Best country for engineers

Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum

Help Support Professional Engineer & PE Exam Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

akmetal

Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2017
Messages
12
Reaction score
1
Does anyone know where the best country in the world is for engineers?  I was recently caught in a mass corporate lay off (manged to dodge the past 3) and have applied to something like 40-50 jobs, have had 2 interviews and no offers.

It could be a number of factors:

1. I have a weak resume/application package compared to the competition

2. Due to US at-will policy and rampant corporate lay offs the market is saturated and I am falling between the cracks cant quite rise to the top.

3. The job postings are not real and are instead being created to meet a corporate or govt agency requirement and instead the hire manager had someone already picked out.

What ever the case may be i cant be unemployed forever so I have been thinking about jobs outside of the USA  (non middle east /African countries), Germany, Switzerland, Russia, etc.

Are there international employment agencies where I could pitch my resume and other application materials to get a gauge on where I stand.  I have a BS in chemical engineering and very nearly a second BS in EE, a PE in chemical engineering and approved to sit for the EE PE as well as advanced mathematics beyond the standard engineering package.  I have 13 years of experience in oil and gas but i am very interested in getting out of oil and gas, I think alot of the skills I gained in oil and gas are transferable since most of my work was design.  But I have no idea if the reason for my failures is because I am competing with 20 year PhD's or if I dont know the right people or if my area (the entire USA) is massively saturated in STEM, and so as an individual engineer I just get lost in the noise.

If the issue is me and my credentials are weak and I am looking at another number of years to get the course work / certs I need then that would be one thing.  If my resume is great and the area is just lame then thats a different set of decisions that will need to be made.

Is anyone else having these issues?

 
I haven't done a ton of research, but from what I saw the US is the best. I wanted to find a place in Western Europe to live and work, if I went there I'd be luck to make 60% of what I do now. They may have a better work/life balance and state funded health coverage, but I didn't think that would make up the drop in pay and the increase in living expenses.

 
Well it's not New Zealand..........

Not a Dex joke but an internal family joke;)

 
There are pros and cons regardless of where you live.

In NZ, engineers are in a huge demand. Every consultant I know is looking for staff. Tons of work, good work/life balance, but you have to pay the "island premium" to live here. Housing standards are shit, and the prices to buy/rent are through the roof if you're in Auckland. If you want anything, you either have to rig something up or order it online and pay for shipping.

All of that being said, no plans to return to the US unless I need to.

 
Back
Top