'Employment' Jobs and Working

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Employment

In general, working people find Uruguay less atractive than retirees. This is due to the low salaries, at least as compared with Europe and the US. You both are qualified workers so you probably do much better in Europe than in Uruguay. I ignore your motivations to move, but there's a general sense of downfall at Northern countries that I find overestimated. These days an forumer from the US used the expresion "sinking ship" about her country. This is no doubt a very important crisis for rich countries, but nor the US is a sinking ship, nor Europe will stay in crisis for ever. Moving to a new country, a new culture, a new language and a completely different working environment is not easy. Think it over.

Said that, you should ask at the University which are the necessary steps to validate your title (look at www.udelar.edu.uy). Uruguay is small and yours is a very specific skill. You may hit a very special need within the Health system, or you could find no place for you. So after you are sure you can validate your degree, you should contact the health service providers. Your husband would probably have even more problems to find a job. Specially for not speaking Spanish.

I agree with Alberto. The best way to come in Uruguay for a worker is: either with a contract from a company or an outstanding work contract with an employer. If you have not a working contract in your hands, it will be a nightmare. Uruguay is a nice country but the truth is: they are not open to foreigners(working people) yet.

For doctors, Uruguay is the second highest country after Cuba with the numbers of doctors per inhabitants in South America. You can find doctors everywhere and they are very good. A lot have of them have received qualification(s) abroad and are back in the country.

However, university is free here so every year, you have a new generation of doctors on the market. Only last week, 503 new doctors received their diploma from the President of Uruguay. The best way is to take contact with an appropriate department or person in order to receive the information. Also you may pass a lot of calls before you can expect the right answer.

As well, if you do not speak Spanish, it will be very hard to work with the population as they are not fluent at all in English. One hospital may can give you some tips and his name is the British Hospital. Web site is:

hospitalbritanico.com.uy

For your husband, he has several bilingual schools, private schools or colleges however to be teacher, he needs to pass the equivalence of his diplomas, to be a citizen of Uruguay and to speak Spanish. He can teach as a private teacher, in an ''academia'' or in a school like Berlitz but the wages are low.

Good luck

Are most countries?

A big challenge I see with working in Uruguay is first with language. If your language skills are not 100% then your prospects will be extremely limited in any country.

A second challenge is salary expectations.

A third challenge is resumes. Are comfortable putting a nice photo of yourself on your resume? Are you comfortable that the first basis on selecting you (or NOT) may be what you look like?

A fourth challenge is contacts, networks, resources. Your starting from ground zero.

A fifth challenge is job qualifications and getting foreign qualifications accepted and/or legalized.

Have you been studying the help wanted ads in El Pais everyday to get a feel for what jobs are available, salaries, and how long individual job lists stay in the paper?

Expert Page: Quick Tips for Getting Settled in Uruguay

You forgot to add a sixth challenge: Age

You will find a lot of ''opportunities of work'' with a limit in age. If you are looking the help wanted ads in El Pais, you will find a lot with a maximum in age (mostly up to 35/40 years old). After that, are you too old for working?

I do not believe this is the truth as I see a lot of people who are still working after 45 years old so why this kind of ''discrimination'' in the newspapers? Funny that Manpower passes the same message when you apply and they see your age....

I feel that i meet most of the criteria and challenges set out, and understand that there are a lot of exceptionally talented South American doctors there. I have worked with a number of them so far in my career. Also, I don't know if it would make a difference or not, but I gained my PhD from an American University. I feel that i can adapt to the language issue, as I have faced similar issues in my professional past, but am a little afraid for my husband's lack of lingual knowledge (thank you for the links and suggestions).

Also, I would like to apologize for the delay in responding to all of your messages; we have been having computer issues with site access in recent days.

Anyway, if you agree that the surrounding is peaceful and relatively easy-going, I think I should contact the university and hospital and other links for myself and my husband. So, we should give it a go?

Once again, thank you all for being so kind, (will update you if something happens)

Dana (and Keith)

Your last post suggested to me that you have not visited the country yet...

"We are really interested in the way of life Uruguay has to offer" . . .

"if you agree that the surrounding is peaceful and relatively easy-going"

Take a holiday, come out and have a look and get a feel for things. It will be a great holiday whatever you decide as a result. It will also either confirm that a shift is worth the dificulties (and there are lots of them)or else you will go home thinking that was a nice place for a holiday.

It is interesting, when I first worked with an Irishman I couldn't understand him properly for about three weeks because of his accent. Now I am here I am finding exactly the same situation when English speaking Uruguayans listen to my Australian accent. I would love to hear them coping with Keith's Irish accent.

Best of luck with it.

Expert Page: House Sitters for Uruguay

I have lived outside the USA for 9+ years and love it. But it is not the USA and things are different. Getting a job is a lot different for a number of reasons. The job market aside, I think it is important to come with a perspective of adventure and exploration, not a comparison of how it is different or what is missing.

Millions of people live and work in Uruguay so nothing is lacking, but it may or not be for you.

Come and test drive Uruguay with an open mind... you may never go home... or you may be looking for your next destination from the first day.

Expert Page: Quick Tips for Getting Settled in Uruguay

In fairness though, I reckon that he would be 'grand' with the people of Uruguay.

I appreciate the 'auld' suggestions and posts from all. thank you. as I said before, we will let you know if anything happens (it might be a wee bit tricky though, as the only holiday time coincides with 'winter' in Uruguay.

I have had a wee look at the climate in Uruguay during this time; it might just be a little cold (or 'cowld 'for the Irish) for me (in terms of a holiday), or maybe I am wrong?

Anyhow, cheers mate :)

In Uruguay I found a fairly light jacket and a heavy sweater worked best. The reason being that many places don't use much (if any) heat, so the sweater is nice to have on.

And, on that point about heat, depending on where you live that may apply to you. If you have an apartment with central losa (ie: central heat, with hot water pipes in the floor), so you pop out of bed in the morning and your bare feet feel the warm floor... then you will find "winter" to be easy.

On the other hand, if the heat in your apartment consists of nothing (ie: if you buy a 5000 watt electric heater to plug in, or a gas stove) you might prefer the word, "harsh".

There are other options, of course, but I think you'll find the electric ones to be expensive, especially if you are looking for a constant temp around 70F.

Expert Page: Quick Tips for Getting Settled in Uruguay

As it happens I am one of the foreigners who spend most of the winter here. The irony is that all of the locals rug up so just their faces are showing but this boy from "sunny Queensland" walks the streets wearing a t-shirt. Mind you the locals think I am a bit touched in the head. No brain no pain.

Winter can be cold, wet and windy in Montevideo. It is not uncommon for daytime temperatures to stay below about 14 degrees celcius and sometimes do not get above about 8 or 9 degrees celcius. The humidity is very high, usually above 80% so things tend to take a long time to dry out.

Expert Page: House Sitters for Uruguay

A number of my retiree neighbours go and park themselves on family or friends in Switzerland and Italy during the coldest months but I rely on a couple of good wood stoves instead.

I am new to the forum. I have been looking for work for 2 months with no luck yet. My family keeps telling me it is the worst time to look Dec/Jan because everyone is away but since I came from NYC where I was used to getting callbacks the next day, I find the lack of responses a bit discouraging. Everyone said being bilingual would be great to find work but I am starting to think thats not the case.

With regards to the age thing. I'm 30 so I'm not straight out of college and yet can still make it in some jobs, but the age thing is no big news since most latin countries are like this. same goes for putting your photo in the resume. it doesnt bother me much since they do want to make sure you have presence to work for them. its just a different set of rules but i can understand why it would be off putting if you come from the US.

but yea looking for work here is definitely stressful and is not helping me adjust much with no money! lol

for you though I would try Antel call centers. they would hire you right away i hear. I dont want to do that because my experience is in administrative assistant positions so I wouldnt be able to do customer service type of things but everyone tells me how great it is for english speakers.

My fear is that montevideo or uruguay in general is so small that there may not be jobs at all out there. i would think speaking english perfectly would mean we are set but it doesnt appear to be so and this makes me nervous. but i just got herein October and didnt start looking until december so i hope to see something soon for us both!!

Expert Page: House Sitters for Uruguay

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