I am a foreign student learning computer science in a French university and I would like to find a decent job.
I know that in France, most job opportunities are offered by the infamous outsourcing companies, that has long records of bad reputation. However, often other students say that they prefer these companies as they offer some first experiences in real life in the technology industry.
Well, IMHO, I doubt for the value of such experience as they likely work on numerous obsolete technologies and fresh new students don't have a choice - in my opinion it's rather a trap.
Here is the problem - with my profile, can I seek for a better possibility in a more decent company? Could I have some advices such like which field should I focus on to enhance my performance?
I have several personal projects on GitHub, including the one that I worked when I was in the 3rd year of bachelor, to "create a game where people write code to direct characters to move around and act" with ANTLR/Kotlin/React or Unity.
There are also things about compiling or languages but I admit that they are quite a messy.
I am also working for a company under the work-study program but I don't expect to stay in this company due to several reasons hard to disclose to the public. I am therefore wondering if it's possible to find an offer in fields such like client/front-end or 3d programming.
Besides, last week our school organised a contest to develop an app to visualise some data and interact with them. I had chosen Flutter since I would prefer to have an app that works on both iOS/macOS and Android. However I didn't know anything about Flutter before.
Here's the production in one week (many libraries were used but I had taken time for adaptions of widgets and tried to make a better visual design, I also used the MVVM for a better architecture):
I am also working on several other personal projects though I have to admit that there's not much things that I could show off during an interview.
Therefore I would like to know if it's possible for me to find a decent opportunity instead of working for a French outsourcing company. Could it be really difficult to deal with the CDI and visa problems if I would like to join a startup?
Thank you for your reading and any possible advices!
Top comments (7)
With the current shortage of software engineers in France, ESN (french outsourcing compagnies) doesn't have second thoughts to hire foreign workers. I think it's a good idea to get you first experience with them. That said, take time to examine carefully different opportunities and reject all of them which doesn't fit your wishes.
why there are shortage of software engineers?
I live in italy and there are few softEng here too.
let's say brain drain (due to social levies, salaries in tech are really low in France) & not enough trained people
wow same here (in italy)
The big ESN (outsourcing companies) absolutely suck and you should only get there if you have a plan to get out. I know because I almost gave up my career because of them.
In case I can help, my LinkedIn is here linkedin.com/in/jean-michel-fayard/
Recently I asked on my LinkedIn profile about finding jobs for students who don't yet have experience. The only reasonable answer I got was that universities usually have connections to the large hi-tech companies that have "student jobs" or "internships".
That might be your route. I don't know how being foreign student and being in France impacts this.
In any case I'd suggest you write more about your projects here and maybe elsewhere as well.
I'd suggest extend your circles on LinkedIn and share your project experience there too.
You might pick up issues on the open source projects of the companies where you are interested to work. e.g.
Out of these GitLab and Wordpress are fully remote, so your location does not matter.
I bet there are a few other companies who would be ok with remote work so your location might not matter.
I'd be interested to read what you managed to do in your job search. So post it here as well!
Nice work