I received these questions from a reader yesterday.

Hi there,
I stumbled upon your blog, and I really enjoy reading it. My fiance and I have been thinking of moving to PR after he finishes school in a year and a 1/2 - we are both from NY, and have been visiting PR for many years.

Chris is in Finance obtaining an MBA. I have a law degree, but am happy not to practice law after we move, and to try another line of work.

What was your experience in obtaining employment, and what prompted you to move to PR? Do you speak fluent spanish? Did you speak fluently when you moved to PR? What is the job market like? Do you know of any recruiters who can help us find jobs? How critical is being bilingual (we can speak VERY BASIC spanish which I think would improve once we lived on the island and were exposed to the language consistently; however, we would need jobs sooner rather than later). Sorry to bombard you with questions! I look forward to reading about your experiences!
Carrie

Thanks for the questions Carrie!

I don’t really know why, but I have always wanted to live in a Latin American country. Maybe it is the stereotypical “laid back” or “relax on the beach” type mentality that I have always wanted. Anyway, I had searched and searched for jobs in every Latin American country there is. I barely ever had a response. If I did get a response, it was always “We are looking for people fluent in Spanish”.

One day my employer announced that they were going to be laying people off in a month. I knew that they had a branch in Puerto Rico. I asked if they would be willing to transfer me. A few weeks went by and my boss asked me when I could be ready to go. He gave me 1 month to pack up and leave. Honestly I couldn’t have made a better decision.

I have been over here for a 2 and a half years and still don’t speak Spanish. I do know more Spanish than when I came. The problem is; where I work everyone has to be bilingual. So everyone automatically speaks English. While it is nice to be able to communicate, I do wish I could learn.

I would say 50-60% of the population knows good English. The younger the person, the more English they know. You might have issues talking with older people unless they have lived in the States. You can get by without knowing Spanish though. No Spanish for work? I don’t know. I guess it depends on where you work. I would say the more blue collar your job is, the more Spanish you need to know, but that is just my hunch. I do know that there are lawyers and CPAs that advertise just to the Gringos (or so it seems). So ya’ll might have some luck… However the unemployment rate is a little higher than in the States as of right now.

I really don’t know if there are recruiters here, I have not heard of any. It wouldn’t surprise me though. Everyone seems to be a middle man for something here (no offense to any recruiters out there :-D ). I will keep my ears peeled for you.

I think I answered them all :) Let me know if I can help you out and good luck to the 2 of ya!