How do Dominicans find work?

susy, if you were making 200/ dollars pero month, i bet you would slow down too.
There are people who work hard and make quite a bit of money and live well. Now if you are talking about the coastal areas where you see people just hanging around the streets and drinking beers or simply doing nothing, yes, they are lazy or simply there isn't any work for them. These same people usually live in a tin roof shack, eat rice and eggs with yuca everyday and sleep without electric. They pay no rent or electric bill, water is also free. so whatever the money they scavenge off anybody is simply spending money. You have to bring yourself down to their level to understand their state of mind. If you try to understand them from your 1st world mentality, you will only get more confused.
AZB

P.S. if you live in decent neighborhoods of santiago or santo domingo, you will notice that people live exactly like the people in usa do. They work in regular jobs, make good money, drive late model cars and live in fancy houses. they shop at american standard supermarkets and eat in fancy restaurants. don't think the people who live like this are only 1% of the population. if you live among them, you would feel the whole island lives the same way, thus, no feeling sorry for anyone around you.

I second what AZB has posted---

If you will observe the people who are working, as opposed to thosewho aren't, you will see the same force of ambition at play as in the States.
The "street" people who are tapping on your auto window with their wares, the person who is operating his/her "hot dog" stand or selling empinadas, the motoconcho operating on the streets, ad infinitum are all perople who are indicative of theworkforce in the DR. Not everyone has the education nor the ambition to work for someone else where their chances for advancement are limited by 'who you know" instead of their mental abilities.
just my observations after 5 years of being here and looking at things as they really are.

Texas Bill

I agree with both the replies.
First you have to define who "they" are.
The people who are actually working, are working as long hours, as hard and as much as in US or my homecountry ( Sweden ). They are up early, drive their kids to school, come home with bags from the supermarket, get kids, take kids to their afternoon activities, dinner, some relaxation, sleep...

I say it again, the people most foreigners learn to know at once, are the ones you don?t want to know in the long run. I am not saying you, Susy, have those as friends,as you wrote about an observation.
But to put it very simple, those who have alots of contacts to help you out, those who have the time to hang around you more or less constant, does not
belong to the part of the people that work and create descent lives for themselves and their families. These are freeloaders most often, to both locals and expats as well as tourists. And anyone who wouldn?t associate with that class in their homecountry, should ask themselves why they do it here. Alots of expats and tourists fall in to this, and believe they have new friends...

With the exception of large companies, resumes are not required around here.
People get most of their jobs by word of mouth, by connections, etc.
If I need another maid, all I have to do is tell the other maids to find me one, and the next day, they will appear with one.
Occasionally people just walk around the town asking for jobs, but it is not as common as getting one through the grapevine.
As for things moving slow, stick around for awhile, and you'll be moving slow, as well.
It's hot around here, and we didn't move here to bust our butts.

awesome

carina said:

I agree with both the replies.
First you have to define who "they" are.
The people who are actually working, are working as long hours, as hard and as much as in US or my homecountry ( Sweden ). They are up early, drive their kids to school, come home with bags from the supermarket, get kids, take kids to their afternoon activities, dinner, some relaxation, sleep...

I say it again, the people most foreigners learn to know at once, are the ones you don?t want to know in the long run. I am not saying you, Susy, have those as friends,as you wrote about an observation.
But to put it very simple, those who have alots of contacts to help you out, those who have the time to hang around you more or less constant, does not
belong to the part of the people that work and create descent lives for themselves and their families. These are freeloaders most often, to both locals and expats as well as tourists. And anyone who wouldn?t associate with that class in their homecountry, should ask themselves why they do it here. Alots of expats and tourists fall in to this, and believe they have new friends...

Click to expand...

That was very well put!

Of course Rocky is right. It is a tropical climate, and also a different culture.
But still, if you didn?t arrive here to retire with some saved money and a retirement check, or just being rich,.. the working part of the expats are actually working quite hard to keep up with costs of living and/or because the jobs require that.
Yes, in a different culture where the codes are not always the same as back home, but at the end of the day if we want money on our accounts by working, we need to work here as well.

It?s a ( nice ) illusion that Paradise doesn?t require from us to work hard.