Expert: Ken Rapoza Cruz - 12/17/2008

Question
Hi Ken, I recently visited your country and fell in love with it.I am a professional in the Oil & Gas industry and the gas pipeline engineering business and have worked in engineering design for over 25 years.
I was wanting to know who I could contact with regards to employment opportunities in your country.
Kind Regards
Paul

Answer
Well, a few hints. First I would go to oil and gas industry websites and trade magazines and see if they have job postings.  Second, I would contact the HR offices of the multinationals working in Brazil -- BG Group (UK), Galp Energia (Portugal), Shell, Exxon, Devon Energy, Repsol and Anadarko to name the big ones.

Now there are two major problems for you: 1, you will need to have some Portuguese language expereience is my bet. All the top execs in the indus are bilingual. The mid managers speak the home language cuz they are workign with locals all day. If you want to do press work, then maybe they can handle an English only speaker, but I highly highly doubt it.

Secondly, you will need a working visa. One of these companies will have to sponsor you. This way you go to the Brazilian consulate and say, look, I have this letter from BG saying they want to hire me to work in Brazil on this project for x amount of years. And you get the visa. It wont be permament. Maybe two years.

Good luck.  These things take time.