The job search

began today and is looking okay so far.  For anyone who doesn't know, I'm going to be looking for a job in France for the next year - I'm not necessarily looking for something that fits into the French/history/academia thing I've been doing but I would do a lot of different things.  The positions that seem to be in the highest demand for someone like me (ie, no real tech/engineering/science skills but fluent in French and English) are: bilingual administrative/secretary work and au pairs/nannies.  I have enough experience with administrative stuff that I could probably find a position doing that - most likely in an English speaking company that works with French clients - but for many wealthy families in Paris it seems the only au pair qualification they want is English speaking, female, and independent. 

Most who know me probably see the big difficulty already: I'm not the biggest fan of children.  I'm pretty picky about what kids I like because so many annoy the crap out of me.  Handily enough, though, there are a lot of agencies online where I can put up a profile and meet the families before committing.  Also, I can handle just about anything for a year, and the responsibilities generally look like this: take the kids to school/creche, pick them up in the afternoons; make them a snack, sometimes dinner; help with homework and any hobbies (many mention music, yay!), speak English to them; bedtime routines; babysit one or two nights a week; sometimes do light housework or grocery shopping.  They give free housing and meals, pay a small weekly salary and give weekly pocket money.  I can handle that.  I'd be mostly free during the days and weekends as well, and several mention wanting to take au pairs on vacation with them which would be cool.

I just started today and I've already had two positive responses.  One of the agents actually contacted me about working in the first family - from the French Indies, living in the Paris suburbs, they have a 6 year old girl and a 2 year old boy - and has been very active.  I'll likely have a meeting with the mother sometime this week and then if things go well, with the kids later.  The second family lives in central Paris with a 2 year old and a 7 month old.  I don't know if I'd want to take care of a child that young but I'd rather be in central Paris.

I also applied to two administrative jobs today (one at Intel France) and sent a message to a large auction house asking if they had any advice on getting a job there or knew of any openings (thank you, Lynn, for suggesting that!).  One said the review, though, would take up to four weeks so that one probably won't happen.

In all, it's looking fairly promising.  The one snag in the plan could be getting a visa - it's hard to find full time work if you don't have a visa; it's hard to get a visa without full time work.  It's also much quicker and easier to do it from the US, apparently (although it took me nearly a month last time). 

I haven't done too much else this weekend aside from school work and job searching, although yesterday I did get deux petits cadeaux pour ma plus petite niece!  We had a nice little IFS dinner party the night before as well.