BridgeEngineer21
Structural
- Oct 26, 2021
- 58
My wife and I are looking into the possibility of moving to Europe, specifically Amsterdam, within the next year. I have 6 years experience doing consulting work for bridge design in a few major East Coast cities. My experience is a mix of design, construction support, inspection and management. I haven't had much experience with complex bridge designs (i.e things besides simple span steel girders/concrete deck) though its a direction I'm interested in heading in. I just sat for my PE, and wouldn't plan to move until I'm licensed. I also recently got my masters in structural engineering. Ideally I want to stay within the bridge or at least infrastructure field.
I have a number of questions I want to look into before moving forward with this, so I figured I'd put them all here and if anyone has any thoughts on even one of these it would be very helpful. I'm new to the forums so if there is a better place - or even a better website - to post this please let me know.
1. Has anyone moved from US to EU, doing any type of engineering? What was the transition like? In terms of workplace culture, project setup, design codes and processes used, work-life balance, etc. Obviously any experience specifically with bridge design and/or the Netherlands would be best but I'm trying to cast a wide net here.
2. With my experience what pay range could I expect? My general sense is to expect less than I'm making now (~80k USD) but with a lower cost of living on many fronts. I did a back of the envelope calculation a while ago that the amount I pay for taxes + healthcare currently would add up to about the same over there (with more on taxes and less on healthcare), but I gotta look into that a little closer as well.
3. This one is a bit more specific to the country/field - where are the bridge design jobs usually found? In-house at public agencies, multinational companies, local companies, specialty firms, etc? Do I have any chance just cold applying from across the world or do I need a recruiter, an in with an American company with a presence over there, etc? I also need to know more about how work visas will work in general but I can save that question for a non-engineering forum.
4. Another specific one - how difficult will the transition be from working with AASHTO to Eurocode?
5. Any thoughts on the way the industry is heading over there? What I'm getting at is over here it seems the direction is design-build, smaller budgets and tighter schedules, lots of engineers getting burnt out and producing sloppier work in general because we're always in a crunch. It would be a huge plus if I could get away from this trend.
6. Here's a general question for anyone working abroad anywhere - how difficult will it be to maintain my PE license? Assuming I'm working at a local company which won't necessarily pay for me to attend online or in-person seminars that give American PDH credits, how much should I expect to pay per year to maintain it? Would I be able to get by with a mix of online and local in-person courses or would I have to travel back to the US for in-person ones? And outside of PDHs, is there anything else I'd need to do to maintain it while abroad?
7. If I were to move back to the US say 2, 5, 10 years down the line, would my experience there be an advantage or disadvantage in terms of positions and salary available to me? I know this one depends on too many variables to really give an answer but any thoughts or personal experience would be interesting.
8. Any other thoughts, advice, relevant info, etc
Apologies for the huge post but I really appreciate any input anyone might have.
I have a number of questions I want to look into before moving forward with this, so I figured I'd put them all here and if anyone has any thoughts on even one of these it would be very helpful. I'm new to the forums so if there is a better place - or even a better website - to post this please let me know.
1. Has anyone moved from US to EU, doing any type of engineering? What was the transition like? In terms of workplace culture, project setup, design codes and processes used, work-life balance, etc. Obviously any experience specifically with bridge design and/or the Netherlands would be best but I'm trying to cast a wide net here.
2. With my experience what pay range could I expect? My general sense is to expect less than I'm making now (~80k USD) but with a lower cost of living on many fronts. I did a back of the envelope calculation a while ago that the amount I pay for taxes + healthcare currently would add up to about the same over there (with more on taxes and less on healthcare), but I gotta look into that a little closer as well.
3. This one is a bit more specific to the country/field - where are the bridge design jobs usually found? In-house at public agencies, multinational companies, local companies, specialty firms, etc? Do I have any chance just cold applying from across the world or do I need a recruiter, an in with an American company with a presence over there, etc? I also need to know more about how work visas will work in general but I can save that question for a non-engineering forum.
4. Another specific one - how difficult will the transition be from working with AASHTO to Eurocode?
5. Any thoughts on the way the industry is heading over there? What I'm getting at is over here it seems the direction is design-build, smaller budgets and tighter schedules, lots of engineers getting burnt out and producing sloppier work in general because we're always in a crunch. It would be a huge plus if I could get away from this trend.
6. Here's a general question for anyone working abroad anywhere - how difficult will it be to maintain my PE license? Assuming I'm working at a local company which won't necessarily pay for me to attend online or in-person seminars that give American PDH credits, how much should I expect to pay per year to maintain it? Would I be able to get by with a mix of online and local in-person courses or would I have to travel back to the US for in-person ones? And outside of PDHs, is there anything else I'd need to do to maintain it while abroad?
7. If I were to move back to the US say 2, 5, 10 years down the line, would my experience there be an advantage or disadvantage in terms of positions and salary available to me? I know this one depends on too many variables to really give an answer but any thoughts or personal experience would be interesting.
8. Any other thoughts, advice, relevant info, etc
Apologies for the huge post but I really appreciate any input anyone might have.
