Would love to work in relocation!

[sony]

Hello there!

I am 26 years of age and totally bi-lingual. I was born in Sheffield but my parents moved to Strasbourg when I was only two. I therefore have no recollection of the UK until I came back at the age of sixteen.

I was educated at the International school of Strasbourg where I continued learning English and French from the age of four.

I then decided to go back to Sheffield at the age of 16, living with my grandparents and going to College.

I then progressed onto University where 4 years later I obtained my BA in French. Since then, my partner and I have started our own business in translation and doing a bit of tutoring. I would really love to progress now into something like relocating. I miss going to France and would love to help people move there. I have a love for the UK & France and it would be a great job to do considering this.

We have struggled to find any jobs in translating anywhere in Europe and besides I am more of “hand on” type of person and love talking to people, Again, relocating job would suit me perfectly due to this.

Could anyone give me any pointers as to where to start, contact etc?

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

As far as I can see there are two markets for what you want to do. Individuals moving to France, many of them retiring, and corporate transfers. The market for individual hand-holding has always been a bit marginal and with the current financial climate I can't see it being worth a look.

The corporate relocation area is presumably concentrated in Paris and a few other centres. I don't know too much about how it is organised, but I'd expect that if you contacted a few of the major international estate agents they might be able to point you in the right direction. It's quite probable that they offer this service.

Good luck.

[sony]

Thanks for this, has anyone got any more information??

[Panda]

Hi

Sadly I think you are a few years too late on this, the big push to relocate to France was 03/04/05.  The number of people coming over has dropped dramatically and may not recover for some years and at least not until the UK property market is in full recovery.

Most people are also very reluctant to part with money for this kind of service and whilst a few years ago a successful estate agent may have given you some work these days there are agents who have not sold a single house in 6 months and so they also have no cash to spare.

Sorry but I think it's not going to work in the near future as a vaible business.

Panda

[Kittycat]

Hi, just a thought, notwithstanding the other valid comments.

Many large international removal companies deal with or subcontract out relocation services, mostly for the corporate market. There's a lot more to it than finding houses. It may be worth making enquiries.  What might be more difficult is getting a foot in the door without any specific training/experience e.g. some relocation companies deal with all sorts of issues including finanical planning and tax advice.

Good luck.

[tinabee]

There are some interesting jobs on this website - not relocation, but working with young people

 

http://www.hotrecruit.com/show_job.cgi?j=4529368&e=year&lo=France&a=31

[sony]

Thanks all. I am tearing my hair out. I am 26 years old with seemingly no career prospects.

I cannot find a job with my language skills anywhere! I've sent 1000s of applications to France, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and barely anyone has the decency to reply! How unmotivating!

[tinabee]

Don't give up!!

In this economic climate, you will definitely need persistence and patience, and the resilience to take the knocks. Have you analysed why you think companies are not replying?  Is it because they require someone with experience and you have none, or are there other reasons. Are you adapting and targetting your CV to their specific requirements? 

If you google "how to get a job in a recession" you may find some tips that could help you.

Sometimes when you can't start your ideal career, it can help to take any job you can get, just to get you into the marketplace and start building your network. Even short term, part-time jobs can open up opportunities for you. There are jobs out there, but they might not seem like your ideal job at the moment. 

And don't take the rejections or lack of response personally, most companies are absolutely swamped with applications and unsolicited CV's - they couldn't possibly reply to every letter or application. They will have a clear set of selection criteria and if your CV doesn't match I'm afraid it will go straight in the bin.  Also, some companies use another method of reducing the number of candidates they select for interview. Here's how it works: put all the CV's received in a file without looking at them. If somebody rings up to ask whether their application has been received/considered, they will retrieve the CV and put it in the "CV's to look at" file. All the other CV's will be put in the bin. That way, only those candidates motivated enough to follow up their application with a phone call will be considered.

Are you resident in France?  Do you regularly search the job adverts on the Pole Emploi website? There is a facility to do an advanced search where you can find all of the jobs in France where English is a requirement. There will be lots of jobs that are totally unsuitable, but it might just give you some ideas.

Keep going, something will turn up . . .

[Ejc]

Have you thought about taking a course in something like IT because for many multinational companies having an IT person fluent in 2 languages would be a huge help. If you don't fancy that there are loads of other things you could do where having 2 languages would be a huge help but all would need some additional training / qualifications..... good luck

 

[BIG MAC]

I work for a subsidiary of one of the largest Insurance loss adjusters in the World (Cunningham Lindsey) I know that we have Offices in France and other French speaking countries. Have you considered training as an Insurance loss adjuster? Beauty of this is a lot of training can be on the job and it's difficult to find people who can truly think and speak properly in two tongues (Loss adjusters traditionaly may speak with forked tongues right enough!) may well be the route into the kind of work you want to do.

 

[mikeinfrance]

What about the European Union/Community agencies. I worked in the UK Patent Office for years and the European offices would advertise for jobs and require language skills. If you are still local to Strasbourg there must be some way to find out what the opportunities are.