Hello Everyone!

[koretek]

First off - hello to everyone! I hope you all are doing well. I am new here - like Hendric, but hope to learn, share and grow!

I live in the United States and I'm completing a degree in Information Systems, but I have been in the IT industry for 11 years. Over the past couple of years I have been doing mainly low level quality assurance on custom and embedded kernels in addition to testing software products and other custom work.

Now, this is all fine and good, but I would like to broaden my horizons and move outside the continental US. I'm pretty much open to going anywhere, but would like to try my hand in Europe.

With all that being said - I was wondering if everyone could give their thoughts, opinions - as loose as they may be, and any pointers or suggestions - especially if you've relocated to another continent or country. Any possible job leads would be greatly appreciated as well.

Sorry to be long winded, but I was attempting to kill two birds with one stone! Guess I need to realign my vertical vs. lateral thinking skills!

[Candy]

I'm not sure how good you are but I might be able to arrange you a conversation with my employer. Their website is www.topic.nl and they employ embedded engineers (like you and me). If you could send me your private information I'll send them an email to contact you.

They operate in a circle of around 60km around Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Their website is mainly dutch but since it's IT most jargon-words should be apparent.

Hope to help,
Candy

PS: any particular reason to move out of the US?

[koretek]

Thanks for the reply Candy. I really appreciate the lead!

I will update my resume and send it to the email address from the forum here - provided that e-mail address is still valid.

To answer your question of why I want to leave the US has many different answers for me, but the main reason is that I want to experience other cultures and learn about other ethnicitys and their customs.

[Candy]

I will update my resume and send it to the email address from the forum here - provided that e-mail address is still valid.

Of course it is. What good is an email address if it isn't valid? Just make sure you don't use my msn address, which isn't a valid email address (in fact, the entire domain doesn't exist anymore). Saves a whole lot of spam.

To answer your question of why I want to leave the US has many different answers for me, but the main reason is that I want to experience other cultures and learn about other ethnicitys and their customs.

As long as you don't get addicted to drugs here, that isn't good for your job. You might experience slight animosity toward people from the US, mainly due to your government and the attitude of a lot of people from the US.

I'll send your CV on to my manager, will keep you up to date on what happens.

[koretek]

As long as you don't get addicted to drugs here, that isn't good for your job.

I was actually reading about the drugs yesterday, but not to worry as I don't use drugs!

You might experience slight animosity toward people from the US, mainly due to your government and the attitude of a lot of people from the US.

The attitude of my government and the "better than thou" attitude of most Americans are both on my top 5 list of reasons to move away. The animosity I might garner will be well deserved because of these factors, but luckily I don't subscribe to those views!

I didn't want to assume about the e-mail address - better safe than sorry!