Florifornia

Hi, I expect to graduate in the Summer with a first in electrical and electronics engineering from Newcastle University. A dream of mine has always been to live in the US, either permanently or just for a few years. Would it be a waste of my time applying to graduate programs / entry level jobs, or should I get several years experience first? Obviously I'd have a better chance of finding a sponsoring company with a large amount of experience, but what is the demand like for electrical engineers in general? It seems as though attempting to find a company willing to sponsor me for a H1B would be the best option, as even if I get a job with an American company in the UK it would probably be unlikely that I'd ever get transferred over there on an L1B.

I intend on making this a long term career goal, but I hoped to get some advice from someone who knows what the demand for electrical engineers is in America.

I've read various threads on here including all the stickies

Bob

Welcome to BE and good luck.

Got nothing to lose by applying, but realistically you are wasting your time unless you've got niche skills under your belt.

The best bet really is the L1 transfer, so find a company with a presence in both places and you've a chance...though unfortunately, that probably means looking into Slough as that seems to be the hub these days

the_deep_end

Hi There,

I'm an Electronic Engineer and have direct experience in this... I'll be moving over to the US in a few weeks: however, I'll point out at this time that I have a 10 year Greencard as I'm married to an American, we have two kids and have lived, married in the UK for going on 4 years. I'm not going to sugar coat it, in my experience it will be *extremely* hard to get H1B sponsorship as a new graduate. However, there are other alternatives...

Back in 2008 when we weren’t married, my then girlfriend became pregnant and so I started applying for jobs etc with a view of quickly getting over to the US (this is when I joined this forum with the handle 'the_deep_end' ). At this point I had a BEng, PhD and was just finishing up a three year postdoc research position in the UK. I had contacts within the industry, including some I'd met at conferences where I'd presented papers etc. Even then I was told a H1B was out of the question due to the large number of applicants, long wait times etc. I knew some people who made it over on training visas which (I assume) were later converted to H1Bs, but these were engineers who were extremely well connected and experienced (in very specific areas).

Since then we've been living in the UK until last year we decided to move to the US: started the ball rolling on a Greencard application for me and I started looking for jobs. Having the Greencard on the way got my foot in the door with a lot of companies, although a lot didn't want to talk seriously until it was approved and in my hand. I got the impression that if I hadn't had a Greencard independently, I would not have found a direct way over.

Now, lets get to something more positive for you (that doesn't involve getting you a knocked up US girlfriend). When I was applying for jobs this time round, my experience was that a lot of people (esp from China and India) seemed to be getting over to the US by first doing an undergrad degree in their home country, and then doing a shorted Masters in the US and applying for internships etc. I belive this allows them to stay in the US and work for a period of time after graduation, during which it's going to be a lot easier for them to get H1B sponsorship (compared to sending emails from at least 6 time zones away...). I'm not sure exactly of the rules surrounding this but you should perhaps look into it. If I were in your position, this is the course of action I'd take. Perhaps there are IET or IEEE sponsorships available for studying abroad?

Another idea: I'm not sure what your specilaities are but National Semi was recruiting for their Greenoch Scotland plant last year (silicon process and MEMS development engineers I think): the agent told me it may be possible to transfer over to the US after a while. I'd not discount the transfer idea completely quite yet...

The demand seems to be healthy over there at present, but so is the number of graduates. I was speaking to a contact in Silicon Valley last year who told me the unemployment rate for engineers in the area was around 1%.

I hope this helps: please feel free to ask any more questions!

Bob

The J1 internship....have to consider any 2 year HRR attached to the visa though.

The advantage to getting a masters in the US, it opens up a larger pool of available H1B visa's, which in the past made a difference to being able to get a visa or not before the cap fills, but I'm not so sure it makes much difference these days.