During mon dernier semestre (my last semester) at school I had to split my time between mon mémoire et mon stage (my thesis and my internship), but at least in France you’re guaranteed to earn some money during le stage. There’s a law requiring un salaire minimum (a minimum wage) for les stagiaires (interns)!

“New Office” by Phil Whitehouse on Flickr. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Faire un stage (doing an internship) is an essential part of many degrees. It’s a way to apply your studies in the real world, while still having time to learn. While there is un stéréotype of les stagiaires doing nothing but cleaning and preparing du café, les stages are often very useful for getting practical experience in a field.

In France, you can sometimes choose between un diplôme professionnel (a professional degree) and un diplôme recherche (a research degree). One of the differences being un diplôme professionnel includes un stage.

I chose un diplôme professionnel, so I needed to find un stage in order to finish mon diplôme. Unfortunately, finding un stage can be just as hard as finding a job.

After looking over des offres de stage (some internship opportunities), I chose one with une entreprise américaine (an American company). It was an interesting opportunity, but mon patron (my boss) was not very familiar with France or and could not speak French.

I explained everything that mon université française (my French university) needed, but between figuring out l’assurance and making sure I had all the right documents for la convention de stage (internship contract), the amount of paperwork needed to faire un stage en France can be intimidating.

En fin de compte (in the end), everything worked out and I passed!

I also ended up learning a bit more about how le système d’éducation français can be confusing for une entreprise américaine!