Is it possible to work in a major French city without being fluent in French?

[bunjies]

My family and I moved to the Limousin 3 years ago but I have started doing short term contracts in the UK to keep my hand in and earn money. My French is of an intermediate level but wondered if I could get a job in say, Bordeaux or Paris, where it is usual to speak English. My field is public sector project management but I have plenty of transferable skills in administration. Does anyone have any advice or done this?

"There does seem to be an awful amount of prejudice against non-French nationals that I think even someone with fluent French would find it hard."

Not at all my experience I'm glad to say! How long are you planning on staying in France? Is it worth going back to school for a French qualification?

After finishing uni in the UK I decided I wanted to move permanently to France so I looked into how the "system" worked and found that the types of jobs that interested me needed a BAC+5 from an Ecole de Commerce (Business school) or an engineering school. So I did my masters in France at a business school and have had no problem at all getting a job, even in an area where I'm not required to speak English at all.

They don't seem to care what your nationality is, but qualifications are very important here and it can be quite annoying if you have to say "I did X, it's the equivalent to the French Y" (hence why I didn't do my masters in the UK...)

Major international companies can let you get away with communicating in English...but you'd need to offer something more than just being fluent in English. Many headquarters are based in Paris but others are in Lyon or Nantes.

I used to work for a company which had many expats in Paris, but they'd only be there for a couple of years.

Getting into the public sector would be very difficult I should think. Unless you'd be a teacher - in which case you'd need training/qualifications.

I don´t think anyone´s brought up the problem that French nationals have in finding a job.. Many many posts are only open to those who suceed in a competitive exam or who have attended a prestigious school (or university). Competition is absolutely fierce. Many teachers work for the CAPES for years before finally passing it, and in my albeit limited experience a non French nation wouldn´t stand a chance of passing it. The CAPES leads to a job for life position that is much coveted. I´m not sure I would even bother trying, sadly, as you are likely to be blocked all the way. Someone I know was specifically told by an offical just not to bother trying.

Also note the huge numbers of French people who move to London to work because the jobs and possibilities for advancement just don´t exist in France..

I agree that getting French qualifications could be the way forward..

invlanderen, I am not a French national and I have the CAPES and Agrégation. It is not true that a non French person would have no chance of passing, many do so each year. You do, however, have to adjust to French academic requirements (how to write a dissertation in true French style, etc.), but that isn't all that surprising if you are going to be teaching in the French system. You won't be 'blocked' by anyone, you just have to decide whether you think that you want to jump through the hoops. What could block a candidate for the CAPES, though, is their French, as that is often a stumbling block. Many of my students fail not only (or not even) because their English is weak but because their written French isn't up to scratch. And these are native French students...

You don't need a CAPES to teach English in primary, they are fairly crying out for people to do it, IME, having launched the project without thinking about who would actually carry it out.

I can't say for admin posts, but certainly for English language primary assistant posts there probably is no interview, the recruitment will be CV-based.

Is there anyway you can change the type of work you do so you only have to go to the UK occasionally? I am not sure what kind of projects you manage but if you don't need to be onsite all the time, it might be totally possible to do it all online. My DH works for a UK company (the same one as when we lived in the UK) but he works from home for the great majority of the time and goes back to the London office for a weeks every two months or so. He pays taxes and social insurance in France.

I worked for a bit as a research consultant freelance and was quite surprised to realise that I could pick up quite a bit of work with UK based international consultancy doing desk based research / telephone interviews.

ELT in a primary school is laughably easy to get. I have a possible job where we're going to be moving to on the strength of speaking English fluently and being married to someone in the French Navy. They haven't seen my CV - the fact I'm English MT is apparently enough.

The CAPES is if you want to be a proper primary teacher and is very hard to pass mostly because of the French language requirement, but that's understandable.

They are vey specific about their qualifications - I have on my French CV what the equivalents in France are now but I don't have a BAC + 5 (most English people don't as we do a 1 year Masters) - and where you studied also plays a huge part in whether you are even considered or not.

It will take time to get the qualifications that are hard even for a native french speaker. The route of getting short term work should be ok - check the local newspaper for your area - should be some jobs to do with collecting kids from school, cleaning & also work in shops/restaurants. This would give the language skills and also local knowledge

Oooh, that's interesting about teaching ELT in primary school. Not for me, but for a few friends of mine.
I'm also scuppered for my previous career in France as I'm an analyst programmer with a degree in languages. Oh, and I used to be a secretary. They just can't "get" that you could move from being a secretary to being a web developer!
I've just got a job working as an assistant to an Israeli artist based in Paris - got it on the strength of my linguistic abilities and my computer skills, so that was nice . However, got it through word of mouth - friend of a friend of a friend sort of thing.
I DO have friends here who have found jobs locally without great French, but it's not always been easy. I've also not encountered prejudice for being non-French, certainly not since my kids settled into the local halte-garderie / school.

I'm certainly not suggesting there is prejudice against me for being non-French, not at all, in fact we have been made very welcome. However, I take on board the comments regarding qualifications and this is something I need to think about.

I would love to be able to do project management from home, and this is something I will try and organise for my next contract. Certainly for the contract I'm doing at the moment it isn't necessary for me to be here all the time but as it's my first short term contract I didn't specifically request it.

I would be VERY interested working as an ELT in primary schools. How does one go about applying for this? Should I send a cv etc to the schools directly or do you have to go through the Rectorat?

You go through the Rectorat.