Working in Argentina - how to find jobs?

if you speak spanish and have legal working status you will find no trouble finding a job teaching esl. most institutes pay between 15-20 pesos an hour. It is much easier to get here and look for work rather than find work outside of the country.

The job situation is extremely precarious in Argentina.

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Unemployment in Argentina is very high so there is little scope for locals and foreigners to find work.

There are loads of foreigners looking for work in Buenos Aires and thousands of qualified Argentines living on the streets. It is not a good time to be going there without enough cash to support yourself. I do not mean to rain on your parade, I wish you luck, but you have got to be realistic.

* I have been posting here for several years. I must have read hundreds of messages by now from people who want to find work in Argentina. I also have relatives in Argentina, among them a physician, an attorney, an architect, and a television producer. Two of those four are doing work outside their own fields because they cannot find work for which they were trained. Some time ago, I suggested that foreigners who were able to find work in Argentina come back and post here; the only person who took me up on that suggestion was a young man who went to Argentina with the intention of teaching English in Buenos Aires. After a month or so, he gave up and used his savings to travel around the country instead.

Jorge Daniel Barchi.
Buenos Aires.

"I am coming across a lot of trouble finding a job - or even knowing where to look for one"

Exactly the same happens to scores of locals.

Jorge Daniel Barchi.
Buenos Aires.

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Talk about working anywhere but in Buenos Aires. Esteros will pull out 2 year old posts about some traveler with bad luck finding jobs just to discourage anyone from taking jobs away from his paisanos. If you can handle low pay and flaky clients, try teaching private English lessons.

The portion that begins "I have been posting here for several years..." is from a post of mine, (NorthAmerican) which EsterosdelIbera uses with my permission. My relatives in Argentina are still having a tough time, so I do not see any reason to alter that post.

Jorge Daniel Barchi.
Buenos Aires.

I lived in BA for the past seven months and am now travelling. I had no trouble finding teaching work and made between 15-25 pesos an hour working at different institutes. I know many other people teaching ESL in Buenos Aires, none of us have ever had trouble finding enough work....If you are, go to the yellow pages and do five minutes of Internet research, then send out your resume, you will have job offers within a week.

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I am working my second year in Buenos Aires as a teacher (May 2007). I do not live a "carefree" lifestyle that a lot of foreigners think they will be living down here. In the Fall, from April to the late Spring (November) work is very easy to get. I was working last year (2006) about 30 hours a week. It took me about 5-10 hours a week to travel around to my different jobs and another 5-10 to lesson plan. I made about US$600 a month and was able to get by on this. In January and February classes are almost non existant. This Summer I was working only 8 classes. Of course I was not contacting new institutes. I think it is easy to get by here but you should bring a good saving with you to cushion your fall. I know some people who have no experience teaching and got jobs easily but they also looked extremely professional and well put together. I think their image had a lot to do with them being hired. Of course they lied and said they had experience. I think a certification course is good because it actually helps you with ways to effectively teach...,believe it or not, there are ways to do it better. It also gives you a grammar review. A lot of companies pay for their employees to take classes but I also have a lot of students who pay out of their pockets. Classes are expensive for them and I think it is unfair to give half assed bad classes. Also, Argentines are very grammar based. They want to know rules, when to use them and why.

Finding work in South America is extremely difficult. I speak from personal experience. Your best bet would be to teach English if you are looking for work. However, if you do not have any formal qualifications or experience, your chances are slim and none. I do not mean to discourage you, but that is the reality. I first flew to Uruguay, where there are no native teachers and did not find work that paid more than a meagre salary. Life was difficult there so I then proceeded to Buenos Aires. I literally went to every school and handed in my resume. I found work but even then, it still paid very little and the load was spread throughout many schools. You spend a lot of time travelling to and from businesses as that is where most of the teaching takes place. And about Buenos Aires, there are many highly qualified EFL teachers there looking for work. Even me, with a very good resume, found the going difficult and I met others in a similar position who had just given up completely. However, I got very lucky and found a job in another country and everything worked out well. Chile is another option, but its freaking expensive.

Schools generally do not take applicants seriously unless they are already in Chile.Teaching conditions are not great here generally. It can take a while to build up enough hours to get by financially. Some schools require you to go to companies to give classes, and do not pay for that time, so you can spend a lot of time on the subway or buses. The most demand for classes is early and late in the evening, so the work day often ranges from 8:00 hours to 22:00 hours. It is typical to teach for a few hours, have an hour or two free ( not enough time generally to go home or do much ), teach another hour or two, etc., which can be tiring. The best time for hiring is late February/early March to start teaching in March. Demand for classes is low in December-February because of the holidays and vacations.

I looked into teaching English in Mendoza and staying there for 8 months. There were some possibilities, but the school year starts in March and ends in November, so I was offered guaranteed work starting in March, but only remote possibilities during their summer months. I guess everything just completely closes down during the summer. I do not think you could live in Mendoza on what I was offered. Rent was not super cheap ( US$ 300 would probably be the cheapest you could get a studio in down town). The schools seem to have a lot of teachers doing a little work. They said they start people off with 1 or 2 classes. Basically 6 hours a week and then you can work up to about 12 ( she said this with such enthusiasm ). The pay was about US$ 4.00 an hour. But, if you only work 12 hours a week the math gets you to US$ 192.00 per month. It was the worst pay to cost of living ratio of any of the places I have visited. Great if you save up in your home country and just come for the experience. A bad idea if you actually want to make enough to live on. ( And I am a credentialed English teacher in the States with a Masters in Education ).

Jorge Daniel Barchi.
Buenos Aires.