Living in France

nitrogen

Has anyone moved or living in France (Outside of Paris)?

I'm a software developer, with basic leaving cert. French and am just wondering what my options would be for employment? Are there international companies in bigger towns that work in English?

Also, what are the pros and cons of life in France compared to Ireland?

Thanks

syklops

I know you are asking about France, but here in the Czech republic they are desperate for software devs. I know of 3 different companies - NetSuite, Red Hat and Solarwinds, looking for devs in laguages such as C, C++, C#, java and other languages.

In this economic climate, I recommend going where there are jobs, rather than picking an arbitrary place in the world, and looking for jobs there.

seachto7

One thing I didn't like when I spent time in inland France (Burgundy), was the distance to the ocean. I remember on the hot days I just wished I could head to the sea...but that's a personal thing.

I think France has a lot of good things going for it in terms of lifestyle...

If you compare it to Aus, you have similar climate, but you have snow in the winter if you want it, you have your good food, good wine and so on. You are also able to take the train to different countries rather than having to fly everywhere.

nitrogen

syklops wrote: »

I know you are asking about France, but here in the Czech republic they are desperate for software devs. I know of 3 different companies - NetSuite, Red Hat and Solarwinds, looking for devs in laguages such as C, C++, C#, java and other languages.

In this economic climate, I recommend going where there are jobs, rather than picking an arbitrary place in the world, and looking for jobs there.

Thanks – I do agree with you it's best go where the work is. I will look into it, certainly won't rule out any country in mainland Europe.

Could you recommend job sites for Czech?

alexjk

Why not Paris? I don't know much about software development but knowing at least basic French would make things a lot easier for you because even though it's possible that your specific job might not require it, there's probably a lot of staff in whatever company that don't speak it. I'm talking about security, human resources etc. The good thing is that you really do pick it up once you persevere. I only moved over last week and my first day was overwhelming but it's beginning to get better.

The advantages of living in France are that you can plainly see what benefits your taxes are bringing to you. Public transport is excellent, as is healthcare. You can get rent allowance as a full-time worker as well (and this is quite common for people to do) I live in Paris and although it's only been a week, I haven't experienced any of the stereotypical rudeness. The downside for me is French bureaucracy, which takes an age to get through. If you do decide to come here, don't take it personally if it seems like someone is being deliberately mishelpful. Unless they're a state worker, in which case they probably are.

seachto7

Have you considered Sophia Antopolis in the South of France? I think the working language for lots of IT jobs there is through English....

Jim2007

nitrogen wrote: »

Has anyone moved or living in France (Outside of Paris)?

I'm a software developer, with basic leaving cert. French and am just wondering what my options would be for employment? Are there international companies in bigger towns that work in English?

Also, what are the pros and cons of life in France compared to Ireland?

Thanks

You should consider the French speaking part of Switzerland - most international companies use English as their main working language and so you should be able to land a good job and pick up your French while living there.

Jim (Switzerland)

nitrogen

seachto7 wrote: »

Have you considered Sophia Antopolis in the South of France? I think the working language for lots of IT jobs there is through English....

Never heard of it until now. I'm going to look into it. Thanks for the suggestion.

syklops

nitrogen wrote: »

Thanks – I do agree with you it's best go where the work is. I will look into it, certainly won't rule out any country in mainland Europe.

Could you recommend job sites for Czech?

Sorry forgot to reply.

Check out monster.cz, who, coincidentally, have an office in Brno and according to a friend, they are desperate for call centre staff, so if you are not picky, thats one option.

I work for Red Hat and we are expanding, check out:

https://careers.redhat.com/ext/search?act=list&Location=5908

A lot of dev and QA positions there, with really good benefits packages, like stock units and advanced training. If you're interested in any of those send me a PM and I can get you more info.

Also check out a former employer of mine, Solarwinds, at their career site, they have dev and QA jobs also:

http://www.solarwinds.com/company/careers.aspx

Oh yeah, nearly every IT company uses english as the main language. So you can go to darkest Peru or Tmbuktoo, and English will be the required language so don't worry about the language too much..

Gamb!t

Sorry for bumping an old thread but can anyone recommend any decent sites for renting a house or apartment in France as we are thinking of moving over there to live but want to research the renting accommodation market first.
A decent website to the equivalent of Daft would be useful.
Thanks

nervous_twitch

Gamb!t wrote: »

Sorry for bumping an old thread but can anyone recommend any decent sites for renting a house or apartment in France as we are thinking of moving over there to live but want to research the renting accommodation market first.
A decent website to the equivalent of Daft would be useful.
Thanks

I used leboncoin.fr which is the most popular in my region. You might also try pap.fr and seloger.com, both of which I've used before.

Gamb!t

nervous_twitch wrote: »

I used leboncoin.fr which is the most popular in my region. You might also try pap.fr and seloger.com, both of which I've used before.

Thanks a mill.