Oh, sorry for asking, mods please delete my thread, it is not welcome here!
The question seemed pretty innocuous. What's wrong with "Hey, what do people do here to earn a living?"
Being a New Yorker, I may think this cat is fishing. But perhaps he is being honest.
Out of the many types of ex-pats, I can identify the follwing types I have personally met over the years:
1) The folks who came on holiday and loved it so much, decided to stay/move here.
2) Folks who met Dominicans abroad and came with them to meet family or see the place.
3) Investors (real estate/other) who stay full-time or most of the year because of vested interests.
Above, 1 and 2-types must have capital (for the most part) to earn a living. Many do and many just "wing" it. I would also imagine that we get the occasional high-plains drifter these days living his 6 monts of unemployment financing, and then must return home.
Many with their own capital "may" have started real estate businesses, restaurants, pubs, cafes, etc. I know many.
Others may have used their good business sense and marketing knowledge base to lauch a venture on a shoe string budget and have succeded.
Very few (hmmmm) perhaps went to school in the States or Europe (PUCMMA has various reciprocal graduate programs with some of the US' top B-schools) with a Dominican whose family owns business in DR and perhaps had a contact with which to lauch business or even an "employment" opportunity.
That said, referring to a recent thread on working in DR, it is difficult to find "normal" employment without a residential permit or Cedula. The Dominican labor code indicates that 80% of a Dominican corp's payroll must be allocated to Dominican nationals. Foreigners may occupy (as an exception to this) strictly managerial or executive roles. If not, the other exception is that you must possess such specific technical skills, that they can not be found in here.
That said, if one is perfectly fluent in Spanish and English, one "may" find modest employment in one of the 50 or so call centers. Average salary is 15-18K plus health insurance etc. after a 3-month probationary period. You only need referenced and a vaild passport, along with your current CV.
Also, if one has fluent multilingual skills such as English, French and Spanish, there exist teaching opportunties. The pay is also quite humble.
The industry standard job site here is: Aldaba.com
You can always throw chance to the wind and create a profile (in Spanish).
If you are perfecly fluent and hold a graduate degree with 5 years experience or more, you may want to contact the executive search firm, G.A. Tavares.
This should be enough info to begin if you are serious. if you are just fishing, I can assume this won't take you far.
-G
