Several emails coming in asking the same questions. How easy is it to move to Hvar and find a job?
About ten people have contacted us here at Total Hvar so far this year asking the same question – how realistic is it to find a job and move permanently to the island? The enquiries have come from various countries as well as a few other parts of Croatia, and it is great to see that people are interested in adding to the island’s population.
So, how easy is it to find a job here? Well, given that I have never managed to find a job here, perhaps I am not best qualified to answer, but having observed various aspects of life here at close quarters, here are a few musings on the subject.
Firstly, there are the occasional job postings about the island, although these tend to be seasonal to reflect the season – the latest ones with Suncani Hvar are promising both employment AND fun at the same time.
The second thing to note is that you should not plan on retiring on your salary if you do get a job. I would say that the average salary here is about 3,000 kuna a month (400 euro), which soon disappears with prices for most things higher than on the mainland. If you want to get rich and not work that hard, I would also advise against starting an information portal from personal experience…
But let’s be upbeat and highlight a success story of someone who wanted to return to live on the island and make a living, to show that it IS possible. About 18 months ago I received an email from a polite and shy violin teacher from Rijeka (or so she seemed from her emails – the reality could not be further from the truth…), asking about the viability of starting a violin school on the island. A great idea, but would it work in practice?
My congratulations to young Jelena and her sheer determination to succeed. Not only does she teach the violin, but also now runs very popular music workshops for kids in Jelsa, Stari Grad and Hvar Town (and maybe more locations), which are one of the highlights of the week for my kids. She works really hard, has a great product and there was a need for such a thing. She is probably slightly richer than me these days, but not a millionaire, but a shining example that it IS possible to make the switch and make it work, but it is important to manage expectations (some useful points in this article on expectations with island living).
The two best options for making a living on Hvar without local connections to get the few jobs that are up for grabs are online and entrepreneurship. With the power of the Internet these days, people can work online pretty much anywhere, and the Internet connection on Hvar is very good these days, allowing this blogger to operate from almost any cafe on the island, for example. If you have a successful online business – and I know a couple of foreign web developers who live on Hvar – that is obviously an option. And for someone who typically spends 12-16 hours a day online, I can vouch for the fact that there are fewer more pleasant places to live with the freedom that online self-employment brings.
The other main route is entrepreneurship and running your own business. As with elsewhere, there are risks, and the business climate in Croatia is not exactly geared up to helping the entrepreneur – especially foreign ones – but a sensible analysis of what the opportunities are can lead to an employment opportunity. A great example of someone doing just that (and again, he works his ass off), is Green House, the first organic store on the island.
So what are the business opportunities on Hvar? That is not for me to say, but here a couple of ideas based on the Google search terms that send people to our site:
There is no vegetarian restaurant on Hvar. Given the high number of vegetarian tourists, a specialised vegetarian restaurant would work, I think. And there are certainly enough people searching for it in the season.
Given the success of Green House, and the current debates on food production, I also think an organic fruit and vegetable store would work very well here.
So there you go – a couple of ideas. In summary, I would say that it is possible to find work here, but the financial rewards will probably not be that great, although that is more than compensated by the quality of life. Expect to work very hard to make it work, but if you have an idea and the drive to make it happen, it will.
