How did I end up in Madrid?

Three years ago, I decided I wanted to speak fluently a third language, English and French being the first two. So I thought about learning Chinese or Arabic, but Spanish would be quicker to learn and has a more global reach, and I enjoy speaking it a lot, compared to my short experiences babbling mandarin or arabic. So my mind was set on Spanish, but still I did not know where I was going to learn it.

My plan was to use the last semester I had to complete to obtain my Master’s degree and do it in a Spanish speaking country. I had the possibility to study pretty much anywhere in Latin America and Spain. My criteria was: “Where will I have more opportunities to land a job with less than 6 months speaking Spanish?”
Madrid and Barcelona were then the obvious choices, as many South American contacts told me that for a graduate it would have been very hard to find a good job if you do not have any contacts beforehand.

So Madrid or Barcelona ? It was a tough choice. In the end, what decided me was the fact that Madrid had a larger job market than Barcelona and that I had the opportunity to study in a university in Madrid – ICADE – which brand would help me a lot to land a job here.

That’s why I ended up in Madrid. I now love Madrid for many other reasons, the first of them being that I fell in love with a fantastic French girl and that we both love living in Madrid.

I have been living for nearly 3 years now in Madrid, working as freelance management consultant and entrepreneur. I am looking forward to blog and share with other fellow guiris to help them settle in Madrid with specific advice on learning spanish in a few months, finding a job here, finding a flat, explaining every neighbourhood and which one is for you, and why not, talk a bit about the stuff Spanish talk about all the time: the crisis and politics

Do not hesitate to comment and/or send me an e-mail if you have any kind of question.

Here was my post for GuiriGuide. For complete “how-to” guides to make your move to Madrid easy, have a look at my blog Moving2Madrid.com !

Madridly yours,
+Pierre-Alban Waters – Moving2Madrid.com – Google+ – Twitter – Linkedin – Newsletter!