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Pole d'Emploi? Has any brave soul done this? Advice Please?


Millie
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I have done it!  I was, am, terrified.  However I have registered with the Pole d'Emploi!  I need help with writing my CV, because I feel so....useless.  However, I am sure they might put a positive spin on this.  This period hasn't really been helped, because, I'm just finishing my final exams for the Open University, in French, but that will at least mean that I can put that I have the equivalent of the first bit of the DELF exam.  I shall wait..... and let you know how I get on.  I have been mouthing platitudes to myself - a thousand mile journey begins with the first step - type rubbish, but at least now I have started. 

It's interesting too, because whilst I've lived in five different countries and cultures before, I've always arrived with a decent job, so an entree into society.  It certainly makes you think what it must be like for others less fortunate.  Heigh ho, now it's just onwards and upwards!  I think!

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I offer this for your amusement: http://misplacedperson.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/gissa-jobdonnez-moi-un-bulot/

Day 1 was was nerve-racking (checkout chick in a bloody supermarket FFS, you're a graduate, get a grip), but it got a lot better in short order. I wouldn't think twice about applying for jobs with French employers now. Can't say I've managed to land anything which matches my qualifications/level of education mind you, but that's more about the job market in a tourist area than anything else.

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Well done, the first step is always the hardest.  I'll send you a copy of my CV and LM to give you a few ideas, if I can figure out how to attach it to a PM.  There's a a few (quite a lot actually) grammatical errors in it but the style has worked for me and I have a permanent job now so it can't be all bad.

All the best

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I had help at the PE doing my cv.  She was very nice and kind but she thought Washington DC was the name of a restaurant. The thing I do not like is that when their system was not working properly, I had to redo the CV and re-inscribe to PE by phone, even though standing there in person in their office.  A high cry from being in England where every foreigner gets a total translation. I was not treated any differently than a French person. Well lesson for Britain then.

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Ladoix, has very kindly sent me a CV and Letter of Motivation, and I'm going to try my best to tailor useless ageing mummy me, into the sleek mean working machine that I'm going to become.  The second I sent the wretched bits to the Pole d'Emploi I felt so much better, I think it was like waiting to do a bungee jump, much better when in mid-air!  I funked it for a whole week, too scared, how sad is that?  It's been like swimming through Scotch Broth for the last bit, and now I'm feeling the goo thining into more of consomme consistency, so that's got to be good.  Where oh where does the confidence and certainty of youth disappear too?  I'm hoping I might find it in a bag at the PE with my name on it.
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No, I quite agree too.  The only time I ever feel useless is an occassional contemplation first thing in the morning, and the odd poetic license!  Thank you for putting me back on form!  I think the mummything has been great in so many areas, before kid, I could read French, but now I can read Room on the Broom in English, plus the whole of the rest of the Julia Donaldson stable,  to my son and do an automatic traduction in French with funny voices to the sleepover mates.  No mean feat, I feel.  I'm not down, am far from out, and if I seemed it, I didn't mean to. I appreciate the mental poke in the right direction.  Well put.
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Yes, done the Grufallo, and Chen and the Magic Paintbrush - all of them I think!  Magic, I love this linguistic soup that having a kid here has plunged me into!  My son has some 'super' friends, they are kids who have been used to me bussing them off to the swimming pool from an early age and coping (because there weren't too many parents) and being the only woman standing amongst 15 naked boys flicking towels as each other, insisting they got dressed.  A few years on, it's paying dividends!  Tomorrow, got two really good kids for the whole day, parents coming to pick them up who are lovely, and people want to come to our house, because we are all of a mixture.  I love the kids, I even love the parents - I've rarely met a wrong 'un, and NOW I got my date for Pole d'Emploi - 26th of August, will see me sweating with every bit of paper I have in their office!  How great is that?  I'm not sure, but I will let you know.
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This is such a great big thank you to everyone who has helped and encouraged me on here!  Without your kind but firms shoves, I wouldn't have gone.  BUT...

 

The Pole d'Emploi was great.  I had expected all sorts of problems.  But...they were really super, nice, supportive, and utterly wonderful!  Whether or not I get work will be another matter! 

 

I was up most of last night practically throwing up in a bucket from nerves!  My eyelid kept twitching convulsively, and had someone given me the instruction manual for a nervous collapse, I would have followed the instructions slavishly.  But I floated out of the PE afterwards like Mary Poppins minus her parapluie!

 

They liked my CV, really helped with their website, and seemed to think I could apply for all sorts of jobs that I'd never have dreamed of applying for!  So I'm going to do just that, and I'm dragging my CV off tomorrow morning to the Interim agencies for part time employment too.  What just blew me away, was that they were so positive.  They were almost, practically, dynamic, and I didn't hear one hint of negativity.  I feel like I've had a facelift, and feel ten years younger, I'm springing where this morning I shuffled. 

 

Nobody wants to employ me yet, as they haven't had the chance,  but there's a possibility that they might want too, and the future might not be golden, but certainly not as bleak as I had seen it as being.  I don't want to run the world, or a major (or minor) company, but regular paid employment would alleviate one hell of a lot of stress for us, and that that may now be a possibility is magic.

 

Without your supportive advice and assistance, I probably would have bottled it, so thank you all so much.
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I will now!  Just needed to get up the courage really.  It was when nobody fell about clutching their sides with mirth, that I really thought I might be able to do this.  I got my va va voom back.  Sometimes life can take a few dire turnings, and it can take you a bit of self effort to get you back on course, it seems like nothing will ever be right again.  Perhaps La Rentrée will be a new beginning for me too, and not just for sproglet going to CM1!
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My (French) wife had a similar experience in the UK. She stopped work to bring up the boys until school age and then felt inadequate about going back into the job market. Fortunately our local adult education centre had a course for women like her. By the end of the course she had a job share and a few years later she was earning more than me as a freelance language teacher in industry.
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