reñaca, beach!

How To Work Illegally In Chile – “I Summer In Reñaca”

reñaca, beach!

The owner of the newest beachside lounge in Reñaca shakes my hand and offers me a job as the marketing/promo director for Le Don Lounge Bar, speaking in a weak french accent. And just like that I will be living on this coastal hotspot for the next three months. Reñaca is the Chilean beachside destination for thousands of Chileans, as well as, Argentinians for the summer. It’s a beautiful spot, in every possible way.

Yesterday, I started out the day in Viña del Mar by visiting a local computer café with printers to make a handful of copies of my resume to distribute to local hotels, restaurants, bars, language institutes, crack dealers… whoever is hiring for the summer. I left Santiago last night on the 8:05 PM bus and headed to this coastal destination with two things in mind: 1) Find a job in Viña del Mar or in Reñaca (preferably in Reñaca) for the summer to live on the beach 2) Arrive early to get ready for the first pool party of the summer in Cóncon – featuring Swedish House Mafia DJ: Steve Angello. I got a really great deal from a guy that I had met at The W Hotel – Santiago while I snuck into their rooftop pool last Saturday afternoon. He works at the W and when I went up to the pool, looking for a rooftop pool party I found no such thing. So, I went downstairs to the concierge desk and asked where there would be a crazy pool party on this fine Saturday. Not to toot my own horn, but basically if you speak English and are decent looking, people here in Chile will roll out the red carpet. A certain type of prejudice that I find very pleasing. He informed me that Santiago really isn’t the place for pool parties, but if you go to the coastal towns of Vina del Mar and Reñaca, that is where the really good pool parties are. This gentleman then told me that the Steve Angello would be performing at a pool party January 5th and he had two extra tickets that he couldn’t use. After talking to him for a little while, he ended up selling both tickets to me for the rock-bottom price of $30USD. I invited a buddy from Germany, Johannes, to come out to the pool party with me. So, here we are in Reñaca.

W Hotel Rooftop

And that brings me back to this weekend on the beach. I begin my patrol through town with fifteen resumes in hand with eyes dead set on finding a job in this beautiful beachside town, so that I can make some money off the huge influx of tourists from around South America. Nevermind the fact that I don’t have a work visa to “legally” work in the great Republic of Chile. I had a good feeling about it, and just decided to roll the dice and put my best foot forward. Over the course of the afternoon, beginning in Viña del Mar, I started walking into restaurants in the touristy spots of town asking to speak to the manager, in broken spanish, and finding out if they were hiring for the summer season. These coastal towns, mostly Reñaca, are known as the Ibiza’s of South America, naturally, this is where I want to be. Santiago is really cool, but basically, any big city is more or less the same as another big city.

I continue to walk around town, popping into various restaurants, hotels, and bars asking if anyone is hiring at the moment. I was prepared to take any job that they would offer me but I really wanted to find something that allowed me to fully enjoy the beach and be active while I worked. By six o’clock PM, I finally made my way to Reñaca which isn’t as big of an area as Viña, thus doesn’t’ have quite as many job opportunities, but was my preferred place to find a job. I walk into a few bars along the beach and do my spiel about looking for a job and explaining my experience in restaurants and hotels and background in Marketing and sales. With one resume left in hand, I walk into a really nice looking, three story lounge facing the ocean, LeDon Lounge Bar, is the name. I talk to the gentleman at the door and give him my spiel. He directs me upstairs to the second floor of the venue where a meet a guy who introduces himself as Sebastian. Sebastian invites me into the other room where the booming of the electronic lounge music is dimmed enough for us to discuss work. He asks for my resume. I had him my last one.

Sebastian is about 30ish years old and is the co-owner of LeDon with his associate Guillermo. Sebastian is from France and Guillermo is from Spain, Ibiza, to be exact. We have an impromptu interview on the spot, beginning in English and then transition into spanish so that he can gauge my spanish speaking abilities. He asks me what kind of work I am looking for in Chile, why I am here in Chile, why I would like to work at LeDon specifically, if I have a work visa, my experience, and what I can bring to the table. Boom. It’s go time. I love interviews.

I pull off my knock-off Ray Ban wayfarers and begin to answer all of his questions as confidently and persuasively as I know how. With House music playing in the background intermixed with the crashing of the ocean across the boulevard, I explain my travels here in South America, my plan to stay in South America for a year, how I have experience working for Disney, Starwood, Hyatt and various other restaurants, finally capping it off with my double major in Marketing and Latin American Business. He goes on to tell me that he just opened this new lounge not even a month ago but has big plans for it. LeDon is positioned in “Sector Five” of Reñaca, the trendiest location of the beach, full of young, beautiful travelers from all throughout South America. I also mention my experience in creating websites, social/internet marketing, and my desire to use those while meeting new people.

So far this interview is going great.

Sebastian gives me a brief explanation that his background is from a French university in Finance, likewise is his associate’s Guillermo’s degree. I can tell that he sounds very interested in my experience in Sales and Marketing from my former life in Houston, TX while working for my previous company in the legal service industry. He tells me that he is looking for someone to be his “right hand man” on the marketing and promotions side of his business, because all his managerial tasks take up all his time. This is my cue to jump on the opportunity. I would like to be the creative genius that makes this place explode and become THE place to go in Reñaca. I lay it on thick now, I’ve got some great ideas that I could contribute both virtually and first hand. One of my favorite parts of this job would be the time I get to spend on the beach promoting the venue to tourists catching some sun. Sebastian explains his interest in me joining their team and takes me on a tour of the rest of the venue to find out if it is a place that I would also like to be a part of. We go up to the third story and walk into the three-room VIP section and out onto the terrace that overlooks the avenue and ocean below. I can feel the offer for the job within my reach and I am pumped. While on the terrance he tells me that he is looking for someone not only on the in-person promotions but also someone to help him develop a comprehensive marketing strategy for his venue. This offer is getting better and better. After showing me around the rest of the venue, we go back down stairs and he asks me if I am interested in taking the position. Absolutely…

He excuses himself for a moment to confer with his associate, Guillermo. I wait patiently by the bar looking at a flyer which advertises the bar and one that I imagine I will become very familiar with in the near future.

LeDon is a three story lounge bar that is chicly European in style, large white pieces of furniture, stone walls, and purple interior accents. The sound system fills the whole venue and spill out House music on the boulevard below. Sebastian and Guillermo return to me after a five minute discussion out on the terrace. Sebastian extends his hand to me to shake it and says, “If you are interested, we would like to bring you on board.”

I reply, “It would be a pleasure.”

I let them know about my coming week teaching english with the Ministry of Education in Santiago in one of their summer camps. This camp begins on Monday, January 7 which also happens to be my 26th birthday. The camp is part of their English Opens Doors Program in which they recruit native english speakers living in Chile to be paid volunteers for the week long camp. I got hired for the position about two weeks ago and am very much looking forward to this teaching gig with the Ministry. So, we make plans for me to return to Reñaca and begin next week and hit the ground running next Saturday, January 12.

This is the exact position that I was looking for when I set out yesterday looking for a job. I wanted something that I would be able to enjoy the beach during the day, meet and talk to people, get creative and use my marketing background in a way that I will enjoy, and even better, have the chance to grow a new business and be a valued addition in growing a new venue. I’m really going to take full advantage of the position that I have been hired into, when I return next Saturday I plan on having a five-page (or so) marketing strategy ready for him to review, full of ideas on how to promote LeDon. Beach competitions, DJ events, etc.

I’m looking forward to this summer on the beach in Reñaca with LeDon and continuing to write and create epic content for this website and sharing the whole journey with you.

But for now, I must run. Me and my buddy Johannes will be heading out to the Pool Party (PulParty) this afternoon in Concon, featuring Steve Angello of Swedish House Mafia. I am always a sucker for a good pool party, especially when it is the weekend before my 26th birthday. 

Moral of the story: It’s possible to get a job in Chile without a work visa if you really make an effort. Granted the job won’t be with a huge corporation with a lot of hierarchy and beauracracy, but lucky for me, that was the last type of position that I was looking for. It takes some courage and balls to just walk around town asking people if they will hire you, and knowing a little bit of spanish is definitely a necessity, but it can be done. All of this can be done. That is why I like to write about my experiences down here in South America. I am no one special, everything that I am doing/have done, anybody can do. It all starts with a decision to try.

VAMOS A LA POOL PARTY!