How to find a job in Italy

Regardless of your current area of expertise, experience or graduation, some advice can help you to find work in Italy: Be aware of the seasonal events: For instance, in Parma there is the harvest season for tomatoes, which runs from June to August, when the farms are looking for extra staff. It is important to be organised, as employers normally receive tons of CVs from April. It is three months of guaranteed work and with a good salary. It can be an opportunity to save some money until something more concrete comes up. Head to South Italy during the spring and summer: In the coast region, it usually has lots of job offers during high season. Our advice is to go to one of those cities and make yourself available on the bars, hotels, restaurants and other tourist establishments. Expand your networking to the maximum of people as possible and tell them your situation. aerial view of a crowded beach in Italy full of beach sunshades and the train station right next to the beach The Cinque Terre | Photo by Monday Feelings Look for the “Centri per L’Impiegi”: That’s the government body that should – in theory – helps you to look for work. Take your CV to them, explain your situation and hope that they will have something for you. We will not lie, our local friends said it is not really efficient. Look for “Informagiovani” of your town: The InformaGiovani is a free service from the administration of some Italian towns where people can offer and look for offers of any kind, such as jobs, courses, houses and so forth, either online or in a brick and mortar location. Once a month, we pass in front of the InformaGiovani of Parma to put up our offer of English and Portuguese teacher – and it has been working well. End of year’s festive holidays: During Christmas, as in most places in the world, it has many job offers for high street branches. If you are looking for a short-term job in Italy only to gain experience in a certain field or to have a more in-depth cultural experience, why not considering a volunteering programe? Sites such as WWOOF, WorldPackers and WorkAway, connects business owners and people wanting to volunteer in exchange for a place to stay while travelling. You can find work in wineries, hotels, art galleries and others. Tiago in front of an arch in Milan with the sun on the corner Tiago in Milan | Photo by Monday Feelings Work during the Winter Season: Italy has many mountainous cities, with ski resorts and other winter activities. As the south is packed during summer, the north attracts many tourists during the winter, and therefore more workers too. Italy job market: sites to help you search for work in Italy A view of the main church of Milan and the square full of people Duomo di Milano | Photo by Monday Feelings Here are some good websites to look for jobs in Italy – and other things too. Infojobs: one of the largest job seeking websites in Italy Linkedin: LinkedIn is a great opportunity to connect with other workers and companies from all over the world, as well as staying tuned with the latest vacancies in many different areas. We find LinkedIn the most effective way of finding a job in Italy for expats. It gives you the opportunity to look for English speaking vacancies, for instance. Bakeca: to offer/look for work, house, car, services and products. Kigigi: the website is part of Ebay and has many job offers, products, services, courses and many more. Jobbydoo.it, Lavoroteca and OptionCarriere: on all these three sites you can search and offer of jobs in Italy. Italian cities with more job vacancies A view of the Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery in Milan full of people and a massive entrance arch The Vittorio Emanuele II Galley in Milan | Photo by Monday Feelings In any part of the world, the larger the city, the higher the chance of getting hired, isn’t it? But also, they are normally more expensive too. Therefore, you might put on a balance expenses x earnings and see for yourself if it is worth going there. Some cities in Italy that have better infrastructure and job opportunities are: Rome, Milan, Bologna, Firenze, Bergamo, Turin and Naples. The web site Job Your Life.com also mentions a research from 2015 where they classify the cities of Treviso, Vicenza, Cuneo, Macerata, Modena and Varese as good for job offers. Do you need to speak Italian to work in Italy? Tiago in front of a sign with many indications and directions in Italy Lost at Lago di Garda | Photo by Monday Feelings That’s a yes. It’s not impossible to find a job in Italy without speaking Italian. But, in a country which the current situation is not the best, you will be at great disadvantage not speaking the local language. If you are a native English speaker, or is fluent in English, a good way around is to search for work in multinational companies or startups, where the spoken language is actually English. For this, we definitely recommend LinkedIn, as we said before. On our post about the cost of living in Italy we have already mentioned it, but never too much to repeat it: The Italian broadcasting company Rai makes available Italian courses for free. Furthermore, in most cities, it is possible to find classes of Italian for free too, organised by independent associations or by the government. *Also, read Do you need to speak English to travel? Can you find a job in Italy without a work permit? View of Vernazza in Cinque Terre from above the mountain with the beach and the village Vernazza, one of the Cinque Terre | Photo by Monday Feelings People asks us if you can find a job in Italy without a work permit all the time. This is a complicated question. First of all, we say don’t come to Italy illegally. The most you will get as an illegal citizen is cash-in-hand contract. With that, you have the risk of not get paid be the employer as well as work in the worst conditions, let alone the risk of being caught. In short, it is your life, but living in Italy without regular papers must not be easy.