FRANCAIS
ENGLISH
WHAT ABOUT WORKING?!
Pierre Soulages Museum - Rodez (Aveyron)
Europe is more difficult than Australia, for sure, but for who really wants to work, there will be some opportunities!
The first requirement is French: you will find some (not much because French laws are really different, and make English companies afraid...) English speaking companies (like Airbus) but as nearly all their partners are French, it will be way too difficult for you if you can't speak...
And, obviously, your positive attitude, your good mood and your motivation will e fundamental... As everywhere! ^^
(very) few advice for job seeking in France.
Weeks of work, holidays, leaves... Similar to Australia but not exactly the same
Few quick information about how to be your own boss in France
Resume, cover letter, portfolio... Local variations of indispensable tools!
Salaries, taxes, super... Obviously all these topics don't work in the same way over there!
Carcassonne castle - Carcassonne (Ariège)
JOB SEEKING
As I worked for the same company since my graduation, I don't have too much ideas about the job seeking in France! I can only add here few quick advice:
# As in Australia, the companies like to see people who have taken the time to watch their website, to write a specific letter...
# Even if you match an offer only at 75%... The game is always the same: employers want the best person, with many experience and for cheap, but they are conscious of the reality and can adjust their ambition for a good person.
# Structure of the companies are similar to Australia, with generally smaller companies and often a more "family" spirit (you won't find too much "family run business" as proud advertisements, because there are many of them!).
# As everywhere, two kind of boss: those who don't care too much about the laws and to have to renew their staff quite often, and those who really want to find the right person (and sometimes struggle to find serious and reliable people).
USEFUL LINK
The official Website of Pole EMploi, Government agency in charge of job seeking: http://www.pole-emploi.fr/accueil/
WORKING CONDITIONS
From a social point of view, the classical week is from Monday to Friday and you will have about 12 Public Holidays (and sometimes some days more if a Tuesday or a Thursday is off, May is particularly full of them!). Under the law, a week is 35 working hours, you can be asked to work more but you have to be paid consequently or have "RTT Days":between 10 and 22 days off during the year, in balance to a longer week of work.
You will have at least 5 weeks of paid leave in the year (many big companies give more). Normally, we have to work one year and accumulate 5 weeks before to be able to ask for holidays... But as there's more and more short term contracts, we tend to apply the same system as Australia (accumulation every month). In some professions (architect, at least!), you can have to work more than the 35 hours a week, it may be not normal but it's common, unfortunately.
We don't have any "personal leave", unless specific negotiation in some companies, if you or your child is sick, you will have to take unpaid leaves (if it's longer than 3 days, you will be paid for an important percentage of your salary).
Obviously, all these items are true only for a legal job! You can work without any legal frame, as everywhere, but as everywhere it will be at your own risk: French administration isn't kind at all with illegal work... And personally I advise you to be careful: France is not so welcoming than before, furthermore with people who don't follow the rules.
Music festival in Brittany
A quite small but interesting city in the middle of the country...
On a castle in Concarneau (Brittany)
The famous castle ans gardens!
FOR ARCHITECTS
Few notes on the job I know best, architect!
– The project process will be very similar, even if the names change, the habits in the construction are not exactly the same, but that won't be a big deal. About environmental consideration, France is not the best in Europe, but far more advanced than Australia! And it becomes every year a more important topic.
– Good news, France use the metric system! Bad news, you will have to manage 3 units: meters for the civil works, centimetres for concrete, and millimetres for wood and steel. Why so complicated? Welcome to France!
– As balance, maybe, you will find standards colours, in the RAL range, which is shared between many providers. Useful, right?
– Revit starts to become important but it's not yet at the same level as Australia and if luckily you already master this software that will be a very good point for you! Otherwise, we use ArchiCAD, Allplan, VectorWorks, AutoCAD... And Adobe CS for Graphics, as well as SketchUp for 3D modelling
– As few other professions, architect is protected by an "Order". That means you cannot practice as you want, you have rights, duties and guarantees, and you have another level of court if someone of the contractors needs/wants to create a case...
– We don't have the same phases, but we follow similar rules: you will hear a lot about the "loi MOP", very important. Between other things, this law define the phases, under acronyms (yes, in France also we like that!):
ESQ / APS = Sketch Design, Design Competition
APD / PRO = Design Development
DCE / EXE = Contract Documentation
ACT = Tender
DET / AOR = Contract Administration
USEFUL LINK
The official website of the "Architects Order": http://www.architectes.org/
TO RUN YOUR OWN BUSINESS
Since few years we have a quite simple way to create your own business, and few friends of me did, but... How to say? In France, even the word "simple" is much more complicated than Australia and your very simple ABN...
Anyway, the way is called "autoentrepreneur" and if you are not afraid to talk with French civil servant (try at least, sure this experience will be a good exercise for yourself!), feel free to create your own activity.
Obviously, you will have a bit of papers to fill, more than if you are employee, and don't forget to declare all your income to the Tax Office: French Tax Department is as careful as the Australian one...
USEFUL LINK
The official website of the "autoentrepreneur" system: http://www.lautoentrepreneur.fr/
Grands-Sables beach - Clohars-Carnot (Finistère)
TOOLS
RESUME
The French resume (called "CV" in France, from the Latin expression "Curriculum Vitae", that means "course of life") has got the same goal as the Australian one: to show to your future employer who you are, to focus on your qualities and to try to avoid your weakness.
But in France, the structure is really different, the goal is more to give a general idea than to give every details of every position you had in your career. Consequently, the CV is shorter than the resume, usually we try to fit in one side of one A4 page (okay, two if you had a lot of job and high positions...)
The main topics are:
– Information: name and first name (yes, more formal than Down Under...), email and phone. You can add a picture and some people put also the marital status and the date of birth.
– A (very short) motto, optional
– Education: degrees, with the name of the school and the year. It's much better if you can give the French equivalent, we are not familiar with the English degrees!
– Professional experience: the companies where you have worked previously, with the dates and the position you had. Maybe the main projects but no need to give too much details here, this is the main difference between France and Australia.
– Other skills (useful for the job): languages, software...
– Hobbies: just few words but that can be good, especially if they are linked to your job seeking.
In France, curiously, we don't include the referees in the CV, but keep these information if someone ask you to provide them. Of course, the reader will be able to find the information himself if he wants to!
Tips:
– Don't forget your details, email and phone number must appear very clearly, nobody use postal address nowadays...
– Include links to your social networks only if they are related to the job (anyway, an employer can / will google you, so have a look to your public profiles).
– Your resume will be the first sight you give to a future employer: make it attractive and clear to read (contrasted fonts, 10 or 12 points...)> Keep in mind that your resume will be read on a paper as well as on the screen.
– Be very careful to the level of language you will use, a mistake every line will quickly put your resume in the bin!
– No need to fill just for filling: for instance, get rid of old software that nobody use anymore. On the other side, it can be useful to underline your key strengths...
– Make a CV for the job you are looking for (if you can, use the words that employers use in the offers)..
PORTFOLIO
For every job seeking in artistic fields (like architecture, designer…), the book is as important as it is in Australia, really don’t underestimate it!
The main difference I saw is that you don’t need to include many drawing details in the “French” portfolio, but that cannot be a problem!
COVER LETTER
Well-called "lettre de motivation", this letter (that tend to become an email, now) is indispensable for every qualified jobs. No need to write a book, the idea is similar in Australia: make it short, vivid, dynamic and direct: tell who you are, why you apply, why you think you are the right person for the job... In conclusion, remind that you are motivated and available for any interview.
LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION
If you can have that from your previous employers, that would be great. Especially if you can get it in French (but many people in France learned English at school and still remember few basics...). No need to make 10 pages, but at least that will show some managers had appreciated your abilities...
Obviously, don't forget to include the details of the company and of the person who wrote the recommendation!
INTERVIEW
Tips:
– It's better to eat something before: take 20 minutes to relax and get rid of the stress... For that, food is one of the best!
– If you can, avoid to schedule the interview on a Monday morning or on a Friday afternoon, for the same reason we generally avoid to schedule workshops on these time slots…
– Check your appearance (nails, hairs, shoes, zippers…): visual communication is also -or maybe more- important than verbal communication.
– Always send few words to thank people after an interview, we can think it's useless but it doesn't cost anything so let's do it.
USEFUL LINKS
The rules for a French resume: http://french.about.com/library/writing/bl-cv.htm
A good article about how to write a French resume (and more, if you take the time to look a bit this good website):
http://www.thirdyearabroad.com/home/item/1411-how-to-write-your-cv-and-cover-letter-in-french.html
MONEY
SALARIES, TAXES and SUPER
Okay, let's talk about money...
First, you have to know that, maybe more than in Australia, it's a "taboo topic", you cannot start the interview with that, if even you dare talking about that during the first interview! Or at the very end, "oh, by the way..."
Few basics notions: the minimum salary is defined by the law and named "SMIC" (for 2016, it is 9,67 € per hour, 1466,62 € per month, full time), and then each profession has got a "collective convention", this document define all the working rules for a profession: right and duties of employers and employees, time, leaves, hour rates (depending on the time, the day...), how to ask everything and what to do in case of problem. And of course, each company can have its own rules, but they can only be "better" (for the employees) than these texts.
Be VERY careful, when you talk about salaries, in France we have a lot of different taxes on the work pay (and 90% does not even understand what is written on the pay roll...). Little mathematics exercise:
Net salary + Employee taxes + Boss taxes = Total cost of an employee
Net salary + Employee taxes = Brut salary
Boss taxes represents about 40-45% of the Brut salary
Employee taxes represents about 20-25% of the Brut salary
Clearer with an example? OK: for brut salary = 100 €, the employer will have to pay 140 or 145 € and you will be paid 75 or 70 €...
We never talk about the total cost of an employee but we can talk about "brut salary" or "net salary", it depends... So be very careful, even French people get trapped sometimes!
Yes, the Government takes a lot! And, (so far, because it may change soon) you have to pay your own taxes depending on the level of your income, that's another difference with Australia. The amount depends on your salary, the average should be around one month of salary per year.
That said, the Government charges include the French "super" system, totally different as the Australian one: we pay for people who are already retired instead of paying for ourselves.
USEFUL LINKS
To find out the SMIC (minimum salary): http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/tableau.asp?ref_id=natnon04145
To see the list of the collective conventions available (there's a lot!): https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_conventions_collectives_en_France
To find out the one which interest you: https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/R2970