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Letter of Motivation?


SS2002
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Hello

I am wanting to apply for a job teaching English and have been asked for a CV and letter but am unsure what to put in the letter and how to word it for the French market - can anyone help me, please?  I have a 'French' CV and if anyone would take a look at it, I'd be most grateful...please PM me if you can help!

Thanks!

Sandra

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Hi Sandra,

I have an even better and more productive answer for you.

Your local ANPE office has leaflets giving you templates for letters of motivation. They also have a big file with examples of CVs for you to photocopy free of charge and change to suit yourself.

Register with Assedic, then take your letter of rejection (assuming you haven't worked for an employer in France) to your local ANPE office and register with them.

You then have access to all their resources, including help in your search for employment.

Easy!

Good luck,

Aly

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Hi Sandra

You absolutely can go through ANPE / ASSEIDIC as someone suggested. I did it and while they try to be very helpful, it took a month to sign up for ASSEIDIC and then another 3 weeks to sign up for ANPE before I was allowed to use any of their resources. Even then it was pretty hard going language wise even though I think that my french is better than "pretty good".

The letter of motivation is a weird french thing that we don't have in english really as our CV's cover it all. I went to the ANPE courses on CV's and LM's and found them useful from that point of view (despite having a PhD and having hired people myself in england); so would be willing to let you know what they said. I also got a french friend to have a look at mine and tweak (frenchify) them, so although my french probably isn't up to correcting yours, I can let you have copies of mine if you think it will help for style etc.

Good luck!

suzi

www.patiras.com/trinite.htm

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The letter of motivation must be written by hand, many employers in France will not even look at one that is typed or word processed.

ANPE and ASSEDIC can be helpful, but a lot of offices are quite the opposite, it's a bit of a lottery really. Many seem to have a prejudice against what they see as non-French people taking jobs away from the French. I have spoken to one or two and they say that the British can be so desperate that they will accept jobs at the SMIC and stay at that level without the seniority increases that the French expect and so keep wages low for everybody else. Sorry to put in a controversial point but it is true in my experience.

 

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It's interesting that you say the LM must be handwritten, all the jobs I've seen ask you to email your CV and LM so writing by hand is not an option, I think that most large employers would accept (and expect) a type written letter these days...
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That has certainly been the case when I have been job hunting in rural France, though the last one I did was a couple of years ago when e-mail was a definite rarity, although many small organisations had e-mail few if any seemed to use it. Obviously if they ask for e-mail then unless they specify a scanned written letter (which not too many French people would necessarily be able to do) then you just send a covering e-mail rather than a written letter. My current job was all fixed up over the phone with nothing in writing until the formal offer and acceptance so I am probably a bit out of date.

Now e-mail seems to be gaining ground quickly among smaller employers then I guess things are changing. I was always told by the agencies and various French people that you can tell a lot about the person's character and educational standard by their writing, I can believe that under the education system in France, but would definitely not agree with that in England where the most intelligent and best educated people (like me of course [:)] ) often have poor handwriting.

I still think that for a written application in France then a handwritten letter and typed CV is correct.

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