Application Structural Engineer 2

[november1598]

Hi,
I'm a french structural engineer and I want to live in the USA since my childhood. I'm a structural engineer for 4 years in south in France. I'm working with EUROCODE I know that is different in the usa ( I can quicly adapt).
It's possible for me to work in the usa as a structural engineer?
Company can hire me ? Do you have some tips for me? Is that someone was in my situation before?
I've already summit applications ( of no answer).
Thank you in advance.

Best regards,

 

[canwesteng]

Do you have a visa for the US? Did NCEES validate your education as being equivalent? I don't think it's likely you will get calls back unless you are already in the US, and even then you should demonstrate you are working to getting qualified as an engineer stateside.

 

[TLHS]

I'm in Canada, so it's slightly different, but I think it's likely similar anywhere.

There needs to be a real selling point if you're going to hire someone who doesn't practice locally. So much of engineering is knowing how things are done in a given industry in a specific place. Unfortunately, since you don't know the codes, the material specifications or the local regulations, you're pretty much a new graduate. But you're a new graduate with regulatory headaches involved with regards to being permitted to work. If there's a thing you know how to do that may not be typical, finding a firm that wants that might help you.

It's a hard sell for someone to hire you in that situation if there are other applicants. I've been involved with hiring people recently in Canada from other countries, but they got themselves eligible to work here before they applied. Even then, they had to take a seniority bump as a trial to see how they worked out.

I'd suggest:

-See what you can do to get a permit on your own. I think that's hard in the US, but I don't know what their deal is with France. Maybe there's a short term work permit situation.
-Study for and take the FE exam at least. That's the one that new graduates take. It would prove some baseline level of knowledge. If you take the PE, though, you'd be in a much better situation overall.
-Take a couple of courses in the US engineering context to show you have a background. Wind procedures, for instance, are reasonably varied from Eurocode. But basically anything to familiarize with the US codes. ASCE-7 is a monster of a document. Things like the steel codes and concrete codes are more immediately transferrable, but are still different.

Like, I have been an engineer for over 15 years and for a North American engineer have a reasonable understanding of Eurocode stuff. I still wouldn't feel comfortable trying to go work in Europe without a fair amount of sitting down and learning details. If I were trying to get a foothold there it would be as a specialist in something that isn't heavily national code reliant.

Every time I end up in discussions with suppliers using Eurocode I end up doing hours of research just to make sure I'm commenting reasonably on their work because the details are different and they matter. My guy checks aren't immediately valid for a lot of things because items are calibrated differently.

Some US people can speak better to the US specifics and outlook

 

[lexpatrie]

Check into Valmont, they do turbine structures and have a facility in France, last I heard (circa 2000).

As to working in the U.S. you'd probably be under and H1-B visa if you had an offer of employment, this is more commonly done for IT & software folks on the West Coast (Seattle, California) but the pathway exists and wasn't originally intended for IT workers.

I suppose this is at least vaguely analogous to a Carte de Sejour.

You might look for larger firms in New York or more global firms (AECOM?) and see if they have anything, or Canada, as there are open web steel joist suppliers up in Canada that will ship to the U.S., so you get exposure to the U.S. design codes in a contained environment, and that could be an entree for you with the advantage of getting some exposure to primarily English workspace and trying to wade your way through Quebecois, (if you're in the right location).

I don't think we are as restrictive as France when it comes to bringing people in (My understanding is in France you have to prove it requires a native English speaker), here it's more about having difficulty finding employees for the work. As far as I know. So it at least sounds easier to get into the U.S. for work. I know a French speaking engineer here that's from Switzerland (as I recall), I can see if they're able to offer any advice.

 

[human909]

I'd suggest you looking into working holiday visas.

"The France Working Holiday Visa for Canadian citizens is facilitated through the International Experience Canada (IEC) initiative & the Youth Mobility Agreement. This program allows young Canadians aged 18 to 35 to live and work in France for a duration of up to 24 months (after a 12-month extension)."

That is for Canadians, I would presume you have access to Canada as they are usually bilateral agreements.

Sure, Canada isn't the US but 24 months working in Canada would give you a much better point to pivot to the US.

Entry and employment in the US is notoriously unfriendly and hard to navigate for foreigners seeking to emigrate for work. (No offense intended towards US peers). However once you get past the hurdles then it will be much easier.

 

[RPGs]

I do not know a lot of specifics about their situations, but I know of two engineers, one from India and another from South America, that were able to gain permanent residence and employment in the USA. Their approach was to attend graduate school for Master's degrees here in the USA and then obtain entry-level engineer positions.

Trying to obtain a position in the USA outright seems difficult without having a specialization that is perfect for a specific firm's needs.

 

[BridgeEngineer21]

You might have better luck making this into a long term plan. A good first step could be applying to major international companies elsewhere in the EU that are either based in the US or have offices in the US. Not sure how many of these there are in France, but you may have better luck in places like Germany, the Netherlands or Scandinavia. If you prove yourself as a valued worker in a few years, then you could ask about transferring to a US office.

I worked in a major city in the US for many years and usually about half of my colleagues were foreign. Mainly from India, China, Russia, and the Middle East, but also plenty from elsewhere including EU countries too. All of them whose backstory I know though involved either higher education (master's/PhD especially) as a first step, winning the visa lottery, or some other special circumstances (their parents moved when they were in high school, a few came as refugees originally, etc). Don't know if I ever met someone who got directly hired from another country. Lot of US companies are even hesitant to consider someone if they see a domestic but non-local address on your resume.