September 21, 2017 at 16:17IT-work in Barcelona, briefly failed
After reading an article about Prague and re-reading all the comments, I understood a few things:
It was in the evening and we drank tea in Zaporozhye, where my family and I moved from Nikolaev, again after the fact of employment at a local enterprise working for foreign customers.
The husband idly flipped through Skype on the phone and suddenly, choking on tea, he asked:
- Do you want to go to Barcelona?
Me: - On vacation?
Husband: - No, for a long time. They offer me a job. Well? Today it is necessary to give an answer so that the conditions and the contract are sent.
Nice question. My husband has been working on freelance projects for quite some time. The office does not like, but I love.
I’m COO (chief operating officer) in one of the top Ukrainian-American companies that provides rental servers and a platform for advertising networks.
I have a confident salary, a friendly team, and an excellent relationship with the leadership. In addition, I just finished and launched a new project and the company has big plans for me.
Who in their right mind would refuse money, career growth and a friendly working environment?
I.
Why?
We were sent the terms and conditions of the contract and we had to adjust them to our needs, not really burying ourselves.
I will not describe the whole process of negotiations and correspondence here, but in fact we agreed on the following.
By the way, we did get the documents, but after 3 months. Bureaucracy 90 lvl. We arrived on February 1 and March 30, our visa expired and we soared for two weeks about this, although we were all told that all the rules are in place for you. So that you understand the whole game of shadow and light - without documents, we couldn’t buy phones and conduct the Internet and send children to school, open bank accounts, get medical insurance and buy a bike park membership.
As a result, my work colleague designed the phones for himself and spent the Internet in his own name.
For non-residents, we were asked for as much as three months of value (900x3), and not two, as we originally planned, based on data from real estate websites.
And here is the honey. we are still waiting for state insurance (Cat Salut cards). Private issued in the bank. 65 euros from the nose (4 of us).
Bank Santander did deign to open accounts for us without nie under the husband’s work contract, and that’s only because his office is a large client at this bank.
Conclusion. Of course, we expected everything on a saucer, but be prepared that you have to wait a long time and that without documents you are unlikely to be comfortable.
I found work very quickly, but only because the office in which I got a job was a client of the previous office. Accordingly, I knew the technology and could start right away, without training, internships and other things.
In Zaporozhye I arrived at 10:30 and left as it turned out. On weekends, on holidays and during sick leave - you always had to be in touch. Extracurricular did not pay, but there were annual bonuses, and you kind of convince yourself that you are not a slave to the system.
In Barcelona, the husband leaves for work at 11, returns at 5, and has lunch one and a half hours and he has the right to work at home two days a week, because "why not if you feel comfortable."
I have a working day from 9:30 to 18:30. At 18:31 it is forbidden to answer on Skype. On weekends, you can call only to ask how are you. No one will pick you up at three o’clock in the morning because of the collapse of the stats. Moreover, they somehow called me at 9 pm on the urgent and apologized more than discussed ways to eliminate the problem.
In all previous work, I was a Swiss knife - and negotiations, and contracts, and integration and sales, and analytics and the development and management of the project. In Barcelona, I clearly know what they are paying me for, they value initiative and perceive criticism of the leadership normally. There are no many-hour rallies or weekly gatherings. Scrum is used, but only in the aspects of micromanagement of special projects. I can safely say - I think this is not worth the effort and they will hear and listen to me.
Of the minuses, everything is very slow here. Spanish offices can reply sluggishly at lunch, logs will be sent in about three weeks, and some will be amended some months later. 5. The integration of the XML feed, which takes me less than 3 minutes, can take several hours.
The language of communication is English. My Spanish is good enough to understand that it’s slow, but it’s not worth explaining the intricacies of setting up an advertising campaign. In addition, they speak Catalan.
You still have to learn the language, but with English you can survive here. As my children in a Catalan school proved, sign language saves.
My husband is generally lucky, technical specifications can be printed out and hung in a frame. He communicates with the lead and the second prog and with Ukrainian colleagues on the remote. At his corporate party, when I saw 67 people, of whom he knew 2, I realized that there was no need to know which of the colleagues breeds Labradors, surfs or attends coffee shops. You can just say hello and say goodbye.
We spend a month on food (I, husband, son, daughter, and dog) a little less than 300-400 European currency units. Moreover, the apartment is 900 +100 utilities. Phone + Internet (two rooms and a router) 65 per month. Medical insurance - 65 for everyone except the dog. A dog, by the way, costs 50-60 euros per month + 45 times every three months for a haircut.
The company and my husband and I pay taxes and keep tax records - that is, you do not bother with filing declarations and other red tape paper.
If you are called for a beer, then at 40 you will invest calmly, of course we prefer just to visit and invite, because it’s 50-60 percent cheaper.
Moving to Spain is not as scary as I imagined it. No one has canceled paperwork, but it is part of our life and this is solved.
Tickets, accommodation and versatile assistance in the design - this is normal, and not "wow that's the laf." You are required to provide adequate and legal conditions for being in the country, and in addition to buy return tickets - what if you change your mind.
The standard of living, even with a salary of 3,000, is very high. Of course this is not iPhone X every month, but very close.
The food is cheap if you cook it yourself or are not in 3 stars.
The language is universal English, in IT companies of the upper intermediate level, this is enough. Having learned Catalan or Spanish, you can significantly expand the range of offered positions, however, this is only for understanding lead jokes and communicating with a local team.
Children can be placed in any school from private to local - they cannot refuse you with documents. Checked.
Space-level medicine for me (after Ukrainian clinics). Verified by operations. Insurance works.
It's been 6 months and I can say what we like. Looking back, I am glad that we are so crazy fidgets and that we were able to overcome fear and insecurity in our own abilities (I am silent to myself, husband - hero is understandable).
- I was very lucky, but could have ended in disaster;
- I was not ready to write a review until yesterday, because at least half a year had to pass, so that I, as a frog traveler, could express my estimated opinion about moving to Barcelona for a family of IT people;
- Perhaps my experience will inspire, or vice versa, protect someone from radical changes in work and a change of residence.
How did it all start?
It was in the evening and we drank tea in Zaporozhye, where my family and I moved from Nikolaev, again after the fact of employment at a local enterprise working for foreign customers.
The husband idly flipped through Skype on the phone and suddenly, choking on tea, he asked:
- Do you want to go to Barcelona?
Me: - On vacation?
Husband: - No, for a long time. They offer me a job. Well? Today it is necessary to give an answer so that the conditions and the contract are sent.
Nice question. My husband has been working on freelance projects for quite some time. The office does not like, but I love.
I’m COO (chief operating officer) in one of the top Ukrainian-American companies that provides rental servers and a platform for advertising networks.
I have a confident salary, a friendly team, and an excellent relationship with the leadership. In addition, I just finished and launched a new project and the company has big plans for me.
Who in their right mind would refuse money, career growth and a friendly working environment?
I.
Why?
- Because I am not an egoist, and if my husband suffered many years of remote work for the sake of my ambitions and career, then the time has come and I will learn to take into account his ambitions.
- Because the sea and the sun instead of Zaporizhzhya factory clubs of smoke and constant colds on the background of poor ecology.
- Because in Barcelona there are a lot of IT companies and I hoped that with my experience I would find myself using it without any problems.
We were sent the terms and conditions of the contract and we had to adjust them to our needs, not really burying ourselves.
Conditions and prejudices
I will not describe the whole process of negotiations and correspondence here, but in fact we agreed on the following.
- We are paid for a visa (and at that time there was no visa-free visa).
- We are paid tickets (with it there and back, just in case).
- We rent an apartment for two weeks or until we find an acceptable option but no more than 4 weeks.
- We are issued NIE (this is such an internal document in Spain in which there is a permit to stay in the country, in our case, upon the fact of the husband’s work).
- The company undertakes to pay taxes and social insurance, and in our hands we get clean.
- The company maintains tax reports.
- The salary is only 60% of what we initially requested, but in fact it is 50% more than what I received and 30% than what my husband received. As a result, it is still less than the sum of our salaries, but I was hoping to find a job.
Reality
By the way, we did get the documents, but after 3 months. Bureaucracy 90 lvl. We arrived on February 1 and March 30, our visa expired and we soared for two weeks about this, although we were all told that all the rules are in place for you. So that you understand the whole game of shadow and light - without documents, we couldn’t buy phones and conduct the Internet and send children to school, open bank accounts, get medical insurance and buy a bike park membership.
As a result, my work colleague designed the phones for himself and spent the Internet in his own name.
For non-residents, we were asked for as much as three months of value (900x3), and not two, as we originally planned, based on data from real estate websites.
And here is the honey. we are still waiting for state insurance (Cat Salut cards). Private issued in the bank. 65 euros from the nose (4 of us).
Bank Santander did deign to open accounts for us without nie under the husband’s work contract, and that’s only because his office is a large client at this bank.
Conclusion. Of course, we expected everything on a saucer, but be prepared that you have to wait a long time and that without documents you are unlikely to be comfortable.
Work in a Spanish IT company
I found work very quickly, but only because the office in which I got a job was a client of the previous office. Accordingly, I knew the technology and could start right away, without training, internships and other things.
In Zaporozhye I arrived at 10:30 and left as it turned out. On weekends, on holidays and during sick leave - you always had to be in touch. Extracurricular did not pay, but there were annual bonuses, and you kind of convince yourself that you are not a slave to the system.
In Barcelona, the husband leaves for work at 11, returns at 5, and has lunch one and a half hours and he has the right to work at home two days a week, because "why not if you feel comfortable."
I have a working day from 9:30 to 18:30. At 18:31 it is forbidden to answer on Skype. On weekends, you can call only to ask how are you. No one will pick you up at three o’clock in the morning because of the collapse of the stats. Moreover, they somehow called me at 9 pm on the urgent and apologized more than discussed ways to eliminate the problem.
In all previous work, I was a Swiss knife - and negotiations, and contracts, and integration and sales, and analytics and the development and management of the project. In Barcelona, I clearly know what they are paying me for, they value initiative and perceive criticism of the leadership normally. There are no many-hour rallies or weekly gatherings. Scrum is used, but only in the aspects of micromanagement of special projects. I can safely say - I think this is not worth the effort and they will hear and listen to me.
Of the minuses, everything is very slow here. Spanish offices can reply sluggishly at lunch, logs will be sent in about three weeks, and some will be amended some months later. 5. The integration of the XML feed, which takes me less than 3 minutes, can take several hours.
The language of communication is English. My Spanish is good enough to understand that it’s slow, but it’s not worth explaining the intricacies of setting up an advertising campaign. In addition, they speak Catalan.
You still have to learn the language, but with English you can survive here. As my children in a Catalan school proved, sign language saves.
My husband is generally lucky, technical specifications can be printed out and hung in a frame. He communicates with the lead and the second prog and with Ukrainian colleagues on the remote. At his corporate party, when I saw 67 people, of whom he knew 2, I realized that there was no need to know which of the colleagues breeds Labradors, surfs or attends coffee shops. You can just say hello and say goodbye.
A little bit about money
We spend a month on food (I, husband, son, daughter, and dog) a little less than 300-400 European currency units. Moreover, the apartment is 900 +100 utilities. Phone + Internet (two rooms and a router) 65 per month. Medical insurance - 65 for everyone except the dog. A dog, by the way, costs 50-60 euros per month + 45 times every three months for a haircut.
The company and my husband and I pay taxes and keep tax records - that is, you do not bother with filing declarations and other red tape paper.
If you are called for a beer, then at 40 you will invest calmly, of course we prefer just to visit and invite, because it’s 50-60 percent cheaper.
To summarize
Moving to Spain is not as scary as I imagined it. No one has canceled paperwork, but it is part of our life and this is solved.
Tickets, accommodation and versatile assistance in the design - this is normal, and not "wow that's the laf." You are required to provide adequate and legal conditions for being in the country, and in addition to buy return tickets - what if you change your mind.
The standard of living, even with a salary of 3,000, is very high. Of course this is not iPhone X every month, but very close.
The food is cheap if you cook it yourself or are not in 3 stars.
The language is universal English, in IT companies of the upper intermediate level, this is enough. Having learned Catalan or Spanish, you can significantly expand the range of offered positions, however, this is only for understanding lead jokes and communicating with a local team.
Children can be placed in any school from private to local - they cannot refuse you with documents. Checked.
Space-level medicine for me (after Ukrainian clinics). Verified by operations. Insurance works.
It's been 6 months and I can say what we like. Looking back, I am glad that we are so crazy fidgets and that we were able to overcome fear and insecurity in our own abilities (I am silent to myself, husband - hero is understandable).