Ask HN: advice/comments on looking for a job in France without knowing French? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: advice/comments on looking for a job in France without knowing French?

6 pointsoceola2 comments

Hi all (but mostly the French :-) ),

We're currently in the UK, but my wife's a bit of a Francophile and would love to sample the French life for at least a while. I don't really know much about France, much less the software development job market there. As I don't speak French (I'd try to learn it once there), I suppose the most obvious question is "Can you get by in the office with just English initially?". I imagine that's a "no" for most/all small companies, but not sure if it's the same with multinationals?

Much more subjectively: I'm a fairly junior developer (2.5y out of uni). Should I expect to be able to afford to rent a 1-2 bed flat and support a wife and a toddler?

Any ballpark salary figures will be appreciated, as well as any other relevant comments. Needless to say, if you're aware of any opportunities, I'd be grateful to hear about them :-)

Cheers

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Hi there. American living in France and helping others to move to other countries.

If you don't speak French, it can be much harder to integrate into French companies, but more and more IT companies in France are growing and realizing that they've no choice but to adopt English, at least to a degree. Almost everyone in my office speaks English. However, I've leaving to go freelance and maybe that's your opportunity? If you can find remote work, you might be able to make it work.

As for "can you afford it", that's hard to say. Most work is in Paris, but Paris is ridiculously expensive. My wife and I have a two-bed flat with a garden for €1,350 a month and everyone's stunned by how inexpensive it is (we're actually outside Paris by a five minute walk).

As for salary, that's going to be whatever you can blag off of your employer. They tend to be a bit lower than what I was seeing the UK, but I think that's largely due to the 3 month notice period requirement. That makes employees expensive if you get the wrong one, so employers (IMHO) compensate by offering a lower wage. I can't honestly say what you'd be looking at, but in Paris with only 2.5y, I'd be surprised if you'd get more than €40 or €45K, but you'll certainly be offered less!

Instead, maybe check out the larger cities such as Lyon or Bordeaux? Lower costs, still large enough to have an IT industry.

What's your IT background? There's a world of difference in opportunities between a VB hacker and a C hacker :)

Toulouse is quite a nice city with reasonable rents. I stayed in a lovely two bed apt there for €500/m in 2009. Quite a contrast to London. Airbus is a very big employer there, and presumably needs a few developers on the payroll. I ran into a few foreign engineers who worked there, few of whom spoke proper french

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