[whodat689]

(12-01-2011 01:35 PM)Viralata Wrote:  

(11-30-2011 03:03 AM)whodat689 Wrote:  

Long story short, I only hear about people living abroad and teaching English

If this is the only thing you've heard about then it's probably because of the people you're talking to.

I live and work in South America, right now Bogota, and I meet plenty of foreigners in every field imaginable. The one thing that many have in common is that they speak multiple languages and they are driven and highly skilled (the "rockstars" anyway). I've worked in Peru, Argentina and Chile and lived for a year in Brasil. I speak spanish and portuguese. My good friend from Ireland is a lawyer and he lives in Rio, but he is not working in law. He started a logistics company for the mining and petroleum industries. In his case, he decided to do whatever it took to stay in Brasil, even changing careers. His road has been difficult because he started from scratch.

Brasil is not the easiest place to find work as a foreigner. There is a massive bureaucracy and they have enough educated people to fill most of their labour needs.

There is no magic bullet to score a good foreign job. It takes determination, planning and a little luck. For every gringo that dreams of living in South America, banging latinas every night in their penthouse, there are 100 harder working locals, fluent in their own culture and who are likely less expensive than you. So, if you want a "real" job, you better have the skills to justify it.

I work in an job where foreign travel is the norm. I have technical skills that are uncommon, even in North America, and broadly applicable to my industry. I've known I wanted to live in South America for at least 13 years. After at least a dozen trips of several months at a time, it has only been in the last year or so that I have enough money saved(for my lifestyle), enough contacts, and confidence in my prospects that I could move my consultancy down here permanently. I've traveled down here enough to know how I need to develop myself to take advantage of the market. I will still likely have to take a job off-continent from time to time.

My advice: Finish school doing something you love and then figure out how to make it fit in with your long term goals. If what you love is living someplace else, then move there and make it work. Take some long trips to places you think you might like to live, then get to know the language and the culture...then you'll start to have an idea of what's possible and understand the sacrifices necessary to get you to your goals.

Thanks everyone for the advice, viralata, what career are you in exactly?