Work for American Civil Engineer

First of all let me say I suggest people seek out opportunities. You may find them despite the circumstances.

But here are the circumstances as I have found them (not being employed in renovation/construction, but having hired a lot to do renovation in Hungary):

- If you want employment in Hungary in construction/renovation I would expect knowing Hungarian to be somewhat important. Otherwise, you can "sell yourself" as the best man for the job for foreign English speaking clients, but I suspect there are not so many of these types of projects for restoration work. So, not knowing Hungarian may be a significant handicap.

- There are many restoration projects in Hungary, but many of those are unfortunately "grant funded". So you may find you need to either be employed by a Hungarian company or "know a guy" to get the contract. This is not a "meritocracy" country, so "knowing a guy" is important.

- Even so, if you wanted to venture out into self employment, there may be a market for doing this type of civil engineering for expats. For example, before we re-did our roof we hired an engineer to make sure the current wood beams could hold the new roof tiles. There may be an expat-market for an English speaking engineer (ours did not speak English, and my Hungarian at the time was not sufficient to converse so it all had to go over my Hungarian speaking wife).  But do note: Hungarian businesses are expensive -- it is not a "pay as you go system" like in the USA, but a "pre pay" system. You have to feed the government tax man before you even earn any income. And also consider that many English speaking expats are tight fisted, so wrestling any reliable and livable income from that group may be difficult.

- You may need to qualify for local "Hungarian" engineering licenses. Hungary is a guild country. Many professions need to be part of some guild or group. For example, to grow wine I am required to be a member of the local "wine growers association" which is a total BS organization to which I have to give money, year after year, with little apparent reason other than to fund the officers. I do not know about engineers, but you should definitely check if your degrees are Hungarian compatible and if you need to belong to some guild.

Hope this helps.

Hi,

From what I know about working with historic buildings, it's more lawyering than engineering.
Your best bet is likely a multinational company, they might be working for international clients as well.
Or here's a wild idea, this is a group of archeologists, I have no idea how they could fit in an engineer, but if they can, then it's bound to be fun :-)
http://www.heritageconsulting.hu/index.php/kapcsolat

I hold fingers for you, but:

You must also know that, even if you get a relatively "decent" job with a nice office, etc... You must divide your usual salary (in US/Western Europe) 4-5 times to get the Hungarian one. Compare it to local prices, and you must decide if it's worth it for you. Or if it's a must for you to live here, then you must accept this factor.
I hope you'll get a decent living though and of course that you have a good time in Hungary.