I have two stories that can contribute to the EU grad school discussion. I apologize in advance for the verbosity... These are both success stories but I hope that they also serve as cautionary tales. I strongly agree with Dr. Kelsky's regarding about the deep incompatibility between grad programs in the EU v. the US, which makes the transition nearly impossible. So, although I have achieved this transition I caution against trying to do so when people ask me, personally, for advice.

A very close friend of mine graduated from a SLAC in New England, and went on to do her Ph.D. at Cambridge in a Humanities field, with funding awarded. She used her summers to accrue teaching experience at the Cambridge summer school program but didn't have access to teaching courses during the school year. She published her 1st book (her dissertation research) just after graduating with a respected publisher. Despite a very strong academic record boasting key notes, international publications, her book, etc., it took her 5 years to find a TT position. During those years she accepted prestigious postdocs at Columbia, Oxford and Yale, while consistently getting campus visits in the US. She finally landed at a program at a top school in London (KCL) and now has tenure there. She was hired for a position within their new Liberal Arts program, which is a rarity in Europe, and so she was seen as uniquely qualified because of her SLAC experience in the US while also coming from Oxbridge. This search took place in the worst years of the crisis, starting in 2007, but it is worthing noting the failure this person had in breaking in to the US, and the very specific circumstances in which her TT hire took place (her SLAC experience was on demand because 2 schools in London opened a LA program, it's not a widespread phenomenon). Obviously there are a lot of mitigating factors that go into a search, but this person had a very strong CV, US advocates and references, and still felt like (and was treated as) an outsider when trying to go back to the US.

The second tale is my first-hand experience. I am about to defend my dissertation at a major European research university [University of Southern European City], and have accepted a TT position at an American R1 in a field in the social sciences, which will begin 2nd semester of the upcoming year (Jan 2016). I went to a SLAC and moved to SOUTHERN EU to get an MA, justifying this decision because it was nearly free to study in the EU (at the time, 2006) and I figured that if the program was not academically strong I could always move back to the US and 'start over' on the grad school track, having at least become fluent in a second language. Ultimately I stayed to pursue my Ph.D. and had a successful search as an ABD this year. I consider this winning the lottery, given the odds, and will mention some of the factors that allowed me to make this transition. 1) Funding. I had a great (rare) funding package that funded travel to conferences and gave me TA experience. My funding was linked to a "competitive research project" (equivalent to ERC funding from the UK) which allowed me to participate in a national research project, which in turn provided the foundations of a peer-reviewed publication record as I regularly co-authored articles related to the project's output (to the tune of 2 a year for 3 years). This structure is typical in the EU but only if you are inside one of these projects, otherwise students are completely on their own. I must also point out that EU programs have little course offerings and my participation in the research project "filled in the gaps," providing experience in what was otherwise not taught. I noticed in particular that without this experience it would have been hard to justify my methodological background in job interviews. 2) Teaching. My funding allowed me to teach 1 course a year. Teaching experience like this can be rare, I haven't seen it in the UK although I'm not an expert in that region, but it made a huge difference in how competitive I was when returning to the US. Rarer still, my supervisor allowed me to teach seminars in the MA program, which was more due to the relationship I had with him than any institutional framework. 3) References. I had strong references from inside the US. This was key and I would never have gotten hired without them. I met a handful of influential associate and full professors from North American universities while organizing what turned out to be a small but innovative conference that drew select international scholars to my university (and which turned into an annual event)... Take a moment to consider how specific and uncommon this experience must be, in general. Through an investment in a very active conference schedule in both the US and the EU (6 conferences a year for 3 years), as well as a 3-month visit to a US grad program while I was ABD, I was able to maintain regular contact with these scholars for 2 years, carrying over into the 3rd year when I began the application gauntlet. I cannot emphasize enough the role that these scholars had in my job search. For the job I ended up getting, one of these professors wrote a letter of recommendation (the other two letters came from the EU). Another recommended me informally to the head of the search committee, so I was 'recruited' from the get go. I later found out that the professor who recommended me informally was called as a reference of mine during this job search, even though he had not provided a formal letter. Meanwhile, the two EU scholars who had provided my letters of reference, including my supervisor who is a respected international scholar, were never contacted. ... I hope this 3rd point drives home the amount of luck (a small, random opportunity to organize a conference ended up having huge impact in my career) and strategy (networking..., and an investment in learning the US academic culture within my field through a 3-month visit there) that were required to allow me to transition to the US. Ultimately, yes, this is a great success story. I have no debt, I earned what most young professionals in the EU country earn while I received 4 years of Ph.D. funding, I became trilingual and I spent 9 incredible years in Europe... However, if I hadn't happened to develop relationships with the right people at the right time, I would not be moving to the US in the fall. The EU job market is even more dire than it is in the US so I would never advise someone to follow in my footsteps.

ETA - point 4 : reading Dr. Kelsky's blog also filled the important gaps and had a HUGE impact in my applications!! I received no career advice from my supervisor, and the EU in general is much less geared to the US job market. Reading her blog was the reason I ended up going on the market as an ABD in the first place and her advice was invaluable.