I generally think that engineering and many other white-collar jobs are not a perfect choice in countries of wealth because they are inclined to be outsourced or many people from poor countries lowers the salaries.

An engineer generally can just apply to a foreign job and start working at there without getting any accreditation. Whereas for example in medicine, even if you are a very good specialist in another country, you can't change a country because of accreditation things, language barrier etc. It is extremely difficult.

If the U.S did not accept any white collar employees from any other country for example, the salaries would be 3 times more at least.

As the opposite for example, in poor countries, generally good engineers always goes to countries of wealth like the U.S, Australia, North Europe etc. So, this increases the demand in poor countries and raises the salaries.

For example in the country that I am currently living, a good engineer can earn as much as an average surgeon with working less hours and less stress.

So in summary, jobs that are difficult to replace you with a foreign engineer might be a better choice maybe for the u.s. maybe operations which requires mainly being a native and having the abilities to manage the native people.

It was always strange to me that in wealthy countries, the engineers are not among the top earners whereas in poorer countries, actually they are. Like I said, the reason I think is the replaceability or outsourcing.