Working in France - Applications

THE CURRICULUM VITAE 

The CV is divided into three or four main sections:

1) Personal information:

• Surname, usual name, exact address and personal telephone number (with international code numbers), date of birth or age, possibly place of birth, civil status and nationality. Information concerning your religion, state of health, family and political and trade union affiliations should not be shown on your CV.

2) Training:

• In this section, state the diplomas obtained, mentioning mainly the ones relating to university or vocational education. State the dates on which the diplomas were obtained and, if possible, their French equivalents (see Diploma recognition). There is no point in describing all education since nursery school. However, do include a description of the content of your training. For those with experience, state the courses taken during employment, mentioning only the most important ones. You should state clearly your language skills, indicating which level you have for each language.

3) Professional experience: 

• This section is very important. For those with experience, it should take the form of a paragraph for each period of experience (for a recent graduate, a paragraph for each training course undertaken). For each period of experience or training course, state the date when you started and left the position, the company name and sector of activities, and the post occupied. Then describe the work and tasks entrusted to you.
  It is not necessary to state the reason for leaving or changing jobs.

4) Personal activities, hobbies, miscellaneous:

• An optional section may be devoted to presenting in a few lines your activities and/or extra-curricular responsibilities (students’ union, events organiser, etc.), your leisure activities and travel experience, stating the countries you know and have visited (if you have already visited France, you should certainly state this), the sports you practise, your personal tastes (literature, music, etc.) and your non-professional responsibilities.

THE LETTER OF APPLICATION

Consisting of a maximum of one to two pages, standard white format, it should preferably, according to French custom, be handwritten.

However for some types of jobs, typewritten letters are being increasingly accepted, and may even be sent with a CV by email. 

You must give your surname, name, full private address and telephone number with international code on the top left-hand side of the page. The date should be shown on the top right-hand side. Several lines below, put “For the attention of Mr or Ms XXX”. The company’s address should be on the upper right-hand side of the page.

Your letter must enable the recruiter to understand why you are replying to his job offer or why you are approaching him. You must make it clear that you know who the company is and what it is looking for, and how you meet this need.

The letter of application must be signed (preferably at the bottom right-hand side).

Source: European Union
© European Communities, 1995-2005
Reproduction is authorised.