How to find a job in France: the best search channels

Finding a job takes time, approximately six months. Therefore, the right strategy is to target the most interesting hiring channels from the beginning. Indeed, companies continue to use headhunting, co-opting and their networks to recruit candidates. But at the time of the last survey, this "hidden" market was trending downward in favor of more transparent channels: Resume Libraries, social media and jobs posted publicly online (80% of volume). Good news for those who want to "industrialize" their search a bit.

Below we list the characteristics of some of the job boards - those with the largest number of job postings or the most specialized in their field, as well as social networks that have become indispensable for those who want to get on recruiters' shortlists.

Cadremploi.fr

Over 2 million resumes, mostly from managers at all levels. Useful to know: you can make your profile public so that it is available on Google, and you can also link it to your Viadeo and LinkedIn profiles, for example, to find out which members of your network work for the company you are applying for. The job board, created in 1989 on Minitel, has about 10,000 vacancies, of which 40% are in the Paris region and 60% in other regions. Nine out of ten of the vacancies offered are permanent. The most represented sectors are sales (29% of vacancies), management and finance (13%), manufacturing and service (11%), and information systems and telecommunications (10%).

The site is mainly aimed at middle managers and support functions. The smartphone and tablet versions are very user-friendly for quick searches.

Apec.fr

400,000 resumes, all updated. Profiles that have not changed in the last twelve months no longer appear in the resume database of the Association for Human Resources Employment (Apec). 90% are open-ended, with vacancies in engineering and R&D (30%), a long-standing Apec feature, and in sales and marketing predominating. There is a good balance of middle managers and senior executives.

The site has an iPhone app, but no Android or tablet version. The site is also in demand for its support team, which has 500 real consultants.

Viadeo and LinkedIn

There are 7 million Viadeo profiles and 5 million LinkedIn profiles in France, the vast majority of which are executives. This is a huge resource for recruitment agencies, who have made these sites one of their favorite hunting grounds, although the abundance of vacancies and the lack of guarantees of relevance sometimes make it difficult for them. Viadeo has 2.5 thousand jobs, LinkedIn has several thousand. They are 80% focused on managers and come from companies rather than recruitment agencies. Both networks offer "affinity" suggestions based on your skills and the skills of people you know. They also tell you which of your acquaintances work at the target company or have direct ties to the recruiter.

RegionsJob

1.8 million resumes, including 900k executive profiles. You can search discreetly using an "anonymous" profile. The site allows you to link your account to professional social networks and even Facebook.

Of the 28 thousand vacancies posted on the site, more than 11 thousand are bac+5, of which 70% are vacancies (which is not that many), mostly middle management positions. Fifteen percent of the vacancies are in the Paris region, the rest are in the provinces. Two out of three recruiters are companies (not headhunters). The most represented occupations are IT (especially in the west and southwest), sales, engineers and managers. Ads remain on the site for only four weeks.

Monster.fr

1.2 million resumes that are less than 18 months old. Useful: you can find out how many times your resume has been accessed. The American giant has developed its own social network within Facebook, BeKnown, which allows you to connect (or not) your professional and personal networks. 18k job offers, including 12k for graduates with a 2 to 5 year degree. Of these, 75% are permanent vacancies, half of which are in the regions. The most common occupations are IT, technology, finance, sales, marketing. Good international coverage, but incomplete coverage of SMEs.

Over the past few months, Monster has seen a growing number of new developments. Among them is an intuitive search tool that allows you to, for example, type "marketing project manager" and get suggestions for a marketing manager or marketing employee.

Facebook

In the U.S., the network centralizes 1.7 million job offers from the Department of Labor and major job boards, including Monster. The service may soon be expanded to other countries. In the meantime, companies (including French ones) post vacancies on their pages (mostly now for young graduates), which you can apply for and forward to your friends. If the list is long (it happens), you can use the "suggest" button to display offers that match your profile. More and more companies are filling out the professional section of their profile, which makes it easier for recruiters. But you need to make sure that your personal photos and messages don't appear there.

While the site does not have a special search engine and database, it is still very underdeveloped. But you should keep an eye on it.

You should utilize different job search channels to increase your chances of success. Finding a job can take time and effort. Don't give up and keep trying and you will definitely find the right job.