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Tempers flare as Madrid job show flops

The organizers of a Madrid job fair had to call in police on Wednesday when hundreds of would-be job seekers discovered the event's venue was too small to accommodate everyone.

Published: 14 March 2013 18:54 CET

Tempers flare as Madrid job show flops

Organizers of an international job fair in Madrid on Wednesday had to postpone the event because too many people turned up. Photo: David Shankbone

The jobs fair was organized by New Zealand firm Working In and featured 25 companies looking for employees in countries including Chile and Germany, reported El Pais.

The venue for the event in the Madrid district of Salamanca had a capacity of 300 but the crowd who showed up was much larger.

Things got out of hand and police turned up at around 3pm to keep control of a situation where irate would-be participants were demanding back the €12 they had paid for their entry ticket.

"We feel cheated because the reality of the event didn't live up to the promise," 26-year-old Julia told El Pais.

"The room only had space for 40 people and a lot more people than that turned up."

"The whole thing was really badly organized," said 36-year-old Portuguese man Leandro.

"The company sold a whole lot more tickets than they had room for," he added.

Working In was quick to react to the problem. Although the firm had to postpone Wednesday's proceedings after just two hours, the company changed to a large venue for Thursday.

On the company website, Working In apologized for the events of Wednesday and said they would return money to anyone who asked.

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The best websites to look for jobs in Spain

Unless you’re retired or moving to Spain to retire, one of the most important things you’ll need to do when you first arrive, or even before you arrive, is to look for a job. It can be a little daunting knowing where to look when you’re in a new country, but we’ve got you covered with some of the best job websites in Spain.

Or perhaps you’ve lived here for several years and are looking to take on new career responsibilities and improve your prospects. If you always get stuck looking at the same job sites, you may want to take look below and broaden your options.

READ ALSO: Not just English teaching: The jobs you can do in Spain without speaking Spanish

The Local Jobs

Did you know that at The Local we also have our own job site? You can find it under the jobs tab under the logo on the homepage and choose from careers in Spain including education & teaching, software engineering, sales and customer service. Most of the job descriptions are written in English too, so it’s one of the best places to look if your Spanish is not quite up to scratch yet.

InfoJobs

InfoJobs continues to be the leading job search portal in Spain, ever since it was launched in 1988. It’s the best place to start when searching for a job here, with listings of thousands of vacancies across the country and across various industries too. Large corporations such as Telefónica, Clece and Sacyr publish hundreds of job offers daily. It also allows you to set various filters when searching, including work-from-home and hybrid positions.

Infoempleo

Infoempleo enables users to register for free and upload their CVs to the site. If you can understand Spanish, the blog section is particularly helpful with several articles with tips and news related to employment in Spain. They also have a section on courses and study centres throughout the country, in case you need to brush up on your skills first.

LinkedIn

One of the most comprehensive jobs sites out there, LinkedIn is of course one of the best places to search for jobs worldwide, not just in Spain. You can select the search terms for the jobs you want, as well as preferred locations. As many of you are probably already aware, LinkedIn is not only great for searching for jobs, but of course for making professional connections online and putting your CV online, so that potential recruiters can search you out too.

Laboris

One of the most important online employment agencies in Spain, the site allows companies to sign up and publish their first two job offers for free. It also has a geolocation service that allows candidates to know which jobs are closest to their homes.

Indeed

Indeed, allows you to search through thousands of jobs online to find your next career move and has several tools to help you such as improving your CV. One of the best aspects of it is it has thousands of opinions from users and candidates who have already had the experience of working for the same company or have already been through the interview process.

Trabajamos

Trabajamos is a social employment site that is ideal for those who are self-employed, with more than 60,000 users and 13,000 job ads published. Under the section ‘Demands and services’ professionals from all fields have the opportunity to upload a professional description about themselves, a photo and details on what they charge per hour for certain services.

El País / Monster

The joint initiative of the newspaper El País and the American employment portal, Monster is another great option. As well as searching, the page allows you to save the jobs you’re most interested in so you can look at them any time and don’t have to search again. It also enables you to upload your CV and see which companies are interested or have been looking at it.

Adecco

The Adecco website covers both employment and career guidance and is specialised in Human Resources. As well as being a job site, it also has 280 offices throughout Spain. The company focuses on certain sectors in particular and is best for jobs in hospitality, audio-visual, logistics, motoring and transport.

Milanuncios

Milanuncios is not solely a job website, it’s also a place to look for second-hand items for sale, search for professional services or even find apartments for rent. It does have a section on employment, however, which allows candidates and companies to get in contact with each other directly. Be aware though, that there can be some job scams posted on the site, so look out for any positions that sound too good to be true or ask you to pay any money in order to apply.

Noticiastrabajo

Noticiastrabajo specialises in employment, labour rights, economy, benefits and admin. Job boards are published daily with offers from large multinationals such as Mercadona, Leroy Merlin, Bricomart, Decathlon and Primark, among many other leading companies looking to recruit. One of the best parts about it is that it clearly states accurate salaries, the number of hours and how to send your CV. It even gives you tips on how to pass the job interview.

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