Electronics Technician looking to work abroad. How?

[Benbay001]

I fancy a bit of a shakeup in my life.

Ive always wanted to work abroad and am at an ideal time to do so. No relationship, late 20s and no kids.

I think i have a very strong CV for my age, a good work ethic, am confident in interviews and generally come across well.

Id ideally like to move to the US, which i understand is the hardest to move to, but other than that, dont really have a preference of country.

Australia, New Z, Canada, France, Switzerland, Germany or one of the Nordic countries, maybe.

I only speak English, but am open to learning another.

Are there recruitment agencies, that focus purely on finding work for people abroad?

Thanks

[Cocknose]

What industry do you work/have experience in? And do you have trade related qualifications that are transferrable? COMPEX etc

I'd start by targeting an agency or recruitment company in the industry you want to be in, and go from there. You'll find that some of them recruit for jobs worldwide as long as they're in the same industry.

Are you a house basher or industrial?

Good on you for the question though, lots of people are content with the status quo so kudos for at least thinking about travel and work.

[Benbay001]

Hi.

My current job is in semi conductor equipment maintenance.

Aswell as electronics, ive got quite a bit of experience with vacuum equipment.

I have a BTEC, NVQ and HNC, all in electrical/electronics, as well as some other less recognised quals, such as high pressure gas.

Also have first aid, forklift and fire fighting with breathing apparatus from the navy facility in Portsmouth (dont know official qual name, but more than fire marshall, thats for sure)

Im looking to make the move mid next year, so will put together a list of agencies.

Thanks

[Benbay001]

Bump

More opinions would be greatly received.

Thanks

[edc]

The recruitment market generally works the other way round to your question. The will work for companies to find candidates from whatever location. You're unlikely to find a specialist recruiter in your skillset who placed people abroad. If you're determined to go abroad for work you will have to hunt for jobs like a local.

[spikeyhead]

You'd be better off looking at the websites of the European semiconductor manufacturers.

[vaud]

edc said:

The recruitment market generally works the other way round to your question. The will work for companies to find candidates from whatever location. You're unlikely to find a specialist recruiter in your skillset who placed people abroad. If you're determined to go abroad for work you will have to hunt for jobs like a local.

And if you find one offering their services, and they charge an upfront payment then run.

[CzechItOut]

Have you looked for roles on the usual sites, Monster.com, Indeed etc.?

Not the greatest time to be looking for a company to sponsor your visa though, what with Covid and leaving the EU.

[klan8456]

The hard part is going to be visa / right to work, and language.

How much would one of these roles put in say Australia or the US?

[spikeyhead]

klan8456 said:

The hard part is going to be visa / right to work, and language.

How much would one of these roles put in say Australia or the US?

I was earning six figures in the Netherlands ten years ago. Company policy was that English was the official language.

[Benbay001]

Thanks all

spikeyhead said:

I was earning six figures in the Netherlands ten years ago. Company policy was that English was the official language.

I hadnt actually looked at the Netherlands.

I had a look last night and there are plenty of jobs where fluent English is a requirement and Dutch is just desirable.

I even found one that perfectly fitted my skill set and experience.

Not in a position to apply until early Summer next year though.

Thanks

[edc]

Some of these companies will be part of international groups or owned by US organisations hence the Engljsh as the business language.

[zbc]

Alternative approach would be to get a job in the UK with a company that has a lot of business in your target country and after you've been there a bit apply for a transfer. It's often easier to get a visa if your company are sponsoring you for it.

[spikeyhead]

edc said:

Some of these companies will be part of international groups or owned by US organisations hence the Engljsh as the business language.

The big one in the Netherlands is Dutch, but knows it needs to attract talent from across Europe, knows that it can't rely on everyone learning Dutch so takes the obvious choice.

[GT03ROB]

Just seen this thread. I’ve spent a large portion of my working life overseas, including the last 6 years.

Unless you have a very unique skill or contacts or you work for a company that has overseas operations it will be hard, more so now you will no longer have the same rights. The challenge is always to get the first job. Whenever we get CVs showing no overseas experience they tend to go bottom of the pile.

Once you start to have a track record of being overseas it become much easier. Best way I think is to get a job with a UK based company that work overseas or a foreign company with a U.K. operation. They will always sponsor you overseas which is the key to getting work permits, etc..

[lyonspride]

I'm in electronics, similar qualifications and frankly if I didn't have a home and child then i'd be moving to somewhere like Germany or Japan.

The UK treats us like crap and employers want to either pay minimum wage or hire unskilled staff to do it whilst trying to make an experienced engineer write a process, an idiots guide for something that takes decades to learn......

Higher level stuff, even if your capable, you won't be able to get your foot in the door without a top degree from a top university.

[Benbay001]

Just a quick update.

Ive applied for 3 roles.

2 in France and 1 in Spain.

Ive also found the email address for the company i work for's operations in Spain and i am speaking to the UK's operation's HR today to see if they have a contact for recruitment in Italy.

Ive also been nailing Duolingo French. 2+ hours per day.

The ball is in motion. Ill keep this updated.

Edited by Benbay001 on Monday 16th November 07:19

[StevieBee]

Forget places like the US, Australia, NZ, etc.. As nice as they are it's a case of the same st - different accent.

Focus your sights on the developing world. There are billions of dollars worth of infrastructure projects going on in these places and demand for the sort of skills you have that are rarely present in the country. If you can offer any sort of training capacity, demand will increase even further.

The work will be more challenging but ultimately more rewarding and enriching as you'll be making a contribution to the betterment of society rather than just fixing someone's fuse board.

Plenty of UK companies that lead on this sort of stuff; WS Atkins, Mott McDonald, etc..

[anonymous-user]

I've worked overseas for 40 years on 3 continents, never spoke anything but English in work. Steve bee is right you don't want a manufacturer you want to look at installation contractors, firecroft always look like they have a wide spread of jobs, oil and gas careers, rigzone etc.
Expect your first job to be somewhere awfull, then the employer will get the visa, very few people will help with a visa to Aus etc. Singapore is worth a look try NES.

[GT03ROB]

Berw said:

I've worked overseas for 40 years on 3 continents, never spoke anything but English in work. Steve bee is right you don't want a manufacturer you want to look at installation contractors, firecroft always look like they have a wide spread of jobs, oil and gas careers, rigzone etc.
Expect your first job to be somewhere awfull, then the employer will get the visa, very few people will help with a visa to Aus etc. Singapore is worth a look try NES.

Fircroft are all but dead.... got taken over (merged into) by NES recently.....