The important questions before an interview:
       • Details concerning the business in question
       • Details concerning the job
       • Number of staff
       • Salary & perks, accommodation, vehicle or other
       • Prospects for advancement in the business

Keep us informed as soon as possible after an interview and give us a report so that upstream of the client’s impressions we can advise you and answer any questions you may have as to your prospects with that establishment.

Our professional ethics mean that we are honest with applicants. If an applicant tells us about the offer of a position they themselves have found and we believe it’s better than ours, we will tell them so, honestly, without trying to influence them with our own interests at heart, but with their interests at heart, because we firmly believe that honesty is the best policy.

Before sending us your CV, don’t forget to indicate:
       • The position or positions sought
       • Your date of availability or the length of your notice period
       • Your geographical mobility
       • Your CV with the exact dates of your positions (the months)
       • A photograph + references + copy of diplomas would be useful

If none of the positions corresponds to your profile, we will keep your CV on file and get back to you as soon as a position likely to be of interest to you becomes available.

For young applicants at the start of their career:

The essentials: We offer positions in the luxury hotel and restaurant trade because we believe that at the start of a career, working with the best will enable you to do everything else afterwards, whereas the opposite is not necessarily true, and this will be your passport to the future. We observe that applicants change establishments too often. Even if this is justified from time to time, you need to remember that you learn your trade and make progress over time.

You rarely gain in responsibility when moving from one place to another.

Generally it is within the establishment you are working in that, after a certain amount of time, you will be offered more responsibility and it is only after that that you will be able to negotiate a position with new responsibility in another establishment. In

concrete terms, if you are chef de rang in one establishment there is little chance that you will be able to become Maître d’Hôtel in another one of the came category. But after a year or more, you are more likely to become Assistant Maître d’Hôtel or Maître d’Hôtel and it is at this point that you can then offer your services as Maître d’Hôtel in another establishment of the same category.

This rule is generally applicable to other sections in the hotel and restaurant trade too.

More specifically in the kitchen: spending a year with a good Chef enables you to profit from his experience throughout the year, changing menus and working with seasonal products.

An employer will rarely criticize you for being unstable if you have done a “year-round.”

Methodology and technique are learned in France.
       • We have the best professionals in the world, make the most of them.
       • You need to remember that what will one day be of interest to establishments abroad will above all be the technique you have acquired in the kitchens in France. Give yourself time before you move abroad

This is less the case in the dining room or in accommodation, but the quality of our hotel sector and our hotel professionals will always be a good visiting card when you go abroad. A first experience abroad:
After some years in France, if you want to give your career a more international direction, an experience in Britain or in Ireland is more or less essential.

There are several reasons for this:
the first being that international standards are very often Anglo-Saxon.
This means that the language in use is English, and the methods of management and standards of taste in international terms correspond more to Anglo-Saxon standards than French.

In concrete terms, the work style in Los Angeles, Vancouver, Hong-Kong, Singapore, Sydney, New York or in the Golf states is more akin to the work style in London or Edinburgh than in Paris or Nice

Very often when an establishment in one of these places is looking for a good professional, it will be easier for them to find him/her in Britain because whether they are French or German, the recruiter will know that after significant experience in Britain, the candidate will be immediately operational in taking up their new duties which would be less obvious for someone recruited directly from France or another European country.

Once again, a job experience in Britain or Ireland of 3 or 6 months is of no use. You need to go for a minimum of one year; a language and a culture cannot be assimilated in 3 months.

The British rarely propose positions in season, most hotels and restaurants, even in the back of beyond in Scotland, are open all year round.

Go with humility. Do not expect to find in Britain what you have in France. You might find less technique on certain points but employment opportunities and occasions to progress in-house are often more numerous than in France. Adapt and, above all, learn English.

Work methods are different but you have a lot to learn from the British and what you learn will serve you well all your life, whether it be in the workplace or in private life.

Regarding working conditions in Britain or Ireland (working hours, salary, accommodation), they differ from one establishment to the next, and from a job in town (no accommodation provided) to one outside town (often with accommodation provided).

You should know that in Britain, unemployment is lower than in France and that GDP (Gross domestic product) is higher than in France.

As in France, where you may come across an establishment which does not meet your expectations, that may also be the case in Britain and Ireland.

Problems may relate to accommodation, working hours, compatibility with your employer or immediate supervisor, or even sometimes too much responsibility !!!!!!

This will depend on the establishment you are working in and not on the country.

If you have a problem, contact us so that we can intercede or eventually find you a position in another establishment. If you do not have a telephone, contact us from a phone box, give us the number and we will call you back immediately.

You need to be prepared to spend a difficult first three months since taking up a new position, learning a new language in a new country far from home and family, or sweetheart is not easy. Most setbacks occur in these first three months.
Persevere and remember that we have all gone through this at some point.

After these first few months, things should get progressively better and better until you feel at home in your work and you can also share some leisure time with your British colleagues or those of other nationalities working in Britain and Ireland.

You also need to remember that travelling between Britain and France, or Ireland and France, is often cheaper than travelling inside France itself. (see the low-cost travel sector). Therefore it is almost easier to go home from time to time from Britain or Ireland than if your job was on the Cote d’Azur and your home in Brittany or Normandy.