Expat Advice: Working in San Jose, Costa Rica

What is the name of the city or town that you are reporting on?

San Jose

What are the main industries in this city? What types of career opportunities commonly exist? How do most people find new jobs?

Most expats who work teach English, and most of them start out working through one of the numerous language schools. The jobs are not good. Invariably they're part-time, bad hours, low pay, and require lots of travel. English teachers may have to hold early morning (before work) classes at a business in a distant free-trade zone, then do the same in the evenings (after work) at another one, maybe picking up a midday class somewhere else. It can be a long day of riding buses that only nets $20. Though for the backpacker set and others just looking to make a little money, these jobs can be OK, and over time the teachers can build up some seniority that allows them to get better schedules. A few get hired on full-time by schools or businesses and are even well-paid. Most other expats who want to make some money go into business for themselves, typically in tourism and/or real estate. Expat-owned small hotels, restaurants, and bars are reasonably common. For the few expats who actually have the right to work via permanent residency and are both young and ambitious enough to aspire to conventional careers, most of the attractive openings are probably in the multinational corporations. There are lots of these and tech skills combined with English fluency open doors fast. Middle management positions exist too, but I've never known an expat who's been hired for one. I've known expats who've applied and based on their work experience in their home country were qualified, but I've never known one to be hired. I suspect this is because the multinationals either bring in their own managers or promote from within. Costa Rica has a fairly large pool of multilingual, college-educated people who already have work experience in these companies. Expats who waltz in believing they're better (a common conceit) can be in for a rude awakening.

What type of work do you do and how did you find your job?

Freelance writing and teaching online.

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How did you obtain your work permit? What advice would you have for others about work permits?

A typical "expat" cannot legally work in Costa Rica. Those who live here on tourist visas as well as those with either pensionado or rentista residency are prohibited from working for pay. This covers perhaps 90% of the expats. Indeed, while these expats can own businesses, they can't work in them. Although rare, expat business owners found working in their own businesses have been expelled. However, after 3 years as a pensionado or rentista, a person may upgrade to permanent resident, which includes the right to work. Given the delays, a newcomer should probably plan on not having the right to work for around 5 years. Of course, there are exceptions. The main one is for refugees, who receive the right to work fairly fast. But few expats qualify as refugees. Other exceptions are expats transferred to Costa Rica by multinational corporations. Rarer are the exceptions made for people with special skills, such as orchestra conductors and soccer players. In addition to the exceptions, there is a lot of rule-bending. Schools especially seem to get around the prohibition on working by expats who teach English, and to a lesser extent the multinational corporations do too. I have yet to understand how this is done, but I think it amounts to the hiring entity submitting paperwork claiming that the employee has unique skills and therefore qualifies as an exception, though never completing the paperwork. I have never known anyone working in this way ever to actually receive a work permit, although I've known many who worked for years under this nebulous arrangement. My guess is that as long as the paperwork is "in process," the employee is temporarily legal, and the trick is never to complete the paperwork and therefore never to have the work permit denied. But some process like this happens a lot, though primarily with English teachers.

Have you taken language and cross-cultural training courses to prepare for your assignment? If so, how have they helped you on the job?

Yes, but not through an employer.

If you were transferred abroad by your employer, were you guaranteed a job upon repatriation? What type of mentoring programs does your employer offer?

I wasn't transferred.

What advice would you offer others about finding jobs and working abroad?

My main advice is not to move to Costa Rica expecting to embark on a career. First, for almost everyone this is illegal. Second, expats are rarely competitive for the few openings that arise. Expats usually can find a little work if they're desperate, but most who make decent incomes work online through their home countries. Starting your own business is the main alternative, though my impression is that for most expats who do this the business is more of a hobby-business than a career they live off of.