working in SPAIN - ADVISE PLEASE!!!!! :b!!!!

hi guys!!!

we(2 australian girls aged 20 and 21 with very limited spanish!!) are planning to go to spain in 2 weeks time, hoping to pick up some sort of work, anything really!!! would like to do fruit picking or something of the sort, but we would be willing to try anything!!! We dont have working visas, so it would all have to be under the table. does any one have any adice what so ever??? it would be extremly appreciated!!!

Thank you for taking the time to read this!!!

we look forward to hearing your wise words!!!

:)

Nicohle and Jenni

Just Wanted to add that we are willing to travel anywhere in Spain for employment - ANYWHERE!!!!

Why don't you get a working visa ? As far as I can remember there is an agrrement between the EU and Australia which allows students to get a work short term working holiday visa fairly easily. It would greatly improve you're chances of getting work and getting paid what its worth.
As for fruit picking etc : you'll be facing stiff competion by thousands of illegal (mainly African) immigrants, so your best chance is finding work in the tourism industry (given your English and very limited Spanish). But again - chances will be much higher with one of those short term work visas !

Your chances of agricultural work are almost zero. Why would anyone employ you when they can find illegal males to work for half what you would take?

Ré PM... realistic, actually! Some of us have lived there and know the scene!

Working conditions when fruit picking are horrendous and wages are very low. You wouldn't want to do that. There are immigrant workers here for whom this is the only available job and many of them work to send money to their families - many employers tend to use that desperate necessity and pay waaaay below Spanish minimum wage.

Have you ever worked harvesting anything? After one day your back will feel like it's on fire if you're not accustomed to ...yes, back-breaking labour. You have to be pretty strong and resistant to heat.

Where in Spain will you be?

Aslong as you´re in a city, finding work under the table shouldnt be too hard.

Barcelona is your best chance, there are always bars & clubs that need people to hand out flyers. I know a lot of people without work visas, who hand out flyers for commission based wages, two canadian guys I know earn an average of about 50 euros a night each just from flyering under the table, thats more earned standing 3-4 hours on the beach than most bartenders earn for 6 hours sweating behind a bar.

If you want to know where to start, give me a PM and I´ll point you to the right place.

BaRCELONa is definitely your best bet. And the tourist industry there. A lot of people do the flyer thing and you can also look for work in pubs. Or, you could offer conversation classes to people who want to speak English, or you could gogo dance. Or you might be able to do some distribution for www.bcnweek.com when they print their papers......I dunno but you can definitely make it work! Good luck.Click here for mucho info

i did the "under the table" in barcelona for 4 years...believe me, you wouldn´t want to do that. and NO agricultural work. neither would you like your broken back by day two, nor would you find work...

why do you want to do this? i think maybe, as it happened to me, you have no idea of illegal working conditions. i had no idea what awaited me and, once there, i would have really apreciated somebody telling me the truth.

i think australia and spain have an agreement. get a work permit. work legally and ENJOY your stay! don´t look for unnecessary trouble. and yes, the flyer thing is a good deal, but get to spain legaly.

I have my doubts about the 50 euros a day flyering - normally it pays 3 - 4 euros an hour, let's say even 5, you'd have to work 10 hours a day? If paid by flyer, which is max. 10 cents per flyer from what I know, you'd have to hand out 5000 of them a day???

500 rather. math isn't my strongest point. I guess the latter is possible although that's damn good money for handing out fliers and I'm skeptical.