I posted here a long time ago and forgot to give a follow up. I study (phd) and have a scholarship so I am fine for the next few years, but my girlfriend was looking for a job... we moved from Brazil to Barcelona (she is Lithuanian though) and it was terrible for her to find a job. She didnt speak Spanish at all so she could basically work on big multinational firms where English only is acceptable or some few start ups.
After 8 months searching for a job, and having note more than 15 interviews in that period, she got an "offer" to work as an assistant in an "start up" that was just a small firm actually. It was a company that offers Spanish coursers and accomodation. They said 'we cant pay you for the first few months, but after that if you are doing fine we can hire you". Ofc I told her it was a fckng stupid idea, working for free, over that excuse is a shame. My scholarship was enough for us so there was no hurry. Anyway, she accepted it because it was terrible to stay at home applying for jobs and not having anyone call you for a week or even more. So she started working there while still searching for some better (any) opportunities.
Company was basically the owner and an "assistant" but she would sign the emails as "Director of blablabla" lol. My gf was the one responsible for contacting new customers, writting some blog posts and writting emails to send to the contacts, so all the other 2 were doings was basically answering emails (10 per day?). They paid for her transit tickets (wow), but not without asking for it a few times.
After a month and a half she got a call from a company that she had an interview 5 months before. I remember that it was the best interview she had, she liked the work, the people, she talked with 5 different managers and with the director and they even told her that they only had to decide with which manager she would work (ofc you can never trust these things, but this time she said it was different). So she went for another interview in this company, she got there the managers remembered her and were even saying "wait, why werent you hired back then? what happened?". So in the end they offered her a position with the manager that she liked the most, which was great.
First month she was sent for 2 weeks to Amsterdam for training which was great (travelling is always great, not to say that she didnt need to start working hard from day 1 without any previous knowledge of the position), and then started working. She was supposed to meet the target only after 5-6 months, but she already got it in 3. After 6 months she got a raise in her sallary, out of nowhere. Things are great now. job is stressful but she enjoys it.
I dont want to say anything cliche like 'just keep searching, one day you will find a good job for you!'. Those 10 months without job were terrible, she wasnt feeling well, lost selfconfidence which ofc impacted in her interviews. You go to interviews and you see that you are better than the other candidates, but you are not choosen still. You talk for 10 minutes in an interview, then in the last question you just give a shitty answer that even you think 'why the hell did I say this'... As the thread title says, its exausting and soul-crushing. Im glad its over for us.
Wishing luck for you guys that are looking for something out there