Long distance-job search: how to land your dream job in Spain

The day I decided to relocate to Spain, I knew I didn’t want to quit my job in London without another opportunity lined-up. Plus, after five years of working in the UK in my dream job, I was determined to find a job within my preferred industry. However, conducting a long-distance job search was completely new to me. Strangely enough, even though there were a lot of resources for international entry-level jobs in Spain, I didn’t find much for mid-level professionals like myself.  

Fast forward to 2020, I’ve been working in Spain for two and a half years now, and I am still in the same job I secured during my long-distance job search. Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, it’s become even more relevant for many people to start their job search at distance before relocating. So if like me, you’re looking to relocate to Spain, and want some tips to help you out with your long-distance job search, this is the place for you.

A BIT ABOUT ME

First things first, I guess it might make sense for me to tell you a bit more about my previous work experiences and skills so you can get an idea of the sort of industry and jobs I was after. In a nutshell, I have been working in Corporate PR for the past four years, mainly in international communications agencies. I am also a native French speaker. Jobwise, I was mainly looking for English-speaking PR roles since my Spanish was non-existent at the time - which was an additional hurdle.

JOB MARKET IN SPAIN

I won’t tell you anything new when I say tourism is huge in Spain in general, especially in Barcelona. This means there are a lot of job opportunities for English speakers. Although, from what I could see, many jobs do require you to speak a bit of Spanish. But, the good news is I found countless job offers looking for bilingual speakers to work as tour guides, receptionists in language schools, teaching assistants, junior sales reps, etc.

So, if you are looking for an entry-level job, and are not fussed about what industry you want to work in, you’ll definitely find something. On the flip side, the yearly compensation is not as competitive as in other European countries. 

LONG-DISTANCE JOB SEARCH TIPS

Don’t solely rely on LinkedIn 

Initially, I started looking for jobs on sites like Indeed and LinkedIn but I didn’t have much luck. One website that worked particularly well for me was Glassdoor. Although many websites give you the option to tailor your search by country, I found that Glassdoor was the only website that actually sent me relevant jobs afterward. Once I started using Glassdoor, one thing I noticed was that most of the companies that did not require Spanish-speakers were Spanish start-ups. Turns out, most of them are looking to expand in English-speaking countries and struggle to find mid-level fluent English speakers in Spain which gives you a clear competitive advantage.

Seek out job opportunities in local fast-growing start-ups or scale-up

So, for anyone considering relocating to Barcelona and looking for an English-speaking mid-level role, I would definitely recommend going through all the top Spanish start-ups’ websites and send your CVs there. The good thing about start-ups is that they offer a lot of different opportunities, meaning you could land your dream job and find an English-speaking role within the sales, communications, finance, or tech department without having to put your career on hold. A few start-ups also offer Spanish courses and tend to have great perks like early finish over the summer, subsidized meals, etc. which is always a plus in my opinion.

Don’t be afraid to ask for the job interviews to be conducted remotely 

Going back to my long-distance job search. I was pleasantly surprised to hear back from a Spanish start-up within weeks of applying. The application process was quite straight forward and all in English, although the overall process was quite lengthy. 

I was then able to arrange two long-distance job interviews via Skype which meant I didn’t have to book time off work or spend money on multiple flight tickets. I, personally, don’t think it is necessary to arrange a face to face interview at the early stage of the interviewing process, and would recommend anyone looking for a job to push for video calls in the first instance. This is even more relevant now with the travel restrictions due to COVID. 

Once I knew I was serious about potentially moving ahead with the role, instead of going to Spain for just one day I decided I might as well book a week holiday and schedule the interview at the start of my trip so that no matter what the outcome of the final interview would be I'd have got a holiday out of. Overall the interview process took over three months, but I did end up getting the job and have now been working there for over two years.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Now that you’ve got a job lined-up here are a few things you’ll need to do in the next couple of weeks to get the ball rolling and become a fully-fledged employee in your new company.

-  Book an appointment to get a Spanish ID number for foreigners called NIE. (It’s compulsory)

- Get a Spanish Social Security number

- Get a Spanish bank account 

- Start your new dream job, and enjoy your new life abroad!

Good luck with your long-distance job search and feel to ask me any questions in the comments section below!

This post was originally written in May 2018, and was updated in October 2020