The Complete Guide to Living and Working in Spain – by Charles Davey
The main questions that cross my mind when starting to review this book is: “do you really need it? Can’t you just pick the same information up on the internet or “on the job”, so to speak?” In the first case, the answer is a firm “no”. You can’t really find this information on the internet unless you’re some sort of super researcher with lots of time on your hands. And in the second case, “you can always learn this sort of thing on “the job” (or via the “school of hard knocks”, which is more likely), but you’ll probably make lots of costly and time-consuming mistakes. In any case, if time is money, you can definitely save a lot of money by buying a book like this.
Apart from informing about living and working in Spain, which is practical and enlightening enough, this book will probably dispel many false assumptions that could cost you dearly if you bank on them. Life is, in fact, very different in Spain and it will be of little use complaining if things don’t turn out quite the way you had hoped.
Another important point to mention is that this isn’t a tourist guide on Spain. This is more a book about dealing with or navigating Spain’s bureaucracy. Well, actually it is a book for long-term resident tourists, but if you are looking for a book about monuments, natural parks, beaches, the nightlife, etc. in Spain, then this is not it.
This book analyses a variety of aspects about working and living in Spain and gives practical advice on how to deal with particular problems. The aspects are broken down into sections or chapters with headings such as “The Regions of Spain: choosing where to live,” “Finding accommodation,” “Finding a Job in Spain,” “Education ….,” “The contract of employment: your rights and obligations,” and “Health care and the Spanish health system.”
Any of these categories could make its own book, but this book
summarizes the main points quite nicely and could bring you
face-to-face with either some pleasant surprises or unpleasant
shocks.
For example, are you going to look for a job in Spain? The jobs
section in this book is particularly lengthy with a good run-down
on the different types of employment available. There’s also
a page and a half of internet links in this section on where
to find jobs, etc. But, what’s more, once you get a job, will
you be interested in knowing your rights? From personal experience,
I can tell you that many employers in Spain trounce all over
their employees rights, especially, but not exclusively, if
they're foreigners. Let me tell you, it’s in your best interest
to know right from wrong in Spain.
Then too, if you have children, have you considered where they’re going to go to school? Some regions don’t have very many international English speaking schools. Others don’t speak Spanish in their own schools, preferring instead their own regional languages (Spain is multi-lingual). Charles Davey, the author of “Living and Working in Spain,” sheds some light on the subject.
Also, do you want to buy or rent an accommodation? The author, a practicing barrister in the U.K., is especially an expert on this subject as he also writes and (via publisher “Kogan Page”) publishes another book on purchasing property in Spain titled “The Complete Guide to Buying Property in Spain.”
Charles Davey does an excellent rigorously-researched job in
this book and I highly recommend it for anybody coming to live
and work in Spain. However, as a disclaimer, I should point
out that none of these books on working and living in Spain
is going to solve all of your problems as nobody can foresee
everything. The best thing you can do is to cover all your bases,
plan thoroughly, be adaptable and don’t bother coming over in
the first place unless you’ve got plenty of money saved up just
in case.
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