Thinking about moving.

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Kit

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 13, 2006
Messages
467
Location
Sweden
Hi friends.

Been thinking lately..........for various different reasons, Im seriously considering moving to a different country. Either the UK or USA . I speak a little (poor) german too so Germany could be an option.

What are your wiews on living and working in mentioned countrys? How is the current job situation "over there" I am an industrial electrician by trade, btw. 28 years (Damn, im getting old.) :eek:

I fully understand that there are many practical obsatcles. Its easier within EU limits but for north America........well im a little lost as to what is exactly needed. Green card? Visa?

Any input, thoughts or links to websites that explains these matters are greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
 
We discussed this when someone else was considering an unknown move.  Try a search.  There are some great perspectives there.
My opinion is to plan some "working holidays" elsewhere.  The feds don't have to know that, and you might be working for free, but the closer you can get to the street and in your field somewhere else, the better.  You will not do that from a hotel or a tour bus.

Way back a friend went on a cruise in the Bahams and decided to work at Compass Point.  He hated it after 2 months.  It was quite a rad change for a Queens dude.

Start banking money so that you can afford to make your excursions, and eventually blow into the wind.
Mike
 
Due to current economic climate this is a wrong time to move to UK. Large companies are shedding jobs and small companies are not particularly looking for new workers.

I do not know what the life standard is like in Sweeden and the life standard you have there, but you'll be worse off at the beginning wherever you go. You will not have the social network you have and the family support if these mean something to you.

My advice  is to stay put for at least another year and try to save some more money.
 
I fully agree with Sahib.
Even if you got a decent job offer overseas at the moment YOU will be "last in first out" if there's any
problems at that company !!  ( and I have seen that happen to some friends recently )

It's a crap time at the moment, give it a year to 18 months and save some cash !

Marty.
 
Even Ikea is laying off, the economic downturn is pretty much global. Switzerland is almost immune but not looking for new citizens. That said I wouldn't try to pick winners and losers based on the current economic disturbance that will surely pass (if governments ever stop trying to manage it).  New technology industries will always be hiring, and old tech will always be fading.

I agree with the advice to have some money saved up, and visit some possible locations first.

A little homework can help predict how much different they will be from home, but they all will be different in different ways.

I am partial to the US, but there is so much diversity across this nation that it will be quite different depending on where you visit. Surely cheaper and easier for you to travel closer to home... Germany is suffering like the rest of us, but will be different enough to give you a taste of change.

JR



 
Kit said:
Hi friends.

Been thinking lately..........for various different reasons, Im seriously considering moving to a different country. Either the UK or USA . I speak a little (poor) german too so Germany could be an option.

What are your wiews on living and working in mentioned countrys? How is the current job situation "over there" I am an industrial electrician by trade, btw. 28 years (Damn, im getting old.) :eek:

I fully understand that there are many practical obsatcles. Its easier within EU limits but for north America........well im a little lost as to what is exactly needed. Green card? Visa?

Any input, thoughts or links to websites that explains these matters are greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Other than the food and layoffs, what's so terrible about where you live??  Consider also depending on which place in the US you decide on, it would be good to know what to expect www.city-data.com is a great website that I recommened, go and read as much info thus you'll get somewhat of an idea that one part of the US is entirely different than the other part. 

I am sure there are some very savage and unforgiving parts in the "urban jungle" in most of Swedens major cities but wouldnt know how it would compare to the "bad areas" over here.  Just be careful, it is still the "Wild Wild West" in some places over here in the US of A

Also check out Minnesota in particular while youre doing your research,

Hope this info helps....
 
Hey, thanks for the info and advice everyone. 8)

Other than the food and layoffs, what's so terrible about where you live??
;D

Oh, theres nothing terrible about it, other than the weather.
Ive lived here my entire life. It has been a good life. It is a good life.

This is where i was born and this is where I´ll die.

But, you know...........in the meantime. ;)

I should clarify. Im not leaving tomorrow, and if I ever do leave it will be after a great deal of thoughts and planning.
Just trying to stay one step ahead.
 
Kit said:
Hey, thanks for the info and advice everyone. 8)

Other than the food and layoffs, what's so terrible about where you live??
;D

Oh, theres nothing terrible about it, other than the weather.


In which case stay away from Scotland.
 
Save some more money for what...first off we don't know the reason(s) for wanting to relocate. I would move just for mental survival and this is purely a function of offsetting the oblique dead mindedness of growing older and not fully exploring the universe. If it were not for my paternal responsibilities I would live like a nomad and not care...because my curiosity is insatiable. Only a fool cannot survive wherever.
 
Save for two things.

First to pay for your rent and to buy you food until you get your feet on the ground. Two, to buy your return ticket if the things don't work out.

I wanted to live in US when I was 19 but in 1980 coup happened and travelling abroad was suspended. Then I had to do my military service and cut long story short I came to London with a friend of mine in 1986 with enough money to keep me going for a couple of months. We could not get a job and the money run out quickly. The only option was to go and work in restaurants as washer-up which I would never consider. So we used to literally walk the streets looking for coppers. The telephone boxes were great because people used to forget change either in the return chute or on top of the machines. By the end of the day we used to collect enough to buy few cans of soup and a loaf. My friend was a bit embarrassed with this as he came from a slightly better privilaged family. One day we were walking on Bayswater and my friend said there was a five pound note on the kerb. I said what? he said " a fiver on the kerb". I said " are you f**king out of your mind, why did you not pick it up? He was embarrassed. We turned back immediately and long be hold there was the shinning fiver looking at us. As I was picking it up I noticed a twenty pound note literally a meter from it, stuck against the kerb. Man, that was like winning the lottery. We dived straight into Burger King.

After another month or so my friend and I split ways. My old guitar teacher had been living in London for six years and kindly allowed me to stay with them for a while. One day I noticed that there was a modelmaking company across the road, Thorp modelmakers. I asked for a job and got it. With my first wage I bought a Strat copy and and a second hand Acoustic amp and got gigs in two seperate Turkish restaurants for weekend work. Then I started squeezing in some electrical work here and there. The rest is history as they say.
 
Thanks for the link Barish! (-how you doing by the way?!)

-Fascinating.

There seem to be a few of us on this thread who have relocated internationally; it can be a traumatic event. -I probably have the least to contribute, because for me it was almost completely seamless... -the second time, at least! -the first time I was taken advantage of somewhat, and my girlfriend at the time was not what you might call particularly 'stable', which multiplied the stress and the difficulties by an order of magnitude.

-I suppose my own suggestions would be don't try and relocate with a partner unless you're both completely stable and united... and don't believe every offer which you receive. -If you're working in the 'gray economy' for example, people will often 'exploit and abandon' you.

Keith
 
Obviosuly for EC member nationals there is no legal restriction but moving to US is a different situation. Either you have to find an employer to apply for a work permit for you, and in a time like this it is very unlikely, or you have to be getting married to a US national and this is not the case either. Therefore you'll have no choice but to drive through that "gray economy" town. My younger sister lived in US for about five years and was studying. She also had a part time job in a PCB fab (yes even the girls in the family found sanctuary in this profession at some point). I remember her saying that there were quite risky things going on in terms of health and safety, but that is the way it is. However, one should not feel ashamed of this. Once I was driving to the hotel from the airport in Chicago while listening to the radio. There was a conversation going on and the subject matter was this very "gray economy". I don't remember the guy's name but some economist made a comment by saying that the illegal workers had a considerable contribution to the functioning of the system in US. Particularly the certain branches of the service industry can only be run cost effectively by employing illegal workforce. If we think about that carefully it actually makes sense. Otherwise how would one can eat a burger lunch for a few bucks. I am not suggesting it is right but certainly makes sense in the current economic system that we live in. And I am sure the system turns a blind eye to a degree to it.

 
In the US, 'migrant workers' for agriculture -as an example- are shrouded within a legal 'grey area'. They are allowed to pick tomatoes for money... but because they're not US citizens, nor are they officially "employed", they do NOT fall under the protections of the legal minimum wage.

Thus here in Florida, Tomato pickers earn a dollar or two an hour, and none of them are legal US residents. -An example of how it works. They also have no legal status nor citizens' rights, and can be deported as such.

Sahib, there is a third option for the US: the green-card lottery. The premise is simple: you apply, you stay OUT of the country, and you wait for your name to come up. -I believe that it may be under-subscribed at the moment, along with 'technology visa' work permits.

Keith
 
SSLtech said:
Thanks for the link Barish! (-how you doing by the way?!)

Keith

I'm fine K, thanks. Been a while no touch, how is life treating you?

As for the original poster's question, find the job before you make the move, I'd say.

B.
 
You could pimp your way too...
grin.gif
 
I would move just for mental survival and this is purely a function of offsetting the oblique dead mindedness of growing older and not fully exploring the universe. If it were not for my paternal responsibilities I would live like a nomad and not care...because my curiosity is insatiable. Only a fool cannot survive wherever.

Very well put.

find the job before you make the move, I'd say.

Easier said than done. But I agree.
 

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