Q & A

Subject: My partner and I are looking to move to France next year.

Question: Dear Jeff, I have been recently looking at your website and am finding it quite interesting and to be a useful source of information. I was curious if you could offer any words of advice from your own experience. My partner and I are looking to move to France next year; she is French and we will be getting PACS at the end of this month. She has a PhD and has been currently working as a Professor at our local university. We are both in the process of looking to find employment in France. We know that the unemployment rate in France is high and her finding a job will be difficult but I was wondering what would be my chances as an American. I was wondering if you could give me any advice or point me in a resourceful direction. I realize I have to obtain a work visa first, but I do not know what the possibility of that is. We are looking to reside in Nice. I am currently working for Delta Airlines as a flight attendant and have been with Delta for five years. In addition, I worked as a retail manager for several stores for five years prior to accepting my job with Delta. What I have is ten years of customer service experience, but I do not know what the changes are of finding a job with this type of skill? Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read my email.

Answer:

Your partner might have an easer time than you think finding a job. There seems to be a lot of jobs in education, at least more than in other fields. The first thing she should do is become certified to be a Maître de Conférence (university professor); this certificate states the holder can teach at a French university. Of course your partner would still have to find a job, but at least she would have the qualification. My wife has applied to be certified and will once she has that look for a Maître de Conférence position, and it takes a few months from the time you apply until you get certified. My wife now tells me that the deadline has pasted for this year.
As for yourself, think about teaching English or the tourism trade. Maybe you could send out your CV to English schools in the Nice area, try http://www.pagesjaunes.fr, it is the French yellow pages. If you have a lot of experience in customer service you might be able to find something in tourism. Also you might be able to find a job as a flight attendant in France. I know that there are some new no-frills airlines in Europe, EasyJet is one.
All the links I have for finding a job in France are here, http://www.americansinfrance.net/links/LinksByCategory.cfm?Category=Finding a job in France.

Related Link:
http://www.americansinfrance.net/MovingPlanning

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