Urban Index: Hello Antje! Tell us how you came to France!
Antje: I had the opportunity to enrol in a double master’s programme at the European University Viadrina in Germany as part of my master’s programme. That’s when I chose France, because I had five years of French at school and I thought, my English is relatively good, why not live in a French-speaking country? So I applied in a city called Reims, which I neither knew nor could pronounce correctly and which is apparently in the Champagne region of France. I then spent six months there at the NEOMA Business School in Reims, where I met a very nice Frenchman (we’re still together, too!).
For NEOMA, I then had to do another internship and I chose L’Oréal in Paris. Funnily enough, my boss’s boss, my N+2 as they like to say in France, was also at NEOMA! I also discovered what a difference it makes to have been at the right university. The French school system, I didn’t know this at all, didn’t know that there are good and bad universities here and that it really has an impact on how quickly you find the job. I had applied once before to L’Oréal from Germany, but I didn’t even make it to the preliminary round. For my internship in France, I only had 2 interviews, even though the company is flooded with applications. I was certainly not the best, but I think the combination of my French university and my international profile opened a lot of doors for me.
Antje: I then wrote my Master’s thesis in Germany again. Since I didn’t want to have a long-distance relationship, I decided relatively quickly to move in with my boyfriend, who was doing an internship in Paris. I was still enrolled as a student and was therefore able to apply for an internship again. I also thought that I would find something faster that way than a full-time job and that I would be able to get a better foothold in the city that way. Going back to L’Oréal was not an option for me, because they couldn’t offer me a job in 6 months when I was still working there, and in general I didn’t like the industry and the work in such a big company. So I wanted a change of direction and found a start-up on Welcome to the Jungle that needed German-speaking employees.
I did Operations and Supply Business for the German market, which was super fun and I absolutely loved the colleagues and the ambience, the only problem was that my bosses didn’t understand German and I had to constantly explain to them what I was doing and what was so different about the German market than the French. Unfortunately, there wasn’t the possibility to take me on full-time there and I really thought afterwards that it was over with my exciting French adventure.
It’s relatively difficult to start a career in France and since I don’t speak French fluently, it was almost impossible for me. But my friend didn’t want to give up so quickly and searched for jobs for “German-speakers” at the Career Centre of our university. There, a job was offered by the provider of this platform, called JobTeaser. An alumni was looking for German-speaking support for his current team, so I applied straight away. The position suited me extremely well and appealed to me, and it worked out right away. That was really lucky.
Antje: I had a pre-screening over the phone and then four rounds of interviews, with my future boss and a German-speaking colleague (to check that I wasn’t impersonating someone else!), a member of HR, a Head of Department and finally with one of the two founders. Here I had the feeling that the company was more interested in the cultural differences between Germany and France, which immediately motivated me even more.
So I directly got a permanent French employment contract (CDI) there. Fortunately, that wasn’t a problem because as a German here in the Schengen area, I can also choose my employer across the border. The only thing that was a bit difficult was the health insurance, because I had to cancel mine in Germany and already be covered by the French one. Luckily, thanks to NEOMA, I was very well prepared for these administrative hurdles and had taken my trilingual birth certificate with me directly from Germany, which is available from the city at no extra charge. That is indispensable for the beginning!
The application was super relaxed, with my employment contract and birth certificate and thanks to my French colleague from HR, who took great care of me. After my dossier was sent to Assurance Maladie, it took about four weeks until I received my health insurance number, which I could then use to log in to the Ameli portal to apply for my Carte Vitale. With this number, I could then also leave the German insurance.
In October, it will be five years that I have been working at JobTeaser, and I am now in my third position: I started as technical support for the German market, so I had mainly German-speaking customers, and at some point I took on account management tasks. Then I had the opportunity to switch to the product team, where I have been for two years. Now I don’t work for Germany or in an international team, my daily work is mostly in French, but since everyone speaks English in theory, the transition was very pleasant.
Urban Index: How are things outside of work? Have you been able to settle in well?
Antje: Luckily, thanks to NEOMA, I already had 1-2 friends here in Paris. Others I met through the two internships, so I had friends virtually straight away at the beginning. Of course, it was also incredibly helpful to be in a relationship with a French person. Funnily enough, this has changed a bit over the years. Today I have met more Germans, often they were friends, and since you have the same cultural background, you get to talk very quickly and often just have the same problems.
To do some sport here, I signed up for a tennis club. I had never played tennis before, but I wanted to have a regular sport. It was funny, their website was completely in English, but the courses were all in French. I was very shy at first, but gradually made friends with the people.
Antje: Most of my French friends here speak very good English. They are also interested in international friends, sometimes even in Germany specifically, e.g. because they did an exchange there. That’s often really nice!
I also found out about Apéros Frenchies through my German friends and was taken there sometimes, which was really cool. They organise event series that are specifically focused on expats, which is always super fun. Through the same group, I also found out about the Kiin running group, which meets every Sunday to jog along the Seine. The group is predominantly Anglo, which I find quite pleasant from time to time so that I don’t lose my English, and these people are often super open and welcoming, so that’s also great fun! There are really a lot of opportunities to meet people here. I also tried Bumble BFF, because of my boyfriend I never really got to know the dating scene in Paris, but I was able to meet people outside of my work.
I get on really well with my colleagues and I’m lucky enough to work in an industry where we’re all the same age, but sometimes you still want to break out of your bubble. Bumble BFF is great for that, it works really well, but it’s like online dating in general: you have to be into it. The best people are those who have just arrived in Paris, then it’s not weird at all to meet because they’re also looking for a connection and you can plan things together, like going to a museum or something.
Urban Index: What is the worst thing that happened to you in France?
Antje: What was really difficult at the beginning was that I didn’t really know French. You’re often confronted with that and it simply takes time to master the language, and you have to stick with it. I used Duolingo diligently at the beginning, had language courses from work, tried to read French books, etc., but I always found my limits, even now. You just need a lot of patience and stamina, because you quickly feel left out if you don’t understand the people around you.
On the whole, though, I’ve had rather positive experiences here. One misfortune that happened to me recently was that my wallet was stolen at the Fête des Vendanges in Montmartre. I’ve always been careful, but since nothing ever happened to me before, I just got careless. It happened very quickly in the crowd, I was really drunk and just wasn’t paying attention. Suddenly my wallet was gone and I had already received text messages about some suspicious activity. The thieves must have gone straight round the corner to the next shop and used the contactless payment function with all the cards I had in it to withdraw €50 each time. By the time I blocked all the cards from my phone, €350 was gone, plus €50 in cash, not to mention all the cards and IDs.
The next day, full of anger, I immediately filled out a Pré-Plainte En Ligne, i.e. pre-filled the police report (thanks to DeepL). That worked great and the police station called me back later that day to make an appointment with me to sign it so I would have proof for my bank and insurance.
Urban Index: The whole thing, from A to Z, has now taken how long?
Antje: That actually worked. The most annoying thing was actually getting the money back from my bank in Germany. I have Boursorama in France, they refunded it within two days. It took a week for me to sign the notice. Two days for Boursorama, then I applied for a new German driving licence, you can do that by post, that was all no problem. The Deutsche Bank then took another 2-3 weeks and asked again about the pin number, which had nothing to do with it, but in the end the refund worked there too.
Urban Index: You got it all back because you blocked your cards in time?
Antje: No, simply because it was a robbery, I was insured. They had charged me €100 once and €150 once in increments of 50, and you can’t deactivate this contactless payment, at least not at my German bank. The only thing I didn’t get back was my debits from my Ticket Resto card. I guess you have to sort that out with the state and not with the provider, which in my case is Swile.
Urban Index: What advice would you give to other Germans who want to emigrate to France?
Antje: You have to want it. I don’t think France is an easy country to emigrate to if you just want to go somewhere else. Many Germans I meet here are here because of their partner, some because they are just super Francophiles. But then they often already know French very well and have this passion for French culture. I think you should have one of these anchor points.
Financially, I find France rather uninteresting financially, because at least back when I emigrated, you earned much better in Germany and the cost of living was much lower. The culture is also special. Personally, I have had mostly positive experiences, the people are very nice, but you can sometimes feel left out because you simply have a different background in many things. You didn’t grow up with the same series and films, you don’t understand some jokes. And a lot of French people just love that French music from the 80s, I don’t think I’ll ever understand that, even though I can at least sing along to some lyrics like Partenaire Particulier at parties now.
Antje: What particularly binds me here to Paris and France in general is that the people are incredibly social. It’s relatively easy to get into conversation with people, at least in a superficial way. There’s just this collective feeling here in every kind of constellation, be it with work colleagues, friends or neighbours.
Besides, the French have an incredible “savoir vivre”, they just take their time, sit down, talk to each other and enjoy this “moment convivial”. People are always eating, drinking and chatting together, which I find much more pronounced here than in Germany. The food culture and variety is just brilliant, of course. It is definitely a super beautiful country and a great culture!
