Originally Posted by ObadiahDogberry

Right now there are very few jobs in Europe, and the ones that are open pay very poorly. Just an example, I was offered a job with SAS Connect as a direct entry A320 captain, based in Stockholm. Pay worked out to be about $6,000 per month (62,000 Swedish Kroner). Eurowings was also hiring for an ARN base, also A320 captain, and was paying slightly more, but not much.

I did the FAA to EASA conversion six years ago. A couple of additional things. First, the country where you do your initial medical exam will be the country that issues your license. Many of the countries require your initial medical be done with their national aviation medical center, not with a regular AME. You can do the theory exams through any country and transfer them to the country you will have your license issued. In theory it can be done with the medical records, but is often more involved and can be difficult. But it will be easiest to do it all through one country.

Speaking of the different countries, choose the country you will work with carefully, as they all have different quirks. It used to be easy when the UK was EASA, as they had the process well laid out. The Irish CAA does seem to be relatively easy to work with though, but I don't have any direct experience with them. The southern European countries can be a bureaucratic mess and take forever to get things done. Avoid Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece. Also be wary of Germany as their medical privacy rights make it virtually impossible to transfer your license should the need arise. The Scandinavian countries are relatively easy to work with.

One thing that often does not get mentioned is in addition to the 14 exams, some authorities also require you to do an additional radiotelephony exam for your radio license. So that may surprise you as well. I went through Denmark, and they just wanted a standard aviation English test, so I got the level 6 English certification and the radio license with the one exam. But I have heard through others that some countries can have a far more in-depth test for the radio license.

EDIT- One more thing regarding medical exams. After the initial exam is done, and your license is issued, subsequent medical exams can be done through any EASA medical examiner, regardless of their country of affiliation or your State Of License Issue (aka "SOLI"). So you may have an Irish license, but a medical certificate issued through France.