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Hi Julien,

I'm going to bring this topic back to the top, because I think it's a missed opportunity for people to discuss what actually ARE the hiring sectors in São Paulo.

I work in banking and finance, and this sector is very quiet (apart from people seeking investment in various projects - and there's not a great deal of interest as growth slowed from 8% to 1% so investors are chasing better returns elsewhere).

My wife has been contacted about a lot of jobs working as a bi-lingual receptionist / secretary. She lived and worked in London for 11 years, so is very fluent in English. She did get a job as a receptionist at a big law firm for 2,000 Reias a month. A paltry sum.

The big boss came back to work, and had a meeting with my wife, and promptly told her that she was overapaid, and that she expected her to pretty much 'jump through hoops' to keep the job.  I told my wife to tell her to F*** off and resign ;-)

Since then, in 3 months, they have had 3 more different receptionists, each leaving after a short period of time.

Certainly, there is short-termism here in Brazil (def in SP anyway), and a lack of ability to see the bigger picture, along with investment in the longer term.

I would expect that IT and media are probably the industries to be in... but would be interested in hearing anybody else's views ?

Hi Paul,

Unfortunately the short-termism is not limited to São Paulo by any means. A Brazilian's idea of long-term planning is something for next week or maybe at the most next month. That is epidemic all over this country and I'm sure it trickles down from Brasília.

Your wife was right to have told her boss to stuff it. The mistreatment and undervaluing of employees, especially female employees is rampant in Brazil. I'm actually amazed though to see that her boss was a female, that sort of blindsided me, usually that's a very MALE form of treating one's employees. She'll be the one that suffers after a long succession of new receptionists  coming and going. I doubt that it will ever cross her mind though why this is happening. I wouldn't lose any sleep over that little fact if I were your wife; she made the right choice.

As an educator with a career that spans over 25 years now and as someone who has lived in 5 different Brazilian states the complete lack of understanding of the COMMERCIAL VALUE of the English language in this country is astounding. Even in most major multi-national companies here one is hard pressed to find anyone fluent enough in the language to clearly understand an e-mail let alone conduct an English only video conference, presentation, interview, etc. Worse still many of the people at the helm of such enterprises don't put any value on their employees that have that capablility. This is something that I see on a daily basis here in Brazil and I've been inside of some of the largest manufacturing corporations, financial institution in the nation. I'm now teaching at Petrobras and the problem even exists there.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil & Canada Expert, Expat-blog Team

Hi WJ,

Yes, apparently this woman was the senior lawyer for the firm.

When my wife was taken on, she was told that the old receptionist had been sacked due to her poor English. Apparently a high profile client was almost lost because everytime they called, the receptionist couldn't understand what they were asking for.

The senior lawyer was on holiday, and my wife was hired by the office manager, so everything seemed fine, until the boss came back in the office. She was then told in no uncertain terms that she was overpaid for the role, and that they expected a lot more of her (she was already working Mon-Thu 8am - 7pm, and Fri 8am to 6pm). Quite long hours for just R$ 2,000 !

Now, having lived in London for 11 years, not only is my wife's English impeccable, London is very multi-cultural so she was exposed to everykind of spoken English, from local dialects to heavily accented European etc etc.  This is the kind of knowledge that nobody can learn at a language school, but only living in a city where people come from all around the globe.

So, you'd imagine this kind of experience would be invaluable for an international lawfirm with very big international clients, that are worth millions in revenue?

Apparently not!  This woman was more concerned that my wife was earning R$ 500 more than she wanted to pay her !  We're talking peanuts here, compared to the loss of a big lucrative client.

If that was me, and I found someone with that level of spoken and written English, I'd be doing everything in my power to make sure they don't leave (and thus make sure I keep my clients happy!)

Very very short-sighted, and no way to run a business imo, but good luck to them !

Hi all,

It seems that we are drifting off topic, please can we get back to the main theme of this topic? Thank you!

Regards,

David.

Expat-blog team.

I'm curious to know about the medical sector? Particularly if they are hiring new graduates.

There is always work available for medical doctors, nurses and the like anywhere in Brazil, provided of course they've either trained in Brazil or have had their diplomas recognized in this country.

That is not to say, however, that they will ever make a decent salary here especially if they are employed in the public healthcare system and/or in smaller cities. This is the main reason that Brazilian doctors refuse to work for SUS in remote areas and the present government has had to resort to bringing medics from other countries.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team