Bricklayer

You will lay brick, block and stone for walls, partitions and facades, working from the foundations up. Days start around 7 in the morning and run to about 4 in the afternoon, Monday to Saturday, with the longer hours falling in the warmer months. You mix mortar by hand or from a small mixer, set out courses with a line and level, and cut units with an angle grinder or block saw where they need to fit. Most of the work is new build with some renovation on older houses in the surrounding villages. You move your own materials around the site and keep your section tidy as you go. A foreman checks the work, but he expects you to catch your own mistakes before he does.

At least two years laying brick and block on real sites

Reading simple drawings and setting out courses straight and level

Handling a mixer, trowel, line, level and angle grinder

Mixing mortar to the right consistency by feel

Willing to work Saturdays and through the summer heat

Basic English or Macedonian enough to follow the foreman on site

Pay above the local market, settled on time every month

Shared accommodation arranged near the site for workers coming from further away

Daily transport from the lodging to the site and back

Gloves, hard hat and basic protective gear provided

Help with paperwork and registration for those relocating

You start at 640 euro net a month. Once you show clean work and you can run a small section on your own, the pay moves up toward 740 euro net. A steady bricklayer who turns into a lead hand can expect that within the first year, not after five.

Most of the work is outdoors on open building plots, so you are in the sun in summer and the cold in early spring and late autumn. Scaffolding goes up as the walls rise, and you will spend part of the day working at height. The sites sit in and around Tetovo, within easy reach of the town.