Puerto Rican Daydreams
July 4, 2012 7:59 PM   Subscribe

How hard would it be for me (a "mainlander" of non-Latina heritage, with no connections) to get a job in Puerto Rico? And if I did get a job there, would I like living there?

What can you tell me about Puerto Rico?

My background is in writing and editing. I'm currently learning to copywrite, primarily for the Web. (Thus far, the resume boasts one current brand-name copywriting client, and several brand-name editing clients from earlier in my career). My Spanish is reasonably fluent. (I wouldn't be comfortable writing it much, but I have done professional proofreading in it, and I'd definitely be interested in working with translation.)

Ideally, I'd like to live in a warm environment (in both senses of the word "warm"). I always find Hispanic culture interesting, and I like Latin American food. (Go Goya!) I want to live reasonably near the northeastern part of the United States, but I really don't want to live in the Northeast anymore. I'd like to be somewhere where it's relatively easy to meet people. (I'm single and in the late 30s/early 40s bracket.) And I'd like to live someplace where workaholism isn't the order of the day. (I also love, love, love Spanish Colonial architecture!) Anyway, it suddenly occurred to me that Puerto Rico might fit some of these criteria.

The only trouble is I don't know much of anything practical about Puerto Rico, and I've never been. Thus far on the Web I've found the job site www.clasificadosonline.com, as well as listings for U.S. government jobs (Defense, Agriculture, etc.) But nothing I've seen suits. The first site seems to be heavily laden with openings for programmers and social workers. The government listings seem to primarily call for the very specialized (archeology) or the not-so-specialized (administration), with nothing in the middle. I know that pharmaceutical companies are heavily located there; the thought makes me shudder.

I've also read a couple of hundred fortune 500 companies are located there, too, for the tax advantages, but I've been unable to find a full list of who's who anywhere.

Anyway, my questions are:

* Where should I look for jobs?
* How commonly do they hire from the mainland?
* What's Puerto Rico like: standard of living, poverty, crime, Anglo v. Latino culture, day-to-day life, dating, making friends, the arts scene, the pay, the cost of living?
* How welcoming would Puerto Rico be for a single woman?
* Is San Juan the locus of most professional jobs?
* Would there be much call for someone with a communications/book-print/Web background there and some semblance of bilinguality?

I'm interested in whatever you've got.

Thanks!
posted by Violet Blue to Work & Money (1 answer total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
Puerto Rico is a great place! No doubt about it. However everyone speaks Spanish and no one we met spoke English. You would need a good grasp of that language. Regarding jobs you would have to be pretty specialized in a field. It might be good to look for companies that have a branch in PR so that you can apply for that area within the company.
posted by pakora1 at 9:08 AM on July 5, 2012


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