Brazil?!

[Jordan Lockman]

I had a friend go to Brazil to do farming and was taken advantage of by his employer. Did really well for a while, but eventually stopped getting paid.

[Gabino Carballo]

I have been developing contact with Brazil in the last few years and some of my friends have moved there at the same time. Unless you are going there with a job, Brazil’s job market is not as straight forward as you may think.

In first place, I am not very sure you can offer your services if you do not speak the language. It simply does not work like China, you are expected to speak Portuguese generally. It is a highly social place, and you would need to be working for a foreign corporation on some very specialized job.

Secondly, it is a market where people expect to see you and know you before they make any offers. Brazilian companies often require to know somebody who knows you, in a fairly informal way. Like most latin cultures, personal touch and close networks are everything.

Thirdly, Brazil is in the midst of a huge bubble, prizes and salaries are inflated and reaching unsustainable levels in Sao Paulo. How long does it take before the whole thing bursts is anyone’s guess, my friends are giving it two to three years. Make sure you don’t get caught on that one.

Boom and Bust economics is the only economic model that has been proven to be certain over the years.
For high professional and economic returns try Africa, but make sure you have a good exit plan in case anything goes wrong. Africa has everything going for it, but it is a little bit too volatile!

[landplanner]

This gaucho knows what he is talking about. Very insightful commentary and well worth considering before making any move to South American (which stole our name- thank you Randy Newman)

[Ellis Cucksey]

Hey, another UI alum! I finished there in 2010.

You should send me an email. We’ve got some entry-level CAD Tech positions opening up here in Red Deer, and I believe also in Edmonton. Not sexy work, but a foot in a door.

[Anonymous]

Edmonton is flush with oil and gas money and has lots infrastructure needs. I’ve been looking up that way myself. I wouldn’t hesitate to give up metroNYC to head for the western frontier if it’s in a long term boom. Besides folks are pretty friendly north of the border-eh?  

[Ellis Cucksey]

Fort McMurray (McMoney) is kinda the population epicenter of the oil sand industry in Alberta right now. They’re estimating that there’s enough oil up there to keep the extraction folks busy for the next 50 years… The place is like a modern-day boom town. Totally unsustainable growth, but that’s a problem for other generations to sort out, right?. For now, the houses and roads and commercial structures and other supporting infrastructure just can’t go in fast enough.

 

If you can stand being part of that, plus the environmental disaster-in-waiting of Alberta’s dirty, dirty bitumen (which, unlike other crude oil sources, sinks in water, making meaningful clean-up of spills practically impossible), then this is a great place to be. Me, I dropped my ethical standards like a hot rock when my first student load bill came in the mail. Those guys don’t care if the money has oil stains on it, just as long as my payments arrive on time…

[Anonymous]

Ellis one way or another, those resources are going to be extracted from the earth. If I can be a part of repairing the damage then I’ll be happy. If not I’ll just have to be a cheap sell-out, because 50 years of boom smells like security to me. Besides clearing land and cutting and filling it to build roads, homes and businesses isn’t good for the environment and I’ve been doing that for 23 years.  

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

UI As am I.

[mauiBob]

The worst kind of landscape architect or someone in this field! Damned the future generations and the unhealthy environment coming their way as long as I get mine now, who cares what follows? Its all about me and how much I make. This is actually the same mentality that put the U.S. economy in shambles. Wall Street and the major Banks ring any bells?

[mauiBob]

Another sell-out! And you have the nerve to call yourself a landscape architect, huh Craig? Here’s a champagne toast for the recession to last another 10 years! We don’t need anymore suburban sprawl and Hummer H1 vehicles. This recession shook up lots of foundations and made people think twice about over abundance of personal materials. Those who were involved with unsustainable designs are having karma catch up with them with unemployment and barely enough work to get by now. Those of us who never sold out and stayed true environmentalist are still employed full-time. What goes around comes around. Call it karma.

[Roland Beinert]

Not sure why everyone thinks I intend to move to Brazil without a job. I was just hoping to find out if my dad was right about it being a good place to look for jobs.
I’ve only applied to two jobs outside the US, so far. I actually did apply to one in Canada several months ago, but never heard back from them. I also applied to one in China a couple of days ago. The other places are all in the US, mostly in the northeast. My ideal job would be in an english speaking country, in a large city, at a firm that does work all over the world. I’m wary of small cities or towns and places with economies that might be boom and bust. But pretty much the only thing my dad says to me lately has been “Brazil, Brazil, Brazil.” I figured I should at least try to find something there to appease him. Plus, who knows, maybe he’s right.

[Anonymous]

Oh please mauiB get off your phony environmental soap box. I have to laugh at people like you who drive cars, wear synthetic clothing, eat food from industrial size farms, and use all the modern conveniences, but claim to be environmentalist. Listen here faux nature boy if you were so green you wouldn’t be wasting energy spewing your non-sense on the internet. You’d be out repelling down some vertical cliff removing invasive plant species.

 

The difference between you and me is that I’m honest about the fact that my very existence impacts the environment. Every time I flush the toilet or buy anything I leave my mark. Every material we use to build comes from the earth and there’s an environmental cost in harvesting these materials. We need construction materials to build the advanced transportation systems that will get the very Hummers you mentioned off the roads. What are we going to build our new smart homes in denser communities with-bamboo and recycled corn husk?

 

I live in an urban area; I walk to my bank, library, post office, grocery store, printer, etc. I own a small car that sips gasoline and use public transportation. My wife and I try to do our part to not be wasteful, but we are well aware that we’re still consuming resources. It’s about balance. There some where between living in caves and wiping our butts with tree bark, and driving gas guzzlers and cutting down trees for sport.

 

The fact that you have left the main land to squeeze you’re a$$ on to a tiny island just to consume stuff that’s shipped to you from all over the world makes you the king of sprawl. Yeah right Mr. Stock Market, mega-capitalist guy wants to claim he’s a tree hugger, funny.

[Trace One]

Maybe he’s talking about the movie.

: )

[Gabino Carballo]

;-))))))

[Gabino Carballo]

Have you tried doing whatever you feel may work? As in really going for it? It may work just fine.

Reading your post, I feel that you may be perfectly suited for a job in London, Engeland.

Weather is rubbish but it is a pretty good place to have a dab at design world domination…

[Author]

Posts