Ask HN: Do US engineering skills translate well to European companies?

10 points by dandrew5 1 year ago | 20 comments

I currently reside in the US and am looking to move to Europe (most likely Germany) some time in the next three years. Has anybody made this journey and have some insights to share?

I'm particularly wondering if there are any technical skills I should hone to give me leverage in the job market when the time comes. Or opposite, any "bad habits" I may have picked up from US companies that simply don't exist in European engineering culture or decision making. Are the interview processes similar to the US?

SambaSambaSamba 1 year ago |

Skills will more or less be the same. Communication skills may be slightly more important depending on people's understanding of whatever language is used.

The biggest issue will be cultural. Don't be a workaholic. Don't live to work. Don't bring that culture here. It is fine if you like to work, but don't project that as expectations on others.

Source: I'm US person who moved to Europe. I've worked for US companies as well as global and European companies.

mettamage 1 year ago | |

Any tips for this European here that will be working in the US in a year or so from now?

zerr 1 year ago | | |

Bring your work-life balance to the US. Tell you colleagues to take at least 30 days off annually.

deafpolygon 1 year ago | | |

Be prepared to work your ass off; live the mentality that you must work and be available as much as possible. It's going to get worse in the next few years as Trump starts gutting more and more worker protections.

thiago_fm 1 year ago |

The issue won't be your technical skills. The german engineering quality only applies to hardware and physical goods.

It's a different culture. That you'll need to spend a lot of energy to understand.

Also german is a hard language to learn. Typically US people got it easy and don't understand such complexities, but this can be a time consuming endeavor.

Typically Americans have a very naive understanding of how the world works because American imperialism made it easy for them. So you'll need to get over this obstacle when you move here.

I believe it's worth it, it will open your eyes for many things and will make you a more complete human being.

BUT beware, all Americans I know moved back to US to make more money. Often they move here because they believe they are more left-leaning and like the idea about social democracy...

But then go back to the US because everything is easier there, salaries are higher (as long as you are a white-collar worker).

Feel free to mail me, I've been living here for 10 years and can help you understand what you are getting into :-)

cloudedcordial 1 year ago | |

> Typically Americans have a very naive understanding of how the world works because American imperialism made it easy for them.

Do you have specifics on how Americans adults could be naive on the world?

bobnarizes 1 year ago |

Living and working in Germany for the last 13 years. Critical thinking. Be always honest even if your coworkers don’t like the output, they value a lot when someone standout and say why things aren’t working. Being punctual is the default.

toomuchtodo 1 year ago |

https://reddit.com/r/AmerExit/ will be helpful for your inquiry.

mvcatsifma 1 year ago |

Learn (some) German. Admittedly not an engineering skill - but it will be greatly appreciated by your German colleagues. Background: Dutch engineer who lived in Germany for 3 years, and worked for one of their largest engineering orgs.

dandrew5 1 year ago | |

Thanks for the tip. I've enrolled in an A1 class with Goethe Institute starting in April. In your opinion, how difficult would it be to rent or potentially own a home on a single engineering salary? Looking at prices on https://www.immobilienscout24.de/, it does not seem possible after accounting for taxes. A salary of 60k ends up being about 3.2k net per month. If renting a home takes 2k of that, I may need to reconsider my country of choice.

mvcatsifma 1 year ago | | |

It’s 20+ years since I lived in Germany (Berlin). At the time it was pretty easy to rent a high quality property for a reasonable price. I know a lot has changed since then, and the “global housing crisis” is also affecting Germany. Sorry can’t give you more details than that.

I am confident my language skills advice still applies.

alberts614 1 year ago |

I am an Asian living in Taiwan and I want to apply for a job in Europe or the United States. But my application was always rejected. why is that?

ferguess_k 1 year ago |

Judging by past experience, culture gap is more of a problem.

dandrew5 1 year ago | |

Could you expand a little? Are you referring to the workaholism some Americans have? Personally, I've always sought out companies that value a healthy work/life balance and am relieved to hear Europeans companies value it so highly.

Aside from being too enthusiastic about work, what other gaps in engineering/work culture exist?

ferguess_k 1 year ago | | |

I used to work for a company that has both US and EU offices. The EU ones have considerably better WLB (but of course less pay) and people take a t least a month of vacation during the summer. Aside from the workaholism issue you talked about, there is a more subtle difference that I felt -- US has a stronger marketing culture while the EU has a stronger engineering culture. However, this is just an isolated case.