Engineering Degree Overseas

[ShamelessGit]

I would be graduating with a degree in engineering physics this semester, but I went on a foreign exchange to Germany a couple years ago which f***ed up my schedule, so I have to wait another year. I really hate living in the USA, so I despise this extra year. But I feel like it would be stupid to try to move abroad when I'm so close to getting an engineering degree. I already passed the FE exam in electrical engineering. It is my understanding that most recent engineer graduates work a couple years sort of as an assistant in training before they get to do real work, I guess because of specialized knowledge that goes with a particular career which can't possibly be taught in school. I'm wondering if anybody has any experience with how this works for a westerner overseas?

I chatted with a Peruvian woman and she said that people in her country are very impressed by westerners with western qualifications, so that it would be really easy for me to get a job. Does anyone have any experience with this in Peru, or other developing countries?

I was also wondering whether it might not be a good idea for me to try to start out my life in a new country in academia. It feels like a life in academia might be more sheltered than out in the real world. I was wondering if maybe I could take a position as a professor who taught physics/math classes in English. I found that even in Germany, where the average people speak very good English, that finding someone who could explain technical subjects well in English was very rare.

Another thing I'm wondering about is if there is another financial crash, wouldn't that make it a lot harder for foreigners to travel abroad? If you listen to people like Peter Schiff (or any of the other people who predicted the previous crash), they all say that another bigger one is coming, and they all have pretty much the same reasons. I'm afraid that a lot of countries may close up their borders to foreigners if this happens. Also the dollar would be worth a lot less. The US government might also become more overtly totalitarian, which I suppose would be an added reason to leave, but also an added barrier.