Getting A Job In Europe

Big picture, here are your realistic employment options overseas:

1. Arrange a posting in another country through your current employer. This is how many friends organized their moves to Europe. We’ve known countless expat families in France, Greece, Germany, Spain, and all the little countries in between who worked for accounting firms, banks, in corporate sales, for makeup companies, doing online retail, etc., etc., who managed to get postings on the Continent. Obviously, this works only if you’re working for an international organization with an office in the place where you want to relocate.

In fact, this is how we got our start in business overseas… We made our first international move, from Baltimore, Maryland, to Waterford, Ireland, with the support of a longtime employer who’d given me the marching orders to establish an EU base for that firm.

We did not choose Waterford, but the idea of an adventure in the Old World was a welcome one. Waterford and Ireland were happy accidents.

We made our second international move, from Waterford to Paris, again with the support of the firm we’d by that time become partners in. However, this time we chose the destination. Our family wanted to be in Paris, and our business accommodated the agenda.

2. Set yourself up as a local consultant. What business do you know? Where in the world might your experience and expertise have value? We know a guy who’d been in the pool business in Miami his entire career. His search for his ideal retirement haven took him to Roatan, in the Bay Islands of Honduras… where a lot of people are interested in building pools but the local talent for building U.S.-standard pools is limited. Our guy was able to parlay his decades of experience into a retirement income.

3. Set yourself up as an international consultant. Maybe you could counsel people on building a swimming pool in Spain from your beach home on the Med… but maybe not. On the other hand, an expat living in Spain (or anywhere else) likely would be eager to avail of your consulting services if your area of expertise isn’t pool building… but, rather, international tax strategies. If you’re an accountant, an attorney, or a money advisor, say, you could make a great living helping expats and retirees abroad structure and then manage their financial lives in Paradise.

The beauty of this consulting approach is that you’d likely need no formal, registered, or licensed status locally (unlike a doctor or a lawyer, for example, who would).

4. Cultivate a trade you could practice anywhere. Frankly, this can be your best option. It can work for anyone, and it’s highly portable.

In fact, we are laptop-carrying, daily letter-producing poster people for the best mobile trade we know: travel writing.

We have at least a dozen good friends who are currently paying for or at least supplementing the cost of their lives overseas as professional travel writers, and, every day, we communicate with at least a dozen others like us, writers (and writer wannabes) on the road and eager to file their stories.

You don’t need formal training as a writer. You need an open mind, open eyes, a curiosity about the world around you, and a penchant for telling stories. If those things describe you, you could earn an income as a travel writer… even if you’ve never done it before.

One of the most successful and prolific travel writers we know started her professional life as a barmaid. Others have been housewives. Engineers. Investment advisors. Accountants (yes, we know… this one is particularly unlikely… but it goes to show that, truly, anyone can do this…)…

Bottom line, this can be one of the easiest ways to make money from anywhere in the world.

One of the many benefits of cultivating this kind of profession is that it means the resulting income will be on an international scale. If you take a job or set yourself up as a local consultant in a foreign country, you’ll be paid like a local in the local currency (this could be a plus or a minus, but it introduces a risk). Before you choose that route, investigate the typical local salary for whatever kind of position you’re considering. A professional might earn one-third as much in certain countries… Remember, of course, that the local cost of living will be less, as well.

5. Teach English. One of the most commonly sought and easily arranged jobs overseas is teaching English as a foreign language. If this interests you, take a look here for information on getting started.