Hello,

I’m an IT professional working in the UK as an Enterprise Architect for a giant US company. My wife is Spanish and wants us to move to Spain (ideally near Bilbao).

I’d love to hear from people who work in IT and are based in Spain to help me work out the viability of moving there myself. Specifically, I have questions like a) what is the job market in IT like? b) is the pay roughly comparable with that of the UK? c) are UK qualifications (in my case an M.Sc.) considered equivalent (or does this matter at all?)?, d) what professional bodies are there in Spain that can help me find a position there?

I hate to admit this, but inspite of being married to a Spaniard my knowledge of the language is minimal; would I need to speak the language ultra-fluently before going there?

Any help will be much appreciated!

Regards,
Calvin.

To be honest there?s not much call for EA in Spain but your skills and experience may be useful elsewhere.

You should read the following and then come back with additional questions:

http://www.spainexpat.com/spain/forum/viewthread/1396/

Oh yes, learn Spanish.  If you?re serious about living and working in Spain in IT, you should have started your Spanish courses yesterday.

Calvin - 16 August 2007 07:36 PM

...
a) what is the job market in IT like?
b) is the pay roughly comparable with that of the UK?
c) are UK qualifications (in my case an M.Sc.) considered equivalent (or does this matter at all?)?,
d) what professional bodies are there in Spain that can help me find a position there?
...

a) Its OK. Better than quite a few other job markets in Spain but still not quite as free flowing as in the UK.

b) No. In the UK my salary was way over 40K GBP. You’ll be very lucky to get ?40K in Spain (?30K is considered quite good).

c) I personally haven’t had problems and everyone has accepted my qualifications as an equivalent of those here. I have heard stories of some companies not accepting any foreign qualifications though.

d) No idea. I do know that agencies are fairly crap in Spain though. You’ll be chasing them a lot more than they will be chasing you. You’ll certainly never be bugged by agencies wanting you to attend lots of interviews!

And yep, learn Spanish and get to at least an intermediate level i.e. where you can hold a conversation and get your point across. Without that, you will struggle and severely limit your job options.

Having said all that, who you know is also very important in Spain. If you are a networker, get in with the right people and chances are that you’ll be offered a job at some point.

Hope the above helps. Keep in mind that the above is my experience and may differ from that of others! Good luck.