Ever dreamt of relocating to the land of sun, sand and sangria? Well I guess you have if you’re reading this article. Relocating to Spain is not as difficult as it may seem. English teaching jobs are plentiful and they pay more than enough to get by.

After a leaving university I spent a year in a city job before relocating to Spain.I arrived in Madrid without a word of Spanish, very little teaching experience, no apartment and no job. You may rightly ask “what were you thinking?” The truth is I’m not sure. I was young and stupid and I guess I still am. I just decided to take a risk, luckily it all worked out. I was snapped up within a week by a hungry academy and had an apartment within three days.

There are a number of websites that prove very useful if you are looking for jobs and in Madrid alone were I was based there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of academies looking for staff. Generally English teachers tend to move on after a year or two this means that jobs are always becoming available. But be warned the months from June to September are slow and the majority of the time academies are just looking for kid’s camp staff.

So where do you start? Firstly, update your CV by putting any teaching or experience you have at the top of your work experience section. If you coached in a kids sports camp 5 years ago put it down, this shows experience of working with kids. Instructing or teaching of any kind is well thought of by mist academies and schools. Also be sure to mention any business experience you may have. This is vital as a lot of classes are in company and involve teaching students English business terminology. Don’t worry if your Spanish is non existent, this usually isn’t a problem, in fact it’s often seen as an advantage as it forces the student to speak English. As for Tefl teaching certificates, opinions vary on this; some academies like a well qualified teacher while others aren’t too bothered. In my opinion it is worth your while getting a certificate but I advise against paying large sums of money(over $1000) for long term courses. You will find that the majority of the teachers have only weekend courses done or none at all.

When it comes to websites I highly recommend subscribing to www.tefl.com .After subscribing they will send you a weekly newsletter with jobs available from around the world, usually with a sizable Spanish section. Subscribing is free and takes less than 5 minutes. Another useful website is www.eslbase.com/jobs/spain/ . If Madrid is your destination you should check out www.lingobongo.com and www.madridteacher.com . These websites are just the tip of the iceberg, if you search the net you’ll find tons more with plenty of jobs available. The most important thing is get your CV out there and have some interviews or better yet a job ready for you when you arrive. Best of luck!