As an engineering student I would like to know how valuable is it to get overseas experience early

IMHO, I suggest to start locally as it will be more comfortable from a social/cultural standpoint. Working abroad, in construction or engineering environment will be most of the time challenging as everybody expect you to be an expert of your field or they will see you as another kid looking for adventures. There will be not much time or not much support for learning.

On the other hand, an international environment, touching of new cultures definitely open ones mind much more than living in the neighborhood.

I would recommend 3-5 years to gain a minimum of experience in a known location followed by the big world adventure.

All the best

G

You nailed it Gabriel.

As a student junior engineer Robert you will find many development opportunities and will not be expected to meet aggressive targets while learning. After few years in your career path your CV will start standing out and your experience will be valued abroad. Your personal development shall continue while working locally or abroad. 

All the very best 

I suggest to start locally as it will be more comfortable from a social/cultural standpoint.

I do see your point, but I wonder if it's quite the same for people in AUS/NZ. I met a NZ academic once who was in the UK (demonstrating a system to gauge the quality of Kiwi fruit IIRC) who explained that they were pretty much expected to visit UK or the US on their regular sabbaticals - partly it seemed they felt a little cut-off from the rest of the world simply by geography and wanted to counter that, and the common language, culture and to a large extent common standards, made the process a lot easier than perhaps would be the case for many other countries in between.

   - Andy.

I suggest to start locally as it will be more comfortable from a social/cultural standpoint.

I do see your point, but I wonder if it's quite the same for people in AUS/NZ. I met a NZ academic once who was in the UK (demonstrating a system to gauge the quality of Kiwi fruit IIRC) who explained that they were pretty much expected to visit UK or the US on their regular sabbaticals - partly it seemed they felt a little cut-off from the rest of the world simply by geography and wanted to counter that, and the common language, culture and to a large extent common standards, made the process a lot easier than perhaps would be the case for many other countries in between.

   - Andy.

Hello Andy:

My original response to this inquiry took into account the location (Australia) where the question came from.

I have a keen interest in what is developing/happening in Australia, as I have family living on it's East Coast.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay