On Friday I sent an email to the company that had offered me a job to teach English to professionals to say that I wouldn't be taking it. The final offer was half the hours of the original, and included dates in September, which was not part of the original plan. For only 6 hours a week, the job was going to be more hassle than benefit and it would have prevented me from getting other work.
So that means I'm back to my daily ANPE and Keljob searches and sending cover letters for secretarial positions.
Someone I met in the community band gave me the contact information of a friend who organizes the foreign language classes at a local specialized university (in agriculture or technology or engineering, I forget...). The woman told me though that in order to teach at the university I have to be registered as an independent worker, an official free-lancer in other words. Which is exactly what I don't want. People suggest to me all the time that I should respond to ads in boulangeries and grocery stores from people looking for English classes, but that means being always looking for more clients, plus the hassle of declaring the work. I would also like to contribute to a retirement fund, which I have no idea how to do if I just freelance. Tutoring like I'm doing now with the huge French chain for "soutien scolaire" is fine, but it's no career.
Due to my unemployment status, abundance of time on my hands, and lack of any other way to gain experience/prove my skills in France, I'm now the Communication Assistant for the non-profit Habitat et Humanisme here in Toulouse. This means that so far I have sat through a meeting listening to the others talk about the problems they have with various apartments and tenants. I also was shown the donor database by the secretary. Then we had a cup of tea to wait for the beginning of the meeting. The secretary apparently has a CDI, but the job is only part time and she still qualifies as unemployed.
She said she'd really like to move on because she's mastered all the tasks of the job and twiddles her thumbs half the time, but she's worried about starting a new job and after the month trial period the new company saying goodbye. We spent some time looking at ANPE job ads together, which she says she does every day.
While we were talking about job searches and why I'm in France (I need to record my story and then just hit playback for the number of times I have to repeat it) my lack of "BTS Secretariat" came up. This is essentially an Associates Degree, or perhaps less, for secretarial work. I mentioned my job experience, my Bachelors Degree, that I'm bilingual... and she still suggested that I should get a BTS. I learned Outlook by using the FAQ and Demo parts of the Microsoft website; don't tell me the skills needed to be a secretary are in any way difficult. Would you suggest to someone with a degree in computer science to go to ITT Tech and get a certificate in computer help desk operator?
In the end, I think I need to find a better way to talk about my education and experiences. I still have a very American approach and start out my story saying I have a Bachelors in International Relations and French. The man who does the Communication for the organization expressed some doubts as to my capability to help him (dude, I'm doing this for free!! who do you expect, an ad exec from Manhattan???) and a while later it came to me that I should have mentioned the ROP Marketing and Photography classes I took in high school. In the States they're worthless because everyone knows that those "real world" classes don't really prepare you to work in the field once you've completed them, despite the pamphlets published by the school district. But here in France, I should mention them. In high school and college I was the Publicity officer for several musical ensembles, and I've used the same word in French to describe my experiences: "J'ai fait de la publicité pour plusieurs ensembles...." But publicity means nothing to them. Communication is the magic word. And "Certificat en..." (Certificate in ...). I have my monthly meeting with ANPE this Thursday, and we all know those are rather pointless, but I'll see if I can find someone to help me reformulate my education and experiences to make sense in France.
I still feel like I'm butting my head up against a wall with my job search, but maybe if I change the way I butt my head I'll feel like I'm accomplishing something. It's certainly not the first or only thing I need to change. Here's to reinventing myself!
1 comment:
Hey, I'm wondering if it has something to do with the provinces or where you're looking for a job? Have you tried recruiting agencies down there? (or maybe you have and I've overlooked it in your most recent posts)... My work experience here in France hasn't been all that varied, but if you add in the random things I did in the U.S. before arriving here again in 2002, my work history is not exactly streamlined, to say the least! And I still haven't buckled down and tried to get any French equivalencies done of my B.A. or anything. And my degree is only in French! With a minor in MUSIC of all things!
Which all boils down to NADA here in France, obviously. But I never got a BTS or anything, either. I just learned to type really fast in one of my former jobs in the U.S. (and playing the piano for years probably helped a lot as well), and I tried to use my French skills in the U.S. for several of the jobs I held in the Baltimore/Washington area before moving over here...
But in any case, what I wanted to tell you is that the recruiting agencies I've been to are usually very good about helping you pinpoint where you might most fit in, and where they can best place you. It seems to me like you already have a good grasp on the language, which is obviously a huge plus, and you have many other skills that you just need to highlight on your CV as well. They make you take those ridiculous, godawful tests in the recruiting places, of course, but I'm sure you'd pass all those with flying colors!! (typing, grammatical correction in French and English, etc...)
I don't know; just an idea... I don't know what kind of recruiting places they have down there where you are, but I would head out to Manpower as a start. I had a great contact with a place called TMI here in Paris, but I know they don't have other branches outside the city here. But I think there must be loads more where you are as well! Show them what you've got -- after all, your being an English native speaker is a huge strength that could be helpful to many companies, and not just for teaching English (although that does end up being one of the biggest options we have, unfortunately!).
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