Working

After moving to Barcelona six years ago, his first position here was hardly the job of his dreams. Badly paid and with no contract, he had to cold call companies in the UK and ask them about their computer systems; he left after four months.

A friend told him about a modelling agency and after several castings (which he muddled through with basic Spanish and a little language help from his Peruvian girlfriend), he got picked to do a TV commercial for a video game. “I was really lucky,” he grinned. “I basically got paid a ton of money for sitting around on a sofa.” Various jobs followed, and after a stint in retail, he landed a job with another call centre. This time there was no cold calling and he settled in straight away. Again it was contacts and luck that got him his foot in the door.

Fast forward two years and Mark is now working as a technical service centre agent for Colt, a British telecommunications company with offices across Europe. He’d heard good things about the company and got the job after applying on spec to the human resources department. He’s now one of around 150 people that make up the Barcelona-based UK team and spends his days handling calls about technical faults.

The job is a natural fit for someone with the gift of the gab. “If I’m honest, it didn’t interest me at first” he admitted, “but I actually really like it now. I’d prefer to be dealing with people face to face and using my Spanish but the money’s good and I like the people I work with. I really can’t complain.”

Daniel Yallop pays his rent by wielding a jar of Nutella on Saturday nights, making crêpes at a bar in the Born. He works mostly weekends and finishes late but there’s a social atmosphere behind the bar and he gets to spend most days at the beach. He earns €7.50 an hour plus tips.

Despite not having a high level of Spanish when he started, his language skills have improved rapidly and he’s picking up the odd word of Catalan too. In such a touristy part of town, he considers it a plus point that he’s a native English speaker as so many tourists who come through the door don’t manage much more than hola.