employment in rome
part 3

legal immigration

You're really supposed to get a ‘permission to work’ visa from your local Italian consulate before you travel, if you intend to come to Italy to work.

If you don't get this special visa, and arrive here instead with only a tourist visa that probably only lasts three months, you'll have to work black market, which means no protection against unfair dismissal, no redress for harassment, no holiday pay, no employee's rights at all in fact, and Italian employers will exploit you if they can, because basically, you're not supposed to be working here. The Italian authorities will deport you if they find you working without the correct visa, and the resulting 'black mark' against your name will make it very difficult to return to Italy to live and work ever again.

Ideally you should try to work here for a non-Italian company, they tend to be more honest. Italian employers may at first appear to be more easy-going about hiring black market employees, but in return they expect high results for their risk, or else they will abuse you. So try to do it legal, get a workers visa from the consulate, get a contract from the employer, and then you will be empowered to argue a bum deal.

For immigration, come clean with the consulate about as much as possible from the beginning, and if you're not sure about anything, keep bombarding them with questions until you get to the bottom of things.

Always try to get the latest official line from your local consulate before you come to Italy. Try to get as much info as possible in writing, get names and signatures, be charming, wise as a serpent but harmless as a dove, and make as many friends as you can in Italy, in high or low places.

Do what the consulate tells you to, then (subject to that information) build a return ticket back to your home country into your budget, (in case things don't work out) and come here and look under every stone in Rome for a proper job, then when you find one, if you haven't already got the worker's visa, (which you should really have first) apply for the worker's visa, which will give you more clout with employers, and render you immune from deportation.

the secret of happiness

Romebuddy maintains that the happiest expatriates in Italy are those who work for companies of their home country, but who socialise chiefly with Italians.

That way you’ll have the best of both worlds – you’ll ideally have a responsible, caring employer who upholds civilised business practices, while out of hours, you’ll be soaking up Italian fun-loving culture and improving your Italian language skills.

If you do it the other way round, (ie, work for Italians and only socialise with your own 'countrymen', you’ll be at the mercy of an employer who has not the same concept of civil and employment rights as you are used to at home, and out of hours you’ll spend all your time in gloomy-faced drunken commiseration with other disgruntled expatriates, who may make you feel more dissatisfied and alienated from the host culture than ever. So aim to work hard for your own people, but play hard with Italians.

However, in spite of what we’ve written about the occasional improprieties of some Italian employers, it must also be said that some British or American employers in Italy sometimes do not behave very well either.

We don’t so much mean the big international corporations, but we're thinking more here of small independent businesses set up by individual ‘veteran’ expatriates in Italy. Once on foreign soil and submerged in Italian business culture, with all restrictions off, they will sometimes ‘go native’ and do not always play by the rules of fair play and equal opportunities either, as they would have to at home. In other words, unofficially and off the record, it tends to be 'friends and family first, strangers last', no matter how highly qualified you might be.

You're going to have to use all your charm and cunning to succeed here. On the other hand, look on the bright side - Back in your home country, you'd be penalised for using charm and cunning to get ahead. Here, it's de rigeur. As is high fashion in the workplace - Italians are excruciatingly smart, well turned out, and sexist. Don't even think of attending an interview here unless you're dressed to kill, or they won't take you seriously.

job-hunting leads

One way to start job-hunting in Rome is to contact all the temping agencies in the city to see if any of them have current posts for English speakers on their books. That could give you a foothold here, and of course many temps end up being offered jobs with companies they had been temporarily assigned to. Some of the big world agencies are here, such as Manpower and Adecco.

Also buy 'Porta Portese' newspaper from any news-stand, it has loads of classifieds for employment, (though only on certain days of the week - other days have only 'for sale' or 'wanted' ads. You need to get the 'Work' ('Lavoro') edition.

Also, when you arrive here, see if you can find and buy 'Wanted In Rome' magazine, (available at most English bookshops, such as the Economy Book and Video Center in Via Torino 136. This magazine has classified job ads. Another useful publication is the 'English Yellow Pages' in Rome, available from the same store.

Whether you begin jobsearching while you're still back at home, or if you wait till you get to Italy, you may wish to start an advance campaign by mailshotting a careful selection of companies in Italy with a well prepared introductory letter written in Italian, together with your CV resume. Whatever you do, you're gonna to need the resume in Italian sooner or later anyway. Surprise, surprise, Romebuddy just happens to know someone who can provide you with a first-class translation of your Resume or CV into Italian. Click here to check out this service.

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about working in rome, italy