Hello all! I’ve been lurking here for a few months, and very much appreciate everyone’s tips for settling in France. I saw that threads about finding work in France were getting a bit old (5+ years) so I’m starting a new one to collect current thoughts on the job market.
For those of you who are working on France, how did you get your gig? Remote job in your home country? Transfer from the home office? Networking and applying here on the ground?
For those who decided to apply to jobs, did anything surprise you about the application process? For example, I was pretty shocked to realize that a photo was de rigueur on a French CV…
For those who work in majority French-speaking offices, roughly what level of French did you reach before you started at your job? Had you taken the DELF/DALF for some institutional proof, or did it just come out at the interview?
Did the French job market spur you to ‘pivot’ from your previous line of work, or have you continued to do basically the same thing as before your move? If so, what did you pivot to?
Any advice in particular for finding a job in a city outside Paris? I’m particularly curious to hear from people who do not work in business, technology, computer science or other fields with recruiters.
So how about you tell us your own answers to those questions, based on your own experience so far? Or are you gathering material for a dissertation or an article?
Interesting first post from someone who joined 24 minutes ago.
Sure, happy to tell you a bit about myself! I’m here because of a french guy, working on my french (a conversational B1), and I am legally able to work without additional sponsorship. I am pretty early in the process of applying to jobs here, so I don’t really have good answers for these things: part of why I’m asking. Mostly I suspect that I have blindspots in these things, a.k.a. my unknown unknowns, and I like hearing other people’s stories to get a better sense of what those could be.
Weirdly I am working on a dissertation, but it’s on Roman history, so any answers to my questions can tragically not contribute to that…
Thank you for this! When you say written enquiries, do you mean candidature spontanée? I have to say, the concept of just sending in my CV already seemed a bit bizarre to me, coming from a North American context.
In the past I’ve worked in the arts non-profit world or university support services, but I’m not married to it. I am in a large city in the south of France.
Ok then I’d strongly suspect that for both France and that type of work then unless you’re very lucky then it’s about ‘who you know’ to hear about opportunities or get access to whichever, even physical, noticeboard they’re displayed on.
If you go to your mairie they should have lists of “associations” ( local clubs, which are taken more seriously in France, which is why your mairie is involved). The new season is early September so be ready to attend any open event at the beginning of September, to meet the associations and hopefully join any you have an interest in - you can ask the mairie where is the info on all your local ones meanwhile. There’s a small fee per association for your annual membership usually.
Sounds like you’re in a university city so students may also be looking for gigs.
Other than that go visit or knock on doors - access may well be physically easier in August but the flip side is lots of people are not there and France kinda closes for much of August. Bur if you do meet anyone working they may be less pressured and have time to chat.
Where I live the mairie organises an annual event outside the indoor market where any association that wants to can have a stall and meet prospective members. This year it’s the first weekend in September.
Studied French to degree level at a UK university, spent a year as a language teaching assistant in Corsica, moved to Germany where I worked for an international organisation in the field of intellectual property law mostly in French (I was one of 2 near-native French speakers out of a working group of 20 at the time, and could also speak/write some German, which was virtually unheard of for UK candidates). Studied intellectual property law part-time at Strasbourg university and obtained a postgraduate qualification. Moved to France in 1993 after sending out my CV to a number of specialist law firms throughout the provinces of France (specifically excluded Paris despite the concentration of job offers there), and getting hired by one of them in Lyon looking to boost their English speaking visibility (which, at the time, was inexistent). Went on from there, moving into industry and back into private practice in the same field at various times since. Have been an independent worker in IP law since Jan 2010.
Once you’re in the system, it is much easier. Getting in is the hard part. French employers still like qualifications on paper plus work experience, due to the way employment law is structured in businesses that have collective bargaining agreements, where job descriptions must fit into predefined boxes with corresponding pay scales.
Independent work (whether manual or consulting) generally means having some kind of relevant qualification that is recognized in France, and that is not always easy to achieve, even more so now that equivalence got thrown out the window with Brexit.
Given the above and your dissertation subject (MA?) I wonder if something along the lines of historical / archaeological tourism guiding might be worth exploring?
Perhaps do a short free MOOC like the one below to get some insights and practice your French
I have an MA but I’m working on the PhD (woof). I’ve explored this direction a bit, but it seems to me that it’s quite difficult to get the license to become a legal tour guide.
Oh, thanks for sharing the link! I love FUN courses.
Might you be near Nîmes? There is the excellent newish museum which might be just your thing
I’m not sure if France has the same system as UK, meaning museum employees are civil servants. That may require French citizenship but there may be positions there that do not.
