Having lower wages compared to some of europe, Barcelona is the ideal place for companies to have their call centres. A lot of which offer long term contracts. You will be working around 37hours per week, you get 4 weeks off a year and you will get you around 1150 euros (after tax) in your back pocket each month. With rent prices dropping over the last couple of years you can now get a room for between 250-350euros per month, so these jobs are ideal for no stress and leaving you with enough spending money each week to really enjoy yourself.
So where can we find these english speaking jobs in barcelona? You may pick up the metropolitan magazine and look through but most likely it is the same cut and paste from last months issue. To be honest call centers in Barcelona will only hire when they need at least 5 new people at one time. So they will continue to advertise each month regardless if there are positions free at the time. Our advise is to keep applying.. if nobody has been in touch its not because you aren’t qualified for the job, its more likely they are just not looking yet.
If you have experience in any kind of customer service or call centre work and have a good attitude, you have a good chance of landing one of these jobs. They just want to know you are going to turn up on time and be consistent in your work.. and this basically just means either answering incoming calls to book hotel rooms or cars, or making outbound calls to people in the UK for research or to get them interested in some kind of product or membership. Each company obviously has its own rules, but outside of the actual job role itself, these are great place to meet fellow expats and travelers. Everybody is helpful and wanting to make new friends, you will find yourself meeting people from all over the world with different stories and beliefs.
CPM – Call center located near Sagrada Familia. They have inbound teams that take calls from the UK with people wishing to book Travelodge hotel rooms. There is also a few outbound teams that concentrate on calling people in the UK. A recent project was calling people who had recently stopped their milk contract and just convincing them to keep it going.
SellbyTel – Pretty much what is says on the tin. Call centre for outbound sales. If you have a big mouth and find it easy convincing people to buy things then this is your place.
Avis - Call center located at the world trade center right near the harbour. One of the better call centers. Inbound team involves taking calls from different places and booking car rentals for people. They give bonuses for high performance and pay double wages twice a year.
Colt - Helpdesk for telecommunications. You'll be taking incoming calls and basically being the first point of contact for clients before they speak with the engineers. A bit harder than the other jobs but will pay in the region of 1700euros per month and you also get 200euros worth of restaurant vouchers a month also.
There are lots of people who head to Barcelona with an idea of working in some amazing bar. True, there are lots of bars in Barcelona but there is also more than enough people to work in them so it is a very crowded market. If you are going to live in Barcelona, even just for a short time, we advise securing a call center job first, its more than enough money to survive and be happy and is a great place to meet other expats.
There is one thing to be careful of. When looking for jobs (especially on loquo.es) there are a lot of scams and also a lot of illegal companies. Avoid applying for any jobs that offer “wages up to 100k”. These jobs are illegal and a lot of them earn their money from stealing from elderly members of the UK and other english speaking countries by tricking them into investing false shares and other things. Sometimes they will come across as legitimate so you need to be weary and make sure you research the company before saying yes to a job.