What people won't tell you about looking for a service design job in France
By: Camille Oudinot
Tags: Job Interview, Job Hunting, Job Search, Design, Service Design

Moving to a new country is always challenging: Adapting to a new culture, readapting your pre-existing biases about the country and its people, making new friends while leaving old ones and family behind, and finding a job. As a Senior Strategic/Service Designer from Argentina my biggest fears were basically not being up to the task because of a preconceived idea that my country is always far behind on everything compared to Europe, but in many ways we are the same, there are only some tips to take into account that will help you understand the French way and might help you boost your chances.

1. The French education system is very rigid, which translates into rigid job description requirements and structures: You have to fit into the labels or specializations. The french divide very distinctively every design practice: UX/UI/Graphic Design/UX researcher etc. Finding job positions as a generalist is not a given, so try to tweak your job positions to make them fit job titles if you see you fit the job description, it will make your candidacy accepted more quickly.

2. Service design as a concept is almost nonexistent, there are lots of job searches for UX/UI designers or strategic designers. In some cases, some job requirements for a "Consultant" might fit with Service Design, but they usually have a very strong business/financial knowledge component needed, which in the case of Argentina those two worlds don't mix too much.

3. The french pay attention to the way you write and express yourself, even more than other countries. If you are not sure about your writing skills even though you have a french passport, use your foreign name, they might be more indulgent if you make mistakes.

4. When talking about salary, unlike most South American countries, they think about brut salary per year, not a net salary per month. Use a conversion calculator to help you see you end net salary, this one proved to be pretty helpful: https://www.salaire-brut-en-net.fr/

5. Pay attention to the type of contract you are looking for, like in the US, acronyms appear often, you might find the following: CDI (Contrat a durée indeterminée) this is the normal kind of contract for a job, which means the contract is for an indefinite time; CDD (Contrat a durée determinée) this means the contract they are offering is for a determined period and it will include either a finishing date, or specify that the contract will end when a specified task or period is complete; CTT (Contrat de travail temporaire ou Intérim) is similar to a CDD contract but becomes more specific as it is made valid only until a task is accomplished; Contrat de professionnalisation (alternance) this contract is usually for younger people between 16 and 25 looking for their first job opportunities or for older people looking to learn a new trade, there are others, but these are the most common or the ones you will find on Linkedin.

6. There are lots of different platforms to look for jobs, as well as HR consultancies that specify in searches for design profiles, here is a list that may come in handy: Data Recruiters, Urban Linker, Welcome to the jungle, Monster, Pixel Pond, Zebra people, Data Recrutement, Designers Interactifs and Hyffn. Sending your portfolio to them will really boost your chances.

7. Although there are lots of companies that recruit via a simplified Linkedin application, most of them use Workday, which is less than user friendly. Once you fill it once, copy and paste the answers on a Word document so that next time you don't have to fill everything again and waste time. Their CV autofill works horribly, don't trust it.

8. Always have a motivation letter well structured, where you just change one paragraph to tell the company why you want to work with them and not others. This way you will have a generic letter which you can quickly personalize to get recruiters attention.

9. Vouvoyer vs Tutoyer: Although in english this notion does not exist, it is important to the french because when using "Vous" instead of "Tu" shows a sign of respect towards your interviewer. If the person allows it, you may use the less polite form "Tu", but never cross the line without asking, politeness and the knowledge of these rules are important to the French.

10. Talk to other designers, try to understand the design ecosystem and its nuances, meet people. Lots of people are open to meet others to give a hand, more than you could imagine. Don't be afraid to invite people for coffee to discuss design or the design "milieu", this will also create opportunities for you, prepare questions beforehand, think of this as a potential interview to show spark and curiosity.

11. AMOA/MOA/MOE acronyms: When seeing them for the first time you might wonder what they mean, but its quite simple: MOA (Maître d’ouvrage) is the person that defines what must be done; MOE (Maître d’oeuvre) who defines the how, which might make us think of a project manager and lastly the AMOA (Assisstance á maîtrise d’ouvrage), which will be in charge of setting up the competences and means needed for the project to work and support the MOA.

12. When you get an interview, bring stuff with you, I call them conversational pieces, which can help you talk about your design interests and other things that make you who you are and may create a shared interest between you and your interviewer. Research your interviewer first to be able to create a link that does not only have to do with work, they will have a harder time to forget you.

13. CV's have a very defined set of points that need to be there in order for it to be considered complete, and although most of them are pretty straight forward like your education, languages you speak and job experience, it is important to show your personal interests to show recruiters a full picture of who you are.

Job hunting will always be nerve wracking, but it is important to get in mind that we are basically interacting with others, and although it is true that hard skills are important, soft skills and creating a connection are also needed to create a lasting impression.