Paris Question
 

I want to land in Paris, stay at a cheap hostel for a week while I run around the city trying to find a job. I am looking for a job that you don't need any qualifications for, like a cafe or grocery store or wtv.

1) Will it be easy finding a cheap hostel the very night I land in Paris to stay at for a week? Or do I really need to book ahead of time? If so, how much ahead?

2) If I run around for a week handing in CV's at different places and then sit in my hostel room waiting for an employer to call, what are my odd's of getting a job in Paris? Any particular areas there where you would suggest I apply?

Thanks!
- Nick

What planet are you from?

Thanks Suzanne! very helpful...

What happened to the "awesome" job you found in Dordogne? Or the strawberry harvesting job in Fresnes you found? Or are you now looking for a job that doesn't require any work as well as no skills?
Meanwhile, did you ever find someone to translate into French "I speak and write fluently in French" for you? I'm still laughing over that one.
I don't know if you're real or not, but it seems your best bet should be as a stand up comedian.

Loopin' back to your other Paris inquiry...
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34574855

haha! Patrick you'vw got a great memory if you didn't just look up my post history.

Yea I know it sounds fishy but I am real. The Dordogne job I changed my mind about because I heard what a small town it is, not what i was looking for. The strawberry one is actually still an option but I don't have any expierience in that "field", no pun intended.

I'm still open-minded about working or staying anywhere I can, its just that Paris has always seemed to be ideal but not realistic in my mind. So this question is to see if I could possibly get it to work out. Actually, I just finished reading Ernest Hemingways: The Sun Also Rises and it rekindled my interest in staying in Paris :D

I know I phrased my question so that it sounds kind of naive but its actually a serious question..

thanks for allowing me to clear things up

By the way, you DO know that France has an unemployment rate near 10%, right?.. so those 'unskilled' jobs are not likely to be plentiful.

http://linktrim.com/1q5

Well, honey, the way it used to be was that you couldn't get a job (menial or otherwise) without a work permit, and you couldn't get a work permit without a job. Good luck!

Let me get this straight - you plan to fly into Paris with no hotel reservations, find a hostel to stay at, and then spend a week littering Paris with your CV and hope that prospective employers will contact you at the hostel? I salute your idealism.

You don't have EU citizenship. You're not being sponsored by an American company. Right?

Do you understand that no French employer can hire you unless he can prove that no French or EU citizen is available and qualified to perform the same job? And that the paperwork for any French employer to fill out to hire you, even if he could prove that, would no doubt be so onerous that he'd blow it off in a heartbeat? Since you now have your eye on no-skill jobs you've even more effectively placed yourself totally outside the job market. Do you know how many immigrants there are legally living in France who can do the same work and who will in all cases be hired ahead of you? The strategy of going for an unskilled job will backfire sooner than any other strategy.

I think you're going to have to do a lot more homework to make this work - or else go over there and get a stunning dose of reality.

Oh sorry everyone, I should have mentioned this..
I am actually from Montreal (Quebec) and there actually IS a France-Canada agreement on youth mobility and exhange. So I look at the website of the French Consulate of montreal and I am almost done getting everything done that I need to apply for a work visa.

They make seasonal work visas available to young montrealers 18 to 35 without having an offer waiting for them. you basically just need your Visa de Long Sejour, which i'm applying for this week (I have everything I need).

So yes, I 'll actually be visa'd up and ready to work legally..

As for the unemployment rate of 10%.. I'm sure there's some flaw to this argument but that's the same unemployment rate as in Quebec and there's still alot of "no-qualification" jobs out there if you look.
Also, I'm not totally unqualified, I've been working at a restaurant called Dagwoods (similar to Subways) for 2+ years now. My french is actually quite good and of course I have the advantage of talking English....

Sorry again for leaving out details :(

Thanks for all the fast replies though, I can hardly keep up.

If my plans are unrealistic, don't just make some sarcastic remark to make me look like a dope, offer a suggestion

I don't know about Canadian-France agreements, but I think I have read that it is legal for students to work in the EU for some time period in temporary jobs, so that doesn't surprise.

Finding a job will be another story.

I think you can find a hostel to stay in IF you do some homework ahead of time and have a list of places to try out. There are many web sites with listings of hostels. It sounds like you know when you would arrive, so why not make a reservation, if you can, though? I think some limit the length of stays, also -- I know they don't allow real long-term stays, but I don't know if a week is okay or not. You'd have to check with them.

I think the problem with the CV and waiting for people to call you is that the kind of jobs you are looking for aren't exactly the kind where you drop off a CV and wait for people to call you. I think some of those depend on networking or knowing someone, especially if you arrive as a foreigner. If you have any connections in Paris, you had better use them.

I don't know about the hostel thing, but don't think you have private phones there and suspect it might not be reliable to expect a hostel desk clerk to relay job messages to you. I think you had better find out about getting a cell phone when you arrive if you are serious about this thing.

Where to look? I don't know Canadian things in Paris very well at all, have never heard of a big Canadian community. If you were Irish or Australian, I'd suggest you drop by some of those popular bars for those expats or run by them. If there is some church with a large Canadian expat contingent, I'd drop by there and see what's on the bulletin boards or talk to folks. Things like that.

There are actually temp jobs there that are legit, I see ads for temp agencies, but they usually require bilingual fluency. These are office jobs -- just go to those agencies and see what is required. If you are fluent enough to get one, you should be able to find them by looking in the phone book.

For your hostel I would book ahead. Any place cheap to stay would really book up. As far as work is concerned, you might want to try some of the restaurant / pub type places. The Frog (chain of pubs) hires lots of foreigners. You could also try Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood and TGI Fridays. Pick up a FUSAC (France USA Contacts) and look in the back at employment offers. I would not expect it to be easy but its not impossible if you have the right papers. Unemployement is lower in Paris than elsewhere in France which is a plus. I think you would need luck on your side and you have to be the type that perservers.

you've probably figured this out already based on the aggressive nature of the responses to your post but Fodors is not the right place to get the kind of information you are looking for. Sorry you got such unwelcoming responses and that so many made assumptions about like you are american, etc.

europe is full of low/unskilled jobs that are paid "under the table" with none of the paperwork that is described by other posters...or even more laughably, that you need to be sponsored by an "american company" in order for a canadian to get a job in europe!!! The world does not revolve around american companies!

Therefore, a lot of the "advice" you received reflects a total lack of understanding of realities of the kind of lifestyle you are wanting to taste. Thousands of young people do just what you are planning to do.

BTW, it was obvious to me by your post that you are not an american.

He got "hostile" responses because he gave half information in a seemingly very breezy naive way. Then it turns out he speaks French, has Canadian citizenship which helps somehow, etc. etc. He didn't lay out his qualifications for a person to respond to in a knowledgeable way.

Not only is this post, not well presented, but his previous ones aren't either. I'm still laughing over the post where he asked how to say in French "I am fluent in French". I think that should go down in history as a classic!

I think all of MorganB's suggestions are good. Fusac has a website you can check in advance: http://www.fusac.fr/

Also, in terms of hostels, here is good site: http://www.fuaj.org/

I also read a blog written by a guy who is working/staying at Shakespeare and Co. Apparently the owner trades cots in the shop for people working shifts there during the day and he makes meals once a week.......so that might be a fun thing to look into. Also, you might consider getting a cheap mobile phone in Paris since that would make it much easier to get ahold of you. Good luck and have fun!!

Sagi, good luck with your séjour in France. I am sure something will come your way. Just ignore these dreadful souls that think they have some God given right to blast you. They are both unsavory and entitled. I am certain that they lead very pitiful lives.

I second MorganB and jpie's advice.
The mobile phone is a great idea as you will need to be reachable. Be warned that if you are staying at a hostel, i.e. with no fixed address, some prospective employers will find this suspicious. Proof of address (justificatif de domicile) is a big thing in France - you're always being asked for it!

Fusac magazine is definitely a good place to start. You can get it at most English/irish pubs and English bookshops (e.g. WH Smith on rue de Rivoli, Brentano's on avenue de l'Opéra). It comes out on Wednesdays. As someone who used to browse the Fusac every week, I can confirm that it has a lot of job offers for English speakers - especially bar work, telesales and English teaching (which usually requires a TEFL qualification). These are not totally "unskilled" jobs insofar as, in Paris, fluent English *is* a skill. You will need all your working papers in order, of course.

If you haven't already done so, check out the Lonely Planet Thorntree message boards, as they tend to get a lot more posts like yours so you might get more first-hand advice.

Here here to the Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree suggestion. You will find much more like-minded people there.

What I see as the most important thing if you are serious about obtaining employment, and as already suggested above... is you need a cell phone, maybe an email account, and even a street address possibly so employers and other people who might help you would be able to find you.