10 February 2009 More advice from a contributor:
Home> Blog
Some more advice!
Before you move out to the Canary Islands to work, please read the following advice, it may save you some heartache in the near future.
I hear about and meet so many people that come to the islands on holiday for a week or two and decide that they want to move out here permanently. They go back to the UK thinking that this is a paradise and it's an easy life. Well, part of that is true, it is a paradise, we have sunshine pretty much all year round wit hthe occasional cloudy or even rainy day. The cost of living is cheap and there is not much crime. All this is true and it's what makes living in the Canaries such a great thing. But please do not think that when you move out here it is going to be like your week or fornights holiday (unless you have lots of money and are coming here to retire!). As I was saying, I meet a lot of people that move out here that have been here on holiday maybe once or twice and decide that they want to leave the UK and start a new life over here, for whatever reason, so the story normally goes like this:
- Week (or two) holiday on one of the islands.
- Return to the UK (and its weather).
- Decide that it's time to move somewhere nice and sunny.
- Sell house, car, etc...
- Take kids out of school.
- Move to one of the islands.
- Get roped into taking out the lease on a bar (or restuarant) thinking it's an easy life.
- Invest all your money into the business (like the previous tenants) and end up moving back to the UK with no money.
This may seem extremely negative feedback and comments but I have seen it happen SO many times I feel some people need to be warned out it.
If you want to move here you should:
- Spend some time here, come over for a month, maybe a fortnight on-peak and another one off-peak.
- Travel the island.
- Talk to people, people that have been here a while.
- Prepare your CV, use one of your visits to spend all your time distributing your CV and speaking to businesses that you may be interested in working for, it has already been mentioned that you will not get a job just by emailing CV's out from home, people are going to want to meet you. businesses in the Canaries are much smaller than the UK so they will want to meet you.
- While you are here, look at the opportunities that are available. DO NOT attempt to open/run/lease another bar, the islands are full of them already and all struggling for business. This may seem like poor/radical advice, but please take it from someone that has lived here for years and sees it happening on a very regular basis. A bar may seem like an ideal option to do a little work while sat in the sun, but you will need to earn money to pay the bills!
This is just some advice that I would like to offer you, and will write out more soon. My words may seem harsh but I feel it needs to be said. You have to work hard, probably harder here than in the UK. As the previous contributor has mentioned.
Thanks to jobsinthecanaries.com for asking me to contribute to the Blog, it has been most enjoyable.
Thanks to our contributor, please feel free to leave any comments below, we look forward to hearing from you.
this is a blog for people looking for work and jobs in the canary islands, whether it be tenerife, gran canaria, lanzarote or fuerteventura, or maybe one of the other smaller islands or la gomera, la palma oe el hierro. the canary islands are a fantastic place to work, with all year round sunshine, it is understandable why people look at tenerife, lanzarote, fuerteventura or gran canaria as a place to search for a job in the sunshine. flights to the canary islands are relatively cheap, and accommodation is also relatively economical. flights are available from all majot UK airports, gatwick, manchester, heathrow, luton and stansted and fly to either tenerifes reina sofia in the south or to gran canaria in the maspalomas area, or arrecife in lanzarote, there is of course an airport in fuerteventura in puerto del rosario. the weather in the islands is always sunny with just a few rainy intervals around january. the main areas in tenerife are los gigantes, playa de las americas, los cristianos and puerto de la cruz. tourist destinations in gran canaria are maspalomas, playa del ingles, puerto mogan and puerto rico. in lanzarote you have puerto del carmen, playa blanca, playa honda and costa teguise. in fuerteventura the main area is corralejo.
Recent posts
Archives

