Anything for an engineer in Iceland?

if you want to be an ærospace engineer, Iceland is probably not the place for you. The engineering fields have had quite a hard time in the past few years here since most of the offices deal in construction projects. Most of these have stopped or are working with skeleton staff now, and the foreign engineers that were here a few years ago have mostly left. The engineers I know of who're still here mostly are on projects in other countries, and have to travel to the sites semi-frequently.

There are a few engineering firms with English websites you could explore and try to contact, like these two:

http://www.hnit.is/index.php?id=123http://www.efla-engineers.com/

you could also have a look at this Icelandic research institute which I know sometimes has non-Icelandic engineers on staff in some of their departments:

http://nmi.is/english/

Maybe these guys do research that fits with your interests:
http://en.keilir.net/keilir

I don't know so much about veterinarian positions but there are certainly a lot of horses here, and I do know of one German woman who came here to do veterinary research on the Icelandic horses.

However, it sounds like the first step for you is to come (in the winter preferably) and see if what you read matches the experience of being here. Do you like the small society, the isolation of being on a remote island, the everyone-is-related-and-interested-in-your-business mentality, the 20 hours of darkness in December, the high winds? It's also much easier to find a job if you make personal contact with people, so it could be a chance to do that as well.

Thanks for the links, you've been a great help.

It looks like I might have a shot in wind energy (which has always interested me), otherwise I'm pretty much out of luck.  Unfortunately, I doubt there is much for wind energy research/design in Iceland.  If there is a great deal of interest in wind energy there (high winds right?), larger companies from Europe probably come in and do most of the grunt work.

...Although, going through pilot training for small, prop-driven aircraft has been in the back of my mind for quite some time.  I have a flight experience class coming up, so we'll see how that goes.

I've done some looking in to Icelandic horses, and wow, they are pretty-they have a really interesting history too.  80,000 of these horses are on that "little" island!  Where do they keep them all!?  I'm sure we (she) could spend hours learning and talking about how fascinating they are (if she doesn't know about them already, which I doubt).

A small, close-knit society is exactly what I am looking for; here in the states those are few and far between.  In the Midwest and a few other places it isn't that bad.  Although, around here its pretty much farms and farm related activities.  It seems wherever the good people are, the good jobs aren't.

The major issue I have with Iceland is the lack of forests, from pictures it seems so barren.  I'm kind of an outdoorsy guy and I like being able to go out in the woods every once in a while, follow some tracks, and just appreciate the beauty of everything.  Not that there isn't any in Iceland, from what I've seen-there's plenty, it's just of a different kind.

While spare change and spare time are hard to come by, especially during the school (winter) months.  I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for internship opportunities, learn some more Icelandic, and see if I can build some connections over there.

Once again, thanks for all of your help, I really appreciate it.

I really doubt you would be able to find work as an engineer here. Despite "low corruption", finding a job here is all about knowing people. It's a small town mentality on a small country scale. As a US citizen, getting a residence permit (or a work permit for that matter) is extremely difficult.