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Working in Paris, France
Your name? Holly.
Age if we can ask? 20.
What made you decide to work abroad? I was working in a designer clothes shop – retail and it just felt like a dead end job. I knew that if I went abroad and came back I could always just start doing that again easily if I had to, so there was no risk.
What country are you working in? France – Paris.
What job do you do? I am a Nanny for a French family.
How did you find the job? It wasn’t easy, I moved to Paris in the spring of 06 and I found a flat right in the centre of Paris, I thought I mwould find work very easily. After about 3 months I heard about a magazine called FUSAC, you can pick it up at International schools and Colleges. It’s brilliant for English/ American speaking tourists and people looking for work. It’s full of jobs and accommodation and events and it’s almost entirely written in English.
So was that helpful? Yeah, Even now I’m working I get it every fortnight.
So, your job was advertised in there was it? Yep, I saw the job and applied and within 3 days I had started working. I look after a little French girl. The only problem with nannying is the hours. I work weekends and a lot of evenings so that’s not so good, I would prefer a 9-5 job so my evening were free.
Did you need qualifications?
No, they were looking for someone with experience of babysitting
or childcare but an excellent knowledge or command of the English language was more important, that’s the case with most
jobs. Although speaking French well gives you a better chance of a job in France especially in the tourism and hospitality areas or if you want to work in an office.
Where are you living? I am sharing a flat in central Paris really close to The Louvre. You can see the Eiffel Tower from the end of our road, it’s absolutely awesome.
What have been the highlights? Living in Paris is amazing, it’s such a big city, there’s always so much to do, even if you come out of your flat at 1am, you will see hundreds of people and you feel quite safe at night. You are often reminded to take care of your handbag and stuff but we have not had any problems. I am never bored here. I also have a little Jack Russell
puppy, but the French have never seen a dog like this before and they stop me every 5 minutes and ask me about my dog, my French has become excellent when I talk about my dog, it’s name, what breed it is etc, but that’s about it!! Well I am also at school learning French now so that when I do go back to the UK (If I go back!) I will at least be able to speak French well.
Are there any negatives? The salary is not so good - about 280 euros a month so if I didn’t have my savings to help with the rent it would be impossible. It can be lonely too being in a big city, I missed my friends and family, I would not choose to work in a city again, you have to really make an effort to make friends.
Would you recommend working abroad to others? Yeah, definitely but you need to be outgoing and confident, make as many friends as you can, otherwise if it’s not a holiday resort, if it’s a working city like Paris, then you can become lazy and not meet people and socialise. I think holiday resorts are different as people go out every night and you meet so many people on the beach and stuff.
Would you work abroad again? Definitely. I was not very
confident before I went to Paris, this has been such an amazing experience for me, I just want to keep travelling now. I have plans to go to Thailand for a month and want to spend a year working in Spain.
Working as an Au-Pair, Nanny or generally with kids can be a lot of fun but hard work. There are jobs available all around the world and families and recruiters are especially interested in people who speak English well and have some childcare experience. A qualification is not always essential. Good references if you have babysitting experience should be enough to secure a job but the salaries are not generally high as many families also offer accommodation and food. We checked out some magazines and websites and this is our pick of the best:
The Lady Magazine (weekly) www.lady.co.uk
FUSAC magazine (every fortnight) www.fusac.fr
www.greataupair.com
www.craigslist.com
www.imperialnannies.com
www.yorkshirenanniesworldwide.com
TNT magazine (weekly & newsletters) www.tntmagazine.com
Not forgetting the big recruiters advertising in this issue, who have varied childcare positions all over Europe.
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