Daily LifeFinding a job in France

For an expat, finding a job in France is not easy. The French job market, in general, is in the dumps (July 2012). The unemployment rate is over 10%.

Language, of course, can be a big hurdle to finding a job in France. Most employers will not hire someone who speaks broken French or French with a heavy accent. Presentation counts, and how you speak is part of your presentation, just one more thing working against you.

In general, French employers are conservative and are reluctant to hire anyone 'outside the box,' like an expat. Most are very particular about whom they hire, searching for just the right person. The French, in general, are conservative in their business culture, and so companies that do aggressive hiring are rare.

In some respects, looking for work in France is like looking for work in most other countries; all newspapers have job want ads and there are a load of Internet sites (see below). Also, networking is very important, something that can make finding a job for an expat hard. Always ask anyone you know if they can help; networking like this is very common in France.

There are, of course, some jobs that are made for an expat, language teaching, for example. But even there I am not sure if jobs are as readily available as one might think, as most language schools expect their teachers to have excellent grammar skills. Some require some sort of certificate, TEFL for example

Links to related articles -
Five Tips for Landing a Job in France

Links to French job sites -

Living and Working in France