Chile Forum

Hello,

I am an American-Chileno with full citizenship and legality in both countries. I have been a World Traveler for approx. 15 years, paying for my travels through many jobs, including English teaching, cooking, building/construction work, and playing and teaching music. I am now 35 years old, and would like to relocate permanently to Chile.

I spent roughly a year and a half in Chile somewhat recently, including all of 2007 and most of 2008. While I was there I encountered a good deal of clerical obstacles in securing my citizenship, and so did not have as much opportunity to investigate the workforce as I had liked. When I did finally organise my cedula, the jobs that I found were very, very low paying. They included working as a waiter and as a construction laborer. I found I could make a better money teaching English, of course, but I have never been certified in that regard, and the Chileno institutions I approached were more concerned with their teachers having a certificate than their proficiency in English, so I did not pursue it too doggedly.

I wondered if anyone was familiar with, perhaps, some companies that are international, i.e., Chileno-American companies that might have a need for strong English representation in their offices, etc.? I would also be very interested in any re-construction work that I assume must be going on post-terremoto? Another strong interest of mine is to open a small eatery somewhere in Chile (Valpo, or San Pedro perhaps), and I would be grateful to anyone who might have advice on the banking systems of Chile: loans, etc. I do have several co-signers to loans who are interested in going into business with me, but they would be based out of the United States, and not living in Chile.

While in Chile I was very much on my own, learning things the "hard knocks" way, and living in the blue-collar/low income community. My questions went largely unanswered, and I found dealing with civil services "information" clerks to be difficult, not least because even after a year and a half my ears still had some difficulty understanding the quick Chileno tongue when it came to business-language.

I wish I had more pointed, particular questions, but I hope I am relaying my interest clearly enough to get a response or two. I am currently working in New 'England toward the goal of returning to Chile by November/December, ideally with some sort of pre-arranged plan of gainful employment or business opportunity when I arrive. If anyone has a success story or some advice to share I would be very grateful, as there are many aspects of "getting by" in Chile which evade me yet.

I do not wish to live in Santiago, however, and I understand that that is where most of the employment and international traffic is. Be that as it may, I do not like the urban life that Santiago offers; I do enjoy the smaller cities and the countryside of Chile, though.

I realise this is all rather vague, but I just thought I'd cast my line out to the Forum and see if anyone thinks they might have some words of wisdom or practical advice for me?

You sound like yet another of the many that want to know everything about everything about living /working in Chile, in an internet post! I´m not trying to be negative, but as many others have been advised here, life in Chile is not all as wonderful as some newspàpers try to convince us. As always, there are people doing well but in your case, with no specific career history, and apparently no qualifications to offer, you probably wont find it easy to find any job that pays a decent salary. Strong English is widely available, as are unemployed semi skilled workers.
Why an eatery? I ask that as many others also have the idea of opening some small place with the hope of making enough to get by, but it´s extremely difficult to achieve. I owned a cafe/snack bar for a year, and during that time, got to know many others who also had ventured into the eatery business only to regret it. The competition is very fierce, the employees are totally unreliable and will rob you of anything that´s possible to carry home with them. The bureaucracy is another nightmare. All in all, I certainly wouldn´t recommend you think along those lines and outside of Santiago it would be even worse as there are even fewer people witn any cash to spend. I sold my place in 2005 after losing money . Since then, the place has changed hands 4 times to my knowledge. I know others who own restaurants, and they really fight to just break even. Banks here are extremely conservative. Impuestos internos will go out of their way to make life difficult for you and then on top of that you will have the sometimes absurd municipalities who will also put every obstacle they can find to make your business unworkable etc etc.
Your best bet is to come to Chile and get the feel of the place and take it from there.