Finding a "normal" job in Moscow

[Solnishko23]

Hello, Im moving to Moscow next Summer, to live with my girlfriend, Im from Spain. I would like to find a job in there, in this June, I'll finish university (Law Degree, but don't think it will help me much), and Im actually studying russian, but anyway, I just have begginer level. Im not native english speaker, and don't have TEFL, so can't teach english, and there, as I understood, the chances of teaching spanish, are not so big.

What do you advice me to do? Where may foreigners with not great knowledge of russian may work?

Thank you for your help!!!

[streklor]

Soshnikov:

Given what you have explained about yourself, you are going to have a tough time as (and you point it out yourself) Russians spend even less time trying to learn Spanish then say Italian. I live permanently in Moscow and am writing this message from an internet cafe on the Arbat. To begin with the only place you will stand a chance is Moscow.

I have heard that there are quite a few New Russians who vacation in Spain. New Russians are also known for paying very, very high rates indeed for native speakers of languages they are interested in learning. I am not trying to toot my own horn but I have a new russian paying $40 US per hour to have me teach him english one-on-one. Moscow really IS different from the rest of russia people. We have a text and a structured study program and goals. Maybe you could try something along these lines. Obviously the whole key is going to be finding these people, assuming there are enough of them in your niche out there.

I have a few more links on one of my webpages that deal with working in russia:

http://www.moscowkvisa.com/workinginrussia.html

You are correct in anticipating that legal education (and especially without experience) is not very transferable across borders in the job market. You may be a very intelligent person, but there is very little you can offer at this point which local russians can't.

If you could really master the process of reading and interpreting russian before arriving of course you could translate documents etc. into spanish. But again, until you become extremely proficient and well-known, you are going to be competing against a 22 year-old-russian spanish major who will work for much less than you are willing.

try language link or some of the other schools and eventually, after you have been here a while you probably could get enough students or snag an opening for a spanish teacher at a school when it comes up, so that way you could support yourself to the tune of at least $1000 US per month.

best of luck
robert