I occasionally get emails from people looking to move or move back to Peru, asking me about jobs in Peru, jobs for expats, things like that. I taught English (ESL) for a while, that’s a popular occupation for expats, but here are some other options you might consider for jobs in Peru:

If your main qualifications are that you are young and cute: You should be able to get any and every job that you otherwise may or may not qualify for. Think airline pilot, bank teller, customer service, etc.

If you are tall and white: Look into news anchor or any other type of TV presenter.

If you like to die young: You have many options here, consider driving or mining.

Say you are an auditor: Tough choice here. Morals or jobs. One of Patricia’s uncles has held a number of positions in municipalities, he’s also run his own ONG. He’s done quite a few contract audits for municipalities and – of course only his side of the story – always found all sorts of incompetence and corruption. The audits were usually something like a 3 month contract supposed to turn into a full time job if he did well. Our uncle still sounds surprised yet laughs at the same time that he always rooted out corruption and incompetence and was then politely thanked for his services, never to be asked back.

If you can sleep while standing up: you are a perfect candidate for a Peruvian security guard. That isn’t to belittle those poor guys but only to say they work ridiculous hours for low pay and don’t seem to get any breaks. They’re on their feet 12 hours a day. A little secret about cutting through bureaucracy at the typical Peruvian government building: ask the security guy where to go, which line to stand in, what the process is for the tramite you are doing. They don’t always know but very often they do. Many of the security guards work for years and years at the same building and are very knowledgeable about the process inside, they can really help you avoid standing in the wrong line for 20 minutes. Sometimes they’ll point you in the wrong direction but most likely the security guard will be more helpful than many of the goverment bureaucrats inside. Get past the “label” of security guard – we like to label people don’t we? – treat the person with respect and chances are you’ll get through the bureaucracy faster and less painfully.

UPDATE: If you were looking for more serious info about jobs in Peru, I have found good candidates on Computrabajo Peru. This is also the site where Patricia found her last job.

Web developer is a popular job for expats in Peru