Travelling on the continent

Skr4wny

Hi all,

I Will going working/travelling around the continent later in the year. I'll be starting in Brussels with a view to going to Lille from there and working my way down through France. I have a very minimal amount of French but intend to start a bit of intensive learning for the next few months.
Anyway my main questions......
1) How essential would it be to have good french to work there?
2) What is the french jobs market like in France at the moment. Bear in mind I'm not looking for fancy work, scubbing pots and pans will do fine once it pays my way.

Any answers to the above and any other tips would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

drane2

I think unemployment is running at more then 10% there at the moment. I would thing having good French would be essential for getting a job over there, but I'm not quite sure. I know a few people that went to Paris last year and despite them all have excellent French, they all had a really hard time trying to find any jobs.

Skr4wny

Hmm that's a pain in the ring, so it'd be a good idea to stay clear of France, anyone any idea what the German jobs market is like, is it a dismal as in France?!

Imposter

worse. Germany's really bad at the moment especially for low skill jobs.

Skr4wny

Is unemployment quite high in most of Europe at the moment?? Is it a bad idea to be attempting to work my way around Europe. It's something I've been mad to do for ages. I'll have a lot of money saved but would prefer to work my way around aswell to supplement myself and it would mean I could spend longer in places and travel more. Are there particular countries that are easier to find work in that others so I could plan my journey to accomadate for this. Also is finding working in France and Germany a total lost cause??

Cheers.

drane2

I think the problem at the moment is all over Europe there's competition for low skilled jobs, and that competition will increase once the EU is enlarged. Also the problem from your point of view is that you won't be staying anywhere for an extended period of time, which would make employers reluctant to hire you. Might be an idea just to pick a city to go, find a job there, and travel in your spare time.

martarg

Also the problem from your point of view is that you won't be staying anywhere for an extended period of time, which would make employers reluctant to hire you. Might be an idea just to pick a city to go, find a job there, and travel in your spare time.

I agree....

By the way, have you considered exploiting your "native English speaker" asset, and find work as a teacher in some language school? It doesn't pay a lot, but you can supplement it by private conversation lessons &c....

Ponster

I was going to say that Paris has a shortage of pub staff at the moment but there's little chance of getting a job if your boss knows that you won't be staying in town for long. Many regional towns search for Irish staff too as they normally know what's going on in the world of rugby/football/sports... which can sometimes be more important that having perfect French.

Skr4wny

I heard there are far to many people teaching english already in France, I think I might be able to sort out work in a call centre in Brussels for a UK company(only english as your mother tongue required) on a 3 month contract starting in January which would be sound, am starting an Alliance french course so I'd have a good foundation in french and could pick up a good bit more living in Brussels for 3 months which would serve me well when I venture down into France. Plus it'd be a chance to see what everyday life in Belgium is like and I could check out Antwerp, Ghent, Liege, Bruge and Luxembourg on my days off. I reckon getting work on the continent will be difficult, but If I ask absolutely everywhere and keep throwing enough **** at the wall I'll get enough bits a pieces here and there to supplement me on my trp around Europe........hopefullly!

drane2

Originally posted by Ponster
I was going to say that Paris has a shortage of pub staff at the moment but there's little chance of getting a job if your boss knows that you won't be staying in town for long. Many regional towns search for Irish staff too as they normally know what's going on in the world of rugby/football/sports... which can sometimes be more important that having perfect French.

Is that true? I was going to move to Paris during the summer for a long-term stint and bar work would suit me great. Got any contacts? Thanks!

drane2

Oh yeah and to get any sort of a language job you need to get a TEFL certificate or better. Though you could always try your hand at private lessons.

Ponster

Originally posted by drane2
Got any contacts? Thanks!

One or two I suppose. It's a przetty tight-nit community and if you don't find work in a bar they can usually tell you where it's worth checking out next. There's a bi-monthly mag canned 'FUSAC' available in all locations where English-speaking people might gather which has job offers for English speaking people and some don't ask for French as a basic requirement.