The Challenges of Finding a Job in Italy

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted an update on the whole attempt to become expats; partly that was because the husband and I hadn’t really learned anything new, and partly that was because what we eventually learned didn’t make us terribly optimistic. But here’s the latest – as much as I’d like to be reporting something different, it looks like we’ll be staying in the US for at least the foreseeable future.

The husband has been working with an outplacement agency in Milan for a couple of months, but he’s only had a few days’ worth of exchanges with them – it’s tough to entice Europeans into working right now, on the eve of the big summer break, and on top of that I continue to read that the Italians are famous for procrastinating. So they might very well be able to get something done in a month’s time, but it’s likely you’d only see them really working hard on it for the last week. This laid-back attitude toward work is one of the things we love about Italy. Unfortunately, it’s also the thing that’s making our goal of moving there this year rather difficult.

With two companies courting him here, the husband doesn’t have the luxury of an indefinite amount of time to play with. The likelihood is that he’ll accept a position here this year and continue to work – albeit more slowly – with the Milan agency so that we’re better equipped the next time we want to give this a try. And we’ve learned quite a bit in the process, so it’s not all bad news. Perhaps the most positive sign is that these challenges haven’t turned us completely sour on the idea of living in Italy! Maybe once it happens we’ll be that much more prepared for how business in Italy works – who knows? All we can do right now is be optimistic for the future. We might not move to Italy in 2007, but we’re pretty confident we’ll be able to make it happen eventually.