Finding a English speaking Job in IT?

Hello Michael,

First off, you've got to understand that it is no easy task for foreigners to obtain work here in Brazil. The laws here require that employers clearly demonstrate that they've exhausted all avenues of filling a vacancy with a qualified Brazilian before they are permitted to employ a foreigner. Having said this, those individuals in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) field professions do find it much easier.

The one thing that you must be very aware of is that while it may be heralded as "the universal language of commerce", English is NOT widely spoken in Brazil, not even in major companies and thus a reasonable level of fluency in Portuguese is absolutely essential in ANY job here. Without Portuguese one would be unable to communicate with their co-workers and superiors.

If you are willing to learn the language then you should start immediately and this, to be sure, would greatly increase not only your chances of finding work here but also the pool of job openings that would be available to you.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team

Hi William

Thank you for your quick reply!
Its seems like its going to be very hard to move to Brazil,
i was hoping that it would be somewhat off an easy process...
I heard that the economy is booming in Brazil and that there would be plenty off jobs in the IT field, but my research has not comfirmed this (not yet)

Anyway thanks for taking the time to respons to my post,
i really appreciate it!

cheers

Michael

Hi Michael,

You are correct that the Brazilian economy is growing, but can hardly be classified as booming. The IT industry while really booming here is quite competitive and has lots of very qualified home-grown talent so it can be a tough nut to crack.

Also what people don't seem to understand is that while Brazil is a democracy (in name) there are still a great number of laws that carry over from the era of the Military Dictatorship.

Brazil does not have an immigrations law as such, nor even policy for that matter. What is currently being used to govern immigration is the "Lei de Estrangeiro" sanctioned by the last President during the Dictatorship (Jõao Figuereido). It was written under a military regime in a period where Brazil was essentially closed and the attitudes towards foreigners was quite authoritarian. Even the current head of Conselho Nacional de Imigração has stated publicly that the country needs to modernize the law.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team