Maybe you’ve been reading my blog and thinking, huh, that looks like fun. Well I’m here to tell you: You could do it too!

I am currently living and working in Spain thanks to the Language and Culture Assistants Program, also known as Auxiliares de Conversación norteamericanos. This is a program sponsored by the Ministry of Education of Spanish government which subsidizes money each year for about 2,000 native English speakers (like Americans, Brits, Australians, Canadians) to come and teach in bilingual public schools across Spain.

Fast facts:

1. The selection process works on a first come-first serve basis, which means you want to turn in everything ASAP (as in before March). Those with the lowest number usually get their first choice and always get a spot. BUT… don’t despair if you waited a bit too long. Literally thousands of people will reject their offer, so as long as you aren’t in the upper 4000s, you will probably snag a spot, though it won’t be your first choice. (I was #3922).
2. We are paid 700 euros a month (1000 in Madrid) and receive health insurance.
3. You do not have to speak Spanish to apply. You’ll settle in faster when you can communicate, but if you can’t, then at least you won’t have to pretend like you don’t understand when your students whisper inappropriate jokes to each other.
4. We work 4 days a week for a total of 12 hours (15 hours in Madrid).
5. Wrestling with Profex is a pain, but not impossible. It’s the portal that the Ministry of Education uses to upload all of your documents. The worst part is definitely “building” your resume using their formatter. Ugh.

Just about everyone and their mother has blogged about this, so I’m not going to delve into much detail and add another superfluous post to the interwebs.

Sunshine and Siestas, a well-seasoned auxiliar, provides a comprehensive guide to the application process here.

On how to #slay Profex, Estrella Explores guides you through here.

Young Adventuress tempers the fantasy a little with some of the unexpected realities of the program here.

This post has been updated in October 2017.