent the next year backpacking around the world by myself which is where I met my wonderful girlfriend and yada yada yada.. I moved my life to Madrid where I live with her. Madrid is nice, I like it, but I don't love it. I LOVE New York City (where I was so lucky to be born and raised). The thing is, my girlfriend has two children of her own who are pretty young, so a future with her means an immediate future in Spain and an eventual future in New York maybe 8-10 years down the road.
So, as you can imagine, I'm facing a very difficult life change, not only in getting used to learning a new language but adjusting to the different social mentalities. My Spanish friends who have worked on both sides of the pond tell me that corporate jobs in Spain are depressing if you've worked in one in the states, because of the differences in work culture (subject for another topic) so I don't think I want to enter into the corporate world here. One thing I know for sure is that if I am going to be happy here, I have to be able to go back to New York to see my family and friends every 2 or 3 months. With a full time job, even with Spains extremely generous life-work balance, thats not going to be easy to pull off.
So, I have been trying to brainstorm a strategy which could somehow make that possible. If I could somehow find the kind of work in which it would be common for me to travel back and forth to new york and other parts of europe if necessary, this could work. But, I don't have any good ideas. All i've known is IT to this point. I don't mind going back to school or re-inventing myself and I have some money saved up that could potentially allow me to start a business of my own. Being an English teacher ain't gonna cut it. Everyone here in Spain talks about how valuable someone who speaks fluent English is on the marketplace but I don't really understand how, or where, that "value" manifests exactly.
So.. I turn to you.. the hive. What can I do? Should I become a Professor of pre-inquisiton Andalucian Spanish literature? I can see the lecture circuit now.. they'll be lining up to hear about my insights, they'll have car services waiting for me at the airport with my name misspelled on a little white-erase board that says Days-Inn, Dayton. A man can dream can't he?
Ideas...Ideas...
Long story as short as possible: I was an IT project manager at a large publishing company in New York City. It was a good job, pretty well paid but more than anything, I managed my own time so long as I did my job well and delivered my projects. That was a key factor in my happiness with the job. In '08 after a tough divorce, I quit that job and spent the next year backpacking around the world by myself which is where I met my wonderful girlfriend and yada yada yada.. I moved my life to Madrid where I live with her. Madrid is nice, I like it, but I don't love it. I LOVE New York City (where I was so lucky to be born and raised). The thing is, my girlfriend has two children of her own who are pretty young, so a future with her means an immediate future in Spain and an eventual future in New York maybe 8-10 years down the road.
So, as you can imagine, I'm facing a very difficult life change, not only in getting used to learning a new language but adjusting to the different social mentalities. My Spanish friends who have worked on both sides of the pond tell me that corporate jobs in Spain are depressing if you've worked in one in the states, because of the differences in work culture (subject for another topic) so I don't think I want to enter into the corporate world here. One thing I know for sure is that if I am going to be happy here, I have to be able to go back to New York to see my family and friends every 2 or 3 months. With a full time job, even with Spains extremely generous life-work balance, thats not going to be easy to pull off.
So, I have been trying to brainstorm a strategy which could somehow make that possible. If I could somehow find the kind of work in which it would be common for me to travel back and forth to new york and other parts of europe if necessary, this could work. But, I don't have any good ideas. All i've known is IT to this point. I don't mind going back to school or re-inventing myself and I have some money saved up that could potentially allow me to start a business of my own. Being an English teacher ain't gonna cut it. Everyone here in Spain talks about how valuable someone who speaks fluent English is on the marketplace but I don't really understand how, or where, that "value" manifests exactly.
So.. I turn to you.. the hive. What can I do? Should I become a Professor of pre-inquisiton Andalucian Spanish literature? I can see the lecture circuit now.. they'll be lining up to hear about my insights, they'll have car services waiting for me at the airport with my name misspelled on a little white-erase board that says Days-Inn, Dayton. A man can dream can't he?
Ideas...Ideas...
You were an IT project manager at a large NYC-based company. Sounds like a wide skillset that could generally translate to a lot of different fields.
First idea that pops to mind? Simply find another large company that happens to have "main" or at least satellite offices in both NYC and Spain. Perhaps look first for Spanish publishing companies and see if they have NYC representation.
Oh and congratulations! On the new girlfriend thing, I mean.
posted by carlh at 5:34 PM on December 28, 2009
First idea that pops to mind? Simply find another large company that happens to have "main" or at least satellite offices in both NYC and Spain. Perhaps look first for Spanish publishing companies and see if they have NYC representation.
Oh and congratulations! On the new girlfriend thing, I mean.
posted by carlh at 5:34 PM on December 28, 2009
Regardless of your job, travelling between Spain and the US every eight weeks will be a major PITA. You need to examine your commitment to living in Madrid, and to your girlfriend if that's a dealbreaker for her, if you want to visit NYC so frequently. Such jobs are possible, but rare and unlikely. I think you need to either commit to living in Spain, and learn the language as soon as possible to get an equivalent Spanish IT job, or move back to the US if that's where you're happiest.
posted by goo at 7:00 PM on December 28, 2009
posted by goo at 7:00 PM on December 28, 2009
Bernard Cornwell started his career as a novelist because he had married an American woman and moved to the US, but couldn't get a green card. Writing was something he could do in the US without a work permit.
posted by fings at 7:04 PM on December 28, 2009
posted by fings at 7:04 PM on December 28, 2009
Response by poster: @goo: I am committed to living in Madrid as my primary residence and no, its not a deal breaker for either of us for me to get to go home every 12 weeks or so. I am quite used to international travel so I don't see that being a problem for me, in fact save for jet lag, I enjoy it.
I guess what I am really hoping for is to have the kind of career or job where my location is not important and I can complete the work from anywhere. I dont plan on formulaicly flying home once every 3 months. But the idea of only being able to go home once or twice a year is also a very difficult thing to swallow and you may just be right, that it wont work out unless i am committed to accepting that, but that's what i'm going to try and do if i can find a way to do it. Bigger problems have been overcome.
Freelance careers are obviously something that would benefit me, but again, I'm looking to hear peoples experiences here who could maybe share some way they have done similar things.
posted by postergeist at 7:48 PM on December 28, 2009
I guess what I am really hoping for is to have the kind of career or job where my location is not important and I can complete the work from anywhere. I dont plan on formulaicly flying home once every 3 months. But the idea of only being able to go home once or twice a year is also a very difficult thing to swallow and you may just be right, that it wont work out unless i am committed to accepting that, but that's what i'm going to try and do if i can find a way to do it. Bigger problems have been overcome.
Freelance careers are obviously something that would benefit me, but again, I'm looking to hear peoples experiences here who could maybe share some way they have done similar things.
posted by postergeist at 7:48 PM on December 28, 2009
Could you feasibly do temp work through an agency to get a taste for what Spain's corporate culture is really like? One well-regarded temp agency in Europe is Adecco. If you know how to code, I know for certain that there are IT consulting companies there who will often hire developers on temp contracts through Adecco and other agencies. They rarely take on freelancers for temp work. (I'm in France, and currently work for an IT consultancy that has offices in Madrid, among other cities in Spain.) If things work out (for all parties), it can turn into a permanent position. That's how I got my job in France; I'm a technical writer and translator, had been a freelancer for years. People had told me stories about "French corporate culture" too... and it would seem I've found an exception! I'm happy overall: the majority of people here are great, I get to manage my time, work on a wide variety of interesting projects due to being bilingual, and, because I make an effort to understand their culture, am generally given a free pass for weirdness since I'm not French and thus not expected to know "how things are done". (I've never taken advantage of that, at least not purposefully, which is also a large part of why I'm given a free pass.)
I keep getting told that English is valuable on the marketplace too, but honestly? I think Europeans whose native languages aren't English project their own uncomfortableness with English and how it's spoken "everywhere" and required for jobs onto native speakers, and so are seeing opportunity for native English speakers where they're isn't that much. I've lived in France for 10 years and had just as hard a time finding work as French folk, whether or not they spoke English. (France is different from Spain, of course, but I've seen similar trends: folk from the UK mainly, but also the US, buying homes in certain areas of France or Spain, assuming they can pick up easy work as English teachers, then realizing they've saturated the supply of English teachers, so trying for translating jobs even if their Spanish or French is awful and their English is middling, setting low prices when they realize it's the only way they'll get clients, then English-language translating work is saturated in the lower price range, and so forth.) Where I have seen an advantage, however, has been once my foot is in the door: then companies realize, hey, it's pretty nice having a native English speaker around. With your project management experience, that would be a nice combination. They like people who are familiar with "Anglo-Saxon" processes and business culture who can explain tacit knowledge behind all that to them. Depending on the company you're with, you might get to travel that way too.
posted by fraula at 3:00 AM on December 29, 2009
I keep getting told that English is valuable on the marketplace too, but honestly? I think Europeans whose native languages aren't English project their own uncomfortableness with English and how it's spoken "everywhere" and required for jobs onto native speakers, and so are seeing opportunity for native English speakers where they're isn't that much. I've lived in France for 10 years and had just as hard a time finding work as French folk, whether or not they spoke English. (France is different from Spain, of course, but I've seen similar trends: folk from the UK mainly, but also the US, buying homes in certain areas of France or Spain, assuming they can pick up easy work as English teachers, then realizing they've saturated the supply of English teachers, so trying for translating jobs even if their Spanish or French is awful and their English is middling, setting low prices when they realize it's the only way they'll get clients, then English-language translating work is saturated in the lower price range, and so forth.) Where I have seen an advantage, however, has been once my foot is in the door: then companies realize, hey, it's pretty nice having a native English speaker around. With your project management experience, that would be a nice combination. They like people who are familiar with "Anglo-Saxon" processes and business culture who can explain tacit knowledge behind all that to them. Depending on the company you're with, you might get to travel that way too.
posted by fraula at 3:00 AM on December 29, 2009
oh good Lord, I'm a language professional and said "where they're isn't that much"?? Where there isn't that much! Ugh. Off to perform penance by self-flagellation.
posted by fraula at 3:03 AM on December 29, 2009
posted by fraula at 3:03 AM on December 29, 2009
I'm from Ireland and work in the construction industry in Toronto. I get sent back home a lot to do recruitment work and give speeches to students/maintain links to university depts .... I'm not sure how that helps you except to suggest researching companies that have links to your alma mater or recruit in NYC?
posted by jamesonandwater at 7:43 AM on December 29, 2009
posted by jamesonandwater at 7:43 AM on December 29, 2009
Two words: "Technical Trainer". That has been my ticket with a number of companies over the years for global travel.
When you know your stuff, getting in front of 8 to 30 people is not bad at all. It's fun - and you can have fun with it. And meet some really wonderful folks, too.
And, there are a lot of online resources in the training field to help, too.
posted by Aztekker at 5:02 PM on December 29, 2009
When you know your stuff, getting in front of 8 to 30 people is not bad at all. It's fun - and you can have fun with it. And meet some really wonderful folks, too.
And, there are a lot of online resources in the training field to help, too.
posted by Aztekker at 5:02 PM on December 29, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by oinopaponton at 5:12 PM on December 28, 2009