2018 the year of good resolutions and upholding commitments

Hello everyone,

I am back from 2012!! My god, time sure does fly fast. I am still alive and kicking, but i guess i let life get the best out of me. I have had amazing experiences happen to me those 6 years, and felt like sharing my tips, knowledge and blessings god has provided to me with others out there.
My friends and colleagues ( yes i am no longer a student now...story to come soon.) consider me as the place to go when they want tips on certain subjects ( cheap housing, work permit, etc.), i have been through a lot since my students days.

Here a some subjects we will be discussing about this year:

• Financial aid: the summer of my first year, i learned that may be eligible for financial aid directly from my school !! That was crazy, i will tell you how i found out, how you can too and the entire process.
• Getting my first student job: being a student isn't cheap and here if you can, you better get yourself some side pocket money to help finance your dreams ( a.k.a my study abroad) even if you have financial aid, the experience is invaluable.
• Study abroad: i finally got to study abroad ( those long TOEFL self study paid off) and in a very exotic destinations! I will tell you all about it, things to consider when picking a study abroad destination when in FRANCE ( study abroad in mandatory in most french business school to be allowed to graduate, so you better not break the bank here!)
• Finding my first "real internship": how i managed to land one after many bad interviews, rejections letter and a short time frame.
• Choosing my master's major: in France, almost everyone has a master's degre, i will get in more details about tips and courses.
• Landing my first job before graduating :  how you can be a "go getter " too, steps, process, etc.
• Giving back to my school: coaching underpriviledged students.
• And Lifestyle changes that have happened to me since i have started working A.K.A living the corporate life  ( work permit, travels, friendships, beauty, citizenship, etc.)

Hopefully i can be of help to people out there. You don't have to be african to benefit from my tips, everyone can learn from the process i went through. If you are interested in coming to the wonderful country that is France, please stay tuned .

Financing your studies

Hello everyone,

I 've got  good news for you... Guess what? i got a part-time job!!!
I have started working for two weeks now at the local pizza hut. Why?
Because i got accepted for my exchange semester in the philippines for january, so i have to save some money to enjoy the trip to the fullest.
Now let's get to the point, How can an international student land a part-time job?

I am not going to lie it takes time and careful planning. Here i have gathered the information i got from my other international students friends ( moroccan, cameroun, russian).

Pre-requisites
- Langage: you need to have basic command of english if you want to work here in France, i am not going to lie to you , for a part-time job it is necessary. But for internships i don't take it is, because there are exchange students from india who can't line an entire sentence in french but some of them got internships(i will investigate this in a further post)
-Papers: of course , if you are a legal student  you have automaticaly a temporary work autorisation ( up to 20 hours per week)

Types of Jobs

- Tutoring

Two of my friends ( a moroccan and a camerounian )are tutoring high school students. Personally , i got hired at a tutoring agency since last year but never got arount to taking the students because i had first asked for middle school level and realized later the pay wasn't interesting for this level .
Tutoring is very interesting if you take high school level students, the pay can vary from 17€/h at an agency to 20€/h  when you found the student yourself.
There are two main agencies :

1-ACADOMIA (http://www.acadomia.fr/enseignants-nous-recrutons/recrutement-enseignant.html  you fill this and you'll receive in a couple of days a call for a phone interview than an appointment and a computer test in the subject and grade you want to teach).
2-COMPLETUDE: http://www.completude.com/recrutement.aspx   same thing.

Downside: you need to have 3 years of  studies to be considered.
Upside: You get a pay slip , and start saving for retirement if you ever stay in France later it could be useful.

OR, you can find your own students trought different means:
- posting offers in the local high school, middle school
- internet:http://www.annonceetudiant.com/, http://www.leboncoin.fr/ ( my friend got 2 students from the latter website)
- Maison du quartier: there is one almost everywhere, you apply for the tutoring position, it is a           "social thing" they try  to help kids in difficult neighborhoods, so your pay is quite low ( 11€/h for at least 3 hours a week), two other friends who are french do that . It is quite fulfilling i think, because , well you are certainly not doing it for the money since you could get paid higher.

Downside:  you don't get a pay slip ( except for maison du quartier)
Upside: a Friend from Burkina faso got herself a student during her first year in france!!!  throught posting in a middle school , 20€/h.

Other jobs

For other jobs such as mine you need to get to the store ( Mcdo, KFC, Quick,etc.) ask to see the manager and leave your CV with him. If he is not here ask for the day he is in. Do not leave your resume with someone else!!!

To get those jobs you need to show you are not afraid of work, etc.

A friend of mine got one at a Mcdo for 2 months, but night shifts on friday night and saturday night. You can't be picky you take what they give you.

Personally i work 10 hrs a week for the SMIC ( minimum wage in France) so i get 70€ and a few cents per week after taxes. You might wonder why i didn't take the tutoring job?

Well i have tutored in France before, for free and i like that when i am not paid, because there is no pressure, and i knew the family. But honestly i just wanted to do something else.

Also last year i did some inventory work with a couple of french friends ( you count the products in a supermarket like Carrefour, Leclerc). I started around 4-5 am and finished 5 hours later and got paid 90€!!! My friend got it through ALLIANCE INTERIM. There are many intérim agency offering these kind of jobs all year long, they look for many people so you can do it your friends ( we were 8) to pass time , its nice in group and we got to eat some Croissants and Pains aux chocolats for free Afterward!!

Another site to investigate: http://jobs-stages.letudiant.fr/jobs-etudiants.html

Feel free to leave a comment for more information .

Back from the dead!!

Hello everyone!!

Sorry i have been a little busy lately. I had my internship this summer in a Start-up( feedbacks will be coming soon), my TOEFL to prepare( yeah guys, i may be going to study abroad in the philippines!!!). And i have started classes since mid-september, and this year i am in the English Track of my school. It means i get to have amazing classmates such as Korean, Dutch, German, Colombian or Urkrainian students...So i get to practice my English almost everyday.

How to study Business in France on a tight budget? _part 2

Hello everyone!!

First of all sorry for the delay in posting, i just started my internship in one of my school's start-up. It is still at the seed stage thus i have been working non stp.

Back to thetopic!

In my case i did a preparatory class. Why? Because it was way cheap! It is free and the only thing you have to pay for is the room & board also known as an "internat". Some of them are opened on Week-end ( which was my case) others close, so you have to find accomodation for the week-end. Also during vacations they are closed ( Christmas, easter , etc.) for up to two weeks.

I stayed on week-ends at the school, but i was fortunate to have some distant relatives whom gave me shelter during the holidays. But i know that moroccans go back to their country since it is not too far from france and plane tickets can be cheap. But there are also buses that go to morocco but it takes a little longer.

Downsides. One of the downsides of a "prepa" is that the exam is hell of a more difficult than the other ways described in my previous post. There is advanced mathematics, philosophy, synthesis, history & "géopolitique"( it is a mix of geography in a political context).
Also you should have in mind that at the end of the second year the exam fees may go up to 2000€ depending on the number of schools you decide to sit. But fortunately in the summer between your first year and second year you can work so as to learn money for this.

But all isn't bad because if you are a hardworking student you can manage to succeed but schools are fairly expensive, except for ENSAE which is a special case. It is kind of a financial engineering schools.

So How to pay for schools? Well in my case my school wasn't particularly expensive when i got in last september, but in december they were audited by AACSB and got the accreditation so fees went up!(doubled). The only viable way is a loan which since you are not a french citizen is going to be difficult, unless you have a "garant" who has solid credential. A "garant" is the person who is the caution for your loan, he has to be a French Citizen or a EU-citizen will do too in some case.

Am i going to be burried under debt? No, if you play this right. First you should only ask for 15 000€ (even though some schools can go up to 10 000 € in tuition only) which you will pay in 5 years. The trick is in most business school now their is a "cesure"( gap year between the first and 2nd year of Master when do internships) or "apprentissage"(your time is shared between school and work in a company, you receive a salary and the company pays your tuition fees.) with the Cesure money most student pay back their debt before they graduate!! Or if you don't want to add a year the apprentissage will relieve you of your fees while receiving money.

To sum it up it is difficult to make it out in France on your own if you don't have much money, unless you have some help. It can be informal.

How to study Business in France on a tight budget?_ Part 1

Hello everyone,

I am going to share with you some advice on how to study Management ( my field of study)  in France.

First of all avoid applying to universities for those two fields. Why? As an international student the most important thing  is supervision, in particular the ratio of teacher to student. I have met during high school other african students who quit university because of a lack of motivation , nervous breakdown, solitude, etc. As an international, you want to be in a small community for at least a couple of years. It will help with the integration process, and you will meet long lasting friends.


Apply to IUT( institut universitaire de technologie) or to preparatory classes. Applications are done   online on admission postbac http://www.admission-postbac.fr/ , there is a guideline as to how to use it on the website.
-The strenght of IUT(s): you can apply to any IUT you want , actually i think the smaller the town the better. Why? Because first at the end of the two years program you will have to pass an exam to enter a renowned business school or you can go back to universities such as Sorbonne or ASSAS or Toulouse School of Economics which is in a university. Secondly the fees are cheap ( like 600 euros a year with social security included): so in the first two years you can save some money, which brings us to the second reason why you should pick an IUT in a small town. Housing is cheaper in small towns and much more available. And last in small towns when you have to do your "permis de sejour étudiant" the people are nicer , there are usually no waiting lines, no need to make an appointment or whatsoever. I have personally experienced the delights of small towns " administration hassle free" before i came to business school in a much larger town with much complications.
The plus? you get to study accounting, financial analysis , etc. before others . They usually get by easily in business school. With hindsights, i think i should have done an IUT, because you actually get to do internships!! which is quite a big deal here in France.
Downsides? You can't apply to top schools straight after an IUT in particular: HEC,ESSEC, ESCP,EMLyon , for the first three you need a M1 so after the IUT you will go to university for 2 more years. For the last one an L3 is enough so you will have to go to university for a year and during that year take te exam.
For those top schools an IUT probably won't be enough. They like people with a non-management background , like a bachelor degree in Languages, mathemathics, physics and others.
It is commonly know that the exam is easier from an IUT  then taking preparatory classes.

Next i will discuss the way I took to enter B-School ( preparatory classes). So stay tune!!

Who am I ?

Hello,

I am an african student , studying in France for the past 4 years now. I have finally decided to share my experience with other people. You may be like me, someone far from home trying to adjust in a foreign country , not necessarily african or just curious of how it feels like to be a foreigner in France.

Well i am going to  tell you everything there is to know about life abroad , from the choice of schools to cooking tips on a tight budget(French food & Exotic Food...as long as it is cheap i will share it, groceries stores , ...)  or student life at large(student jobs, choosing schools with a small budget, semester abroad, student clubs&skills...). I will also share with you my passions (reviews of dramas i have watched, books i have read, places i have been , Finance, etc.)

I will also be in touch with  "you" my readers if you want a specific article on life abroad which i haven't covered. If i don't know, i will ask one of my fellow foreigner to write it and post it. You can even participate too if you wish to share your experience.

My aim is to create a Blog which is at the same time personal and helpful. So your comment will be needed.

PS: I may sometimes switch back to French which is my first language on technical or delicate subjects, but don't worry the article will be written in entirely either in French or in English. I won't jump from french to english in the same article unless it is quoted.

Have fun following my journey. I am new in the blogger experience so when i get to learn new skills(photoshop in particular) i will change the visuals of the blog to make it more personal.