[ElJefe]

I'm finishing up grad school with a master's in about a year, and I have a job in investment banking right now on the side (just as an intern, 15 hours a week, but I've managed to make a decent first-impression, so it might get more serious).

But I'll be damned if I want to be stuck up here for the rest of my life, so I want to go mobile. Maybe go down to Brazil - I imagine that labor market is far from saturated for educated professionals. Anyone made the move down to BRZ permanently?

The most obvious way I can think of improving my chances is learning the language - then it'd be great to land a serious paying job in a place like Saõ Paulo or Rio. I've learnt a decent amount of Spanish that I want to continue to improve by hanging out with Spanish-natives in my home town - I hope this would make Portuguese much easier and faster to learn.

Can someone comment on the downsides of this idea? Or maybe give provide me (and others interested in making the same move) with some tips on how to design a road-map for a goal like this? Obviously, the shorter the time horizon, the better!

[hydrogonian]

Two methods:

1. Work for a USA company with connections/an operation in Brazil, and hope to transfer.
2. Move down there and network.

Personally, I would skip the Spanish and start learning Portuguese if this is your goal.

No shortage of educated Brazilians for Portuguese language only non-international positions. At least the caliber of position that you would want. You need a bilingual, probably international, type of position. So, it depends on your degree.

[ElJefe]

This sounds like the a good working plan - thanks for sharing, Hydro.

I'm learning Spanish because it's cheaper and more convenient (more spanish speakers around) so I achieve larger marginal gains for much less. I hope, once having attained fluency, that Portuguese should be a breeze, and this would make me especially useful to a large international bank like Santander, assuming they don't go broke.

My angle for getting into South America would be IB or shipping, where I've worked for a while, too. After that, I would spend a couple years building a network before going independent or allying myself with a buddy of mine down there with a decent sized import business.