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How to find jobs in other countries?

How to find jobs in other countries?

How to find jobs in other countries?

(OP)
I'm an engineer in Canada, with 6 years of experience. I'm not unemployed but I'm getting bored of living here. I've travelled for work extensively, spent some time with my company in Asia and the States so I have some experience with working else where. I want to know how I can look for and be considered for jobs in other parts of the world (mainly places with a better climate, lower cost of living --- thinking the caribbean, south america or south east asia) ... I am not sure where to begin when looking for opportunities outside of Canada. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

Engineer is kind of a Broad term.  Can you be more specific?

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

(OP)
Background:

By degree, an Electrical Engineer.

Work experience has been mainly in designing control systems for industrial automation.

Currently, a Probabilistic Risk Analyst in the nuke industry. Hate it.

 

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

www.expatengineer.net

It's a start, but honestly I never see good positions on it unless you're up for moving to the Middle East.

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

FYI, the cost of living in Puerto Rico where I am now is greater than in the Boston area where I was before this. In part this is because we choose to live where we do, but the general costs are not that different otherwise. And for some things like the foods we are used to have to be shipped in. I has also not been possible for my wife to find work as we only have the one car and there is now public transportation.

Peter Stockhausen
Senior Design Analyst (Checker)
Infotech Aerospace Services
www.infotechpr.net

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

Basically, many of the places that expatriots are interested in going to have gotten their pricing structures skewed by all the expatriots with way more money than the locals.  Even their servants wind up bumping up the local cost of living, simply by having jobs that pay 10x what they could get otherwise.

TTFN

FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

(OP)
I would be interested in going to places where others wouldn't be interested in going to either, provided that the weather is better.

I just need to know where to start. When I see a lot of jobs posted online, even for the States, they mention either being a citizen or a permanent resident and it's even more stringent with security requirements for nuke jobs. Can I still apply for these jobs even though I am not?

I mean, I am coming from Canada. It's not like I'm from Mexico or Pakistan or something. It shouldn't be this difficult to find work elsewhere should it?

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

I hear that Iran is looking for nuke engineers.

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

"places where others wouldn't be interested in going to either, provided that the weather is better."

Sorry, I hope you realize that these are already mutually exclusive, i.e., "weather is better" is not just a prerequisite for you alone.  Admittedly, not all of those other people are necessarily nuclear engineers.

In some cases, those citizen/resident job openings might allow for bringing in foreign workers if they can't get a response in-country, in which case, the company might sponsor you for a residency.  Not horrifically likely, but no stone unturned, eh?

TTFN

FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

(OP)
IRstuff,

They're not mutually exclusive.

They're plenty of countries in the world that are not attractive to foreigners for work and living but have warmer weather than Canada ...

Like say Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Columbia, Suriname, Cambodia, many parts of Africa...

I'm not a nuclear engineer. I just work in the industry for now.

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

(OP)
correct typo: ^"There are plenty of countries.." not "they're ..."

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

Well, I would include "fear for life or limb" as part of the weather, myself, which eliminates about 90% of your list. winky smile

TTFN

FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

Do you speak, read and write Pakistani, Farsi, Spanish, Cambodian, Swahili, or whatever language may be spoken in Suriname?

Do you think you will be able to work effectively with the locals if you can't communicate effectively with them?  Or do you just expect them to all learn Canadian?

By the way, the weather sucks in many of those places too.  45C and 100% RH is not exactly pleasant, nor are monsoons.

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

Puerto Rico is a pardise for the people who come to visit. Warm in the winter etc. But there are two seasons; Hot and Too D**N Hot.

Peter Stockhausen
Senior Design Analyst (Checker)
Infotech Aerospace Services
www.infotechpr.net

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

(OP)
I was born and raised in Canada but my family is from one of those countries so yes I can speak the language in at least one of the places....but I wouldn't want to go there, only because my extended family is part of the underclass, and they'd expect too much. I know there are western english only speaking engineers working in projects in some of the countries, I just don't know how to get there.

I prefer hot weather and more opportunities. Canada is very stagnant and the cold winters do not suit me.
 

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

On the security front, just cause you're a from a 'friendly nation' doesn't buy you much.

I'm from the UK originally and may as well have been from Cuba or something when it came to applying for jobs requiring clearances.

Also, while they usually don't make it clear, you often have to be just a US citizen, they don't like dual.

Posting guidelines FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

Weather in South Africa is AWESOME! The living conditions are fantastic (large houses and properties)

But the pay is not all that great, crime may be an issue for some, and there is no public transport.

I would contact a large South African company like Eskom (electricity/coal and nuclear power stations) or Sasol (oil/coal processing/power stations etc...), or perhaps one of the mining companies to ask for a position if you are interested

Adriaan.
I am an Engineer/part time student (Mechatronics) from South Africa.
Advice from lecturer: "Be warned - when you go into industry your boss will give you a thousand things to do and he wants them done yesterday!" So far he is right...

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

Greg,

Now I'm curious, I had looked into western Australia for jobs in new aquaculture projects going on there. What is the However?


My vote is for pacific islands over Caribbean ones.

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

I get the impression that Western Australia is the inverse of Northern Alberta, with hot traded for cold.  Perth's lovely, if a little isolated from the rest of the country (and the rest of the world really), but that's not where the jobs are for the most part.  No, the jobs are many hours of driving away from Perth or anywhere else, in full-on desert.

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

Do you speak French?  

I'm told there's a huge demand for wat/san in Haiti right now.  Lots of donation money funneling its way down there with few engineers to make sure it gets spent on meaningful infrastructure improvements.

My cousin was a photographer for the Red Cross, was in Banda Aceh after the tsunami, in Haiti after their quake, and is doing solo work now.  She sent me these two links:

http://www.devex.com/jobs
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/res.nsf/doc212?OpenForm

 

Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East - http://www.campbellcivil.com

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

(OP)
I am not interested in Australia at all.

@beej67:

I took french immersion in school so with a refresher I think I could come up to speed in the language but I'm not sure if the needs of Haiti fit my skill sets, although that does sound interesting to work there. What is wat/san?

I am getting really depressed here, and need a change of pace and scenery. It's either find another job in a distant place or go back to school.

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

wat/san = water and sewer.  More civil than you're interested in, but follow those links and they've got all sorts of interesting jobs in foreign countries.  They might have some EE infrastructure stuff too.  

 

Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East - http://www.campbellcivil.com

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

Several Canadian oil/gas/mine companies out of Edmonton that have offices in Bogota, Colombia.  I've talked with several Canadians in Bogota, but can't remember the names of their companies.

Despite all of the news, Colombia is a safe place.  Been there many times over the last 8 years.  Beautiful country, very friendly and happy people, spring time year around in some areas (with a rainy season), other areas can be downright HOT.

______________________________________________________________________________
This is normally the space where people post something insightful.

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

digitalcaptive,

Some have already mentioned this, but unless you have a very interesting background, what increases your chances will be your language skills. I work in a foreign country now - although it's not fair for me to call Spain, my new home, a foreign country. I had a very interesting bacground for my current job, but if it wasn't for my Spanish I wouldn't be here. This could change from country to country, of course, because these are the little things that distinguish the working culture in each country.

Cheers,

rotorblade

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

Are you only looking for engineering jobs?  Why not go teach english somewhere for a year or two?

Otherwise, I recommend a company like GE and ask for those sort of assignments after getting hired.  I was just speaking with a rep there that had spent 8 months in Columbia (where he was mugged btw), sometime in Peru, and most of this year in Houston.

Point is, you can travel.

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

(OP)
>Are you only looking for engineering jobs?  Why not go teach >english somewhere for a year or two?

Leaving a good paying gig to teach english? Wouldn't that set me back career wise when I'm done?

>Otherwise, I recommend a company like GE and ask for those ?>sort of assignments after getting hired.  I was just >speaking with a rep there that had spent 8 months in ?Columbia (where he was mugged btw), sometime in Peru, and >most of this year in Houston.

I've done extended assignments out of country but traveling to work like that and settling somewhere are entirely different things. The living out of a hotel, and the coming and going out of airports got to me. I'd prefer something more long-term than short month at a time trips.

I kick myself saying that though, because I had an opportunity to take an extended tour of duty somewhere but turned it down in favor of these temporary assignments. One of the biggest regrets of my career so far.
 

RE: How to find jobs in other countries?

There is a lot of nuke work in China. My company has a list of over 100 positions for long term (6 month to 3 yr) assignments posted on the wall. With the amount of plants that China is planning to build in the next 20 years, your chances of finding work there might be good. In fact, several of my colleagues working on plants in China are Canadian expats.

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