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Job Offer: Gibraltar
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Should I accept a job offer and move from Northern Europe to the Philippines or to Gibraltar?
kinglystamper
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Manila definitely. Depending on where in North Europe you reside now, you will find Gibraltar boring. While I have not lived in Gibraltar, before I moved to the Philippines, I lived on a similar rock, barely larger (Cyprus) and I bored myself to death. While Cyprus was an enjoyable isle, gorgeous with lovely weather, I had both profession and age against me. Except for some Russian noveau riches, there was barely anybody in my age category (mid-thirties) and most locals in that age worked whether in seasonal tourism or construction. Little did they know about people working online.Younger locals all wanted to escape to the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden/Finland. Because there are more jobs, universities are better and life there just seems more interesting. The expat community generally was older, and retired. While it was great to connect with them, usually they had a different rhythm as working online allowed me. Cyprus may not be the same as Gibraltar, but with Gibraltar being lots smaller, I expect you may encounter even worse. Manila has a bubbling tech scene and experienced expats can land very decent wages in the BPO sector. I will generally +1 Daniel Catalan's answer about further details when it comes to working in Manila. Depending on your aspired living standards and expectations I may have further elements to say, although if you end up in the BPO sector, don't really expect to live native live except for weekend trips to the province (you will highly likely end up in Makati, The Fort or Eastwood City, areas not representative of 'native life' and almost as Western as you would find in Antwerp, Den Haag, Manchester and Metz). Grab the chance, it is awesome to broaden your horizons, experience abroad in such a thriving area of the world as Manila and South East Asia as well. You will not 'miss much' from home, there is almost everything although you may like the odd moment to want to commiserate with other expats because we grew up with different standards on cleanliness, recycling, arriving on time aso. Nothing life disturbing but it can be annoying at times to be confronted with cultural differences. I have now lived here for almost 4 years and unless I were to discover an opportunity in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia or maybe Australia, I wouldn't want to leave the Philippines for the First World anymore. People are awesome and there's some bits of paradise which can be found here in the area. It is highly likely that if ever I leave PH it will only be for an emerging nation in Africa, because I have friends and contacts there and after South East Asia the future is Africa.
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Another consideration is there is probably a livelier tech community in Manila and surrounding countries. There are a good number of tech expats, and an emerging startup community if that's your thing.