How did I end up in Madrid – My expat story

How did I end up in Madrid?
In 2007, 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. In fact, if you want to know why I love living in Madrid, just have a look at this other post I wrote on “Why 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!

Please do comment, voice your opinion or ask any question via email you may have about Madrid!

If you want to read other expats’ stories, you will find good ones here :

Yours madridly, Pierre

Posted on 24 June, 2015 by Pierre-Alban Waters in Rent, New? Start Here