An Australian Living In France

Difficult but not impossible.

I remember sitting in a flat in Grenoble for about two months, applying for one job per day with the words ‘ingenieur mechanique’ in the title. It was winter, very snowy, and I was huddled away like a soup eating bear that would occasionally exit to take French language classes. At this stage I had very little professional experience as I had graduated just 6 months beforehand, albeit I had been working while studying.

After about 40 applications to companies in Grenoble, I decided to expand my search to companies that also do computer programming. Although I had never studied a full computer science degree at university, I had learned multiple programming languages in my spare time. Finally, around November, I received a call from a company that would like to interview me.

This interview was amazing and terrifying. I had my sheet of pre-prepared responses and felt somewhat confident. I arrived and met an extremely nice girl who recognise me straight away. I was somewhat confused as I was sure that I had never met her beforehand however I remembered that, as customary for French CV’s, I had included a picture. The interview went well and I spoke French and a bit of English when I lacked vocabulary. The problem occurred when I was asked what degree I had completed.

The French are extremely into Masters Degrees, so much so that your wage depends on the length of study you had done. I’m sure that there are outliers, but I’m guessing 95% of people do not break this norm. So in this case I had a Masters Degree, but not in the right area. The lady explained that their company sells programming services to other companies and that if they see that I don’t have the right degree or 5 years equivalent experience, they won’t hire me. Dejected I left the interview.

It was around February that I applied and went for an interview with an Engineering firm. My fluency in English as well as my appropriate Masters Degree were what got me the job. I speak to my colleagues in French and the clients in English which is perfect.

So, to summarise, it is possible to get an office job in a foreign country, with little experience under the following conditions:

1. You have a Masters Degree

2. You speak English (Especially relevant for international engineering companies as all of the work is in English)

3. You are extremely persistent

4. You have residency here (EU citizen)

Hi Everyone!

Firstly, I little bit about me. I am a practicing Engineer who does computer programming on the side. The last time that I had studied French was when I was 16 and I had studied it for 5 years and was a solid B student. After the French I studied Spanish and therefore I mix up words  lot.

This is my blog on my experiences of living in France as someone who is a novice. Due to the prodding by a certain someone (Sean) I have decided to actually try to keep up and keep people informed of what I am doing. As a recap for the last month that I have been away.

PART 1: Catchup!

I left Adelaide on the 23rd of July and landed in Paris on the 24th of July. For the record, a 55 minute layover in Singapore is possible but now very pleasant. The plane trip was uneventful. After landing n Paris I was greeted by ma petite amis and we caught up.

My First French Croissant

The apartment that I would be staying in for the next month and a half was situated on the other side of Paris and it took about 1 hour to get there on the metro. The suburb is called Vanves and it is fairly nice and not too crowded.

View from apartment

The next two weeks were a blur; I visited all of the major sights and attempted to communicate. I tried sign language, semaphore and French, each spoken with approximately the same competency. I wished that I had studied harder and payed attention in school during French lessons.

I started my French classes on the 6th of August and continued for 4 weeks. These weeks were fantastic as I finally had structure and I could work on my French skills (which were not yet up to the task of paying the bills).

I will upload all of the proper photos soon!!

CONTINUED TOMORROW!