Thanks to all of you for answering my question.
Oh yeah, we have 5-7 day work weeks, 40-70 hours, and no manditory vacation.
Here, we have 5 day work week, 50-60 hours, no mandatory vacation, but you have the right to 6 weeks vacation. It remains constant, whatever your work experience.
All the work you want, and then some!
Here, not really. If you want to work more, then you won't be paid for that lol !!!
And, for people in middle income and up, you can expect a Federal Income tax to take nearly 50% of your wages, followed by State income tax, State Sales tax on anything you buy, federal liquor taxes, gasoline taxes, taxes on cigarrettes, meals tax, Excise tax, Luxury tax....
And don't forget the money taken from your paychaeck for Social Security and health insurance.
OK. Could you please give me a numbered example ? Let's assume my employer gives me $100.000. What will I have left in my pocket ?
provided home ownership is not on your list of priorities.
Nope, it's not. I have looked at the "apartment rentals" sites, and prices were not that bad. $1.200 / month for a 890 sq ft flat with all the facilities (swimming pool , fitness, ... ) !!!
a 6 week vacation called "holiday.
True.
but socialized medicine is not avialable...
What do you mean ? State paid health care ? Here in France, state pays for 70% of your medecine expenses. The rest is paid by your employer, which sums up to zero for you (a given amount of money is subtracted from your wages to pay for this, and this is mandatory).
What is HMO ? Medicare ? What is it precisely ?
make a net income above $30,000, you will be in the 25% bracket for taxes.
Here, were are in the 44 % bracket !!!
Well STAY AWAY from Idaho
What is that good in Idaho ? What is it so good to wirk there ? Climate ?
the majority of taxes are federal, so the state don't really mean much after you see a big chunk of your paycheck disappear to uncle sam.
What do you call "big chunk" ? Give numbers plz.
California is a good place with your skills. There will be a huge problem in your field though; and that's your ability to get a visa (an H1B is probably what you are looking for) to work in an area that might be high security.
A lot of the jobs in Cal in that line say you have to be an American citizen and becoming one can be very expensive and can take a long time.
If I were you I would consider taking another degree at one of the Universities in LA or SF and use that route to get an I20 (the document issued by Universities so you can get an F1 student visa) and use the time to get a foot in the visa door. After you finish, you can then get what is called Optional Practical Training; a scheme accepted by the government for specially trained University graduates, which allows you to work for a year while trying to get your H1B.
Yep! The States is a maze of documentation!
Well, student life is over for me, and I don't want to get back to it !!! Argh ! It was tough here.... Thanks for your input though. I could just suggest my brother (still a student, but in the electronics field) to do that.
You could always look for a jorb in Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, China, or ???????
Mhh... Thought about Canada already. Too cold for me
. Don't talk about Mexico, nor China (do you like Chinese girlies ? argh, I don't !!). My understanding is that the US is THE place to get maximum wages with my skills... Moreover, I love big space, I am quite tired of living in very small houses, very small cars, expensive hi tech stuff, and rc stuff too !!!
I will tell you from personal experience if you think immigration will be easy forget it. if you think you just apply for the forms and when you get them you can immigrate forget it. it is a lengthy and expensive process I moved from england 2 years ago after marrying my wife (who is an American) so i can speak from a first hand experience. work visa have become difficult to get after 9/11. then you have to pay for medical examinations, AIDS test (all immigrants have to have one) finger printing, you also have your photo's to pay for and they say you have to use a listed photographer from a list they have. it goes on and on. this is no walk in the park even if you do get a work permit it will only entitle you to work in the US for 2 years and i will tell you not many employers will hire you if you have a work permit, they want someone that can work for them for a long period of time.
if you do find work they will only want to pay you minimum wage
Work visa ? Do you mean green card ? Let 's assume a given employer gives me a green card, is it time limited ? TO what extent ? Two years, so that my employer has to renew it ? What about asoftware consultants companies ? Is it a trap ?
great thing...fewer unions.
What do you mean ?
The general rule is that to get one, the company must establish that no one here can do the job, and programmers are a dime a dozen here.
Man, if you're right, I had better give up now ! On the other hand, the only way I can pull through would be to accept low wages ?
. Oh and you need to be a US citizen for those jobs.
Mr_matt, yes I think I will have to give up that field if I want to make it. Embedded dev in commercial shall be my target I guess. DO you think US citizenship may be granted after several years ? How many ? Would it make it easier for H1B ?
Yeah, house prices are just rocketing over there.
Immigration is a real issue here in the US.
Man, you would just be stuck if only you knew how things are going here. I just cannot understand the rules here. The funny stuff is that the more children you have, the more money you get. It's not rare to see jobless parents 7-8 children families making a decent living !!!! Let alone some foreigners e.g. aids contaminated guys from Africa being healt in french hospitals for free. Let's forget all that BS, it really makes me sick. Anyway....
If you can fly we like r/c pilots too!
Yeah , I'm in, and when I see some of your airflieds, it just gets me crazy !
Are there any good clubs out there ? How about pilots?
Yeah there are some good flying sites here and there, but they are very RARE. I regularly fly from a really bad runway, ut it's close to my house. I could fly from 300 ft tarmac runways, but 2 hours drive from here. If you need some advice next time you come here, send me a PM.
Tom 25 year aero engineer federal employee now making just over 108,000.00/year
Good. MajorTom, can you please tell me how much left in your pocket you have ? In which state do you work ? What do you mean by federal employee ? What are the implications ?
Thanks again to all of you [sm=thumbup.gif].