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Becoming a French bureaucrat
Here's partly a me-thread, and partly a thread about French bureaucracy.
School has started again for me past monday. I am now studying to prepare the competition that leads to becoming a French bureacurat. Fierce competition, as you apparently have ten times more candidates than jobs offered. The exams I'm preparing will occur in fall 2007 and january 2008. It's a full year course, just to prepare three different one-day-long exams.
My profs spent that first week explaining what the judges want. They are adamant about the use of specific methods. Those who are interested in understanding French bureaucracy might be interested in knowing how the bureaucrats are recruited.
1. Regardless of what type of bureaucrat you want to be, you'll have to do a "dissertation" (that's the French word). It has nothing in common with what people call dissertation in English, i.e a long scientific research that took monthes or years to write.
No, here you spend three to five hours in an exam room, and you are to write about some topic given at the beginning of the exam. The topic holds in a few words (for example, "the cultural politics today").
Once you see the topic, you have to think of what question arises from this topic, as you aren't allowed to do a mere description. Once you found the question, you think about it for about 15 to 30 minutes, and you have your answer. Science
. The whole point of the exercize is to justify your answer through rethorics, while showing off your knowledge.
An essential part of the dissertation is the plan. You have to organize your ideas into sections and subsections. Now, there's nothing surprising with it. The Anglo-saxon tradition also supports the idea of a plan where you have as many points as you wish, as long as they indicate a logical progression in your reasoning.
However, here you are restricted to two sections, and two to three subsections. That's how it works, and there's no way around it. If you make a 9-point presentation, you'll be rejected, regardless of how brilliant you are.
2. The exams ask you about the following topics: economics, public law, and the fantastic "culture générale". Now, there's nothing wrong about asking administrators about their knowledge of economics or public law. It's going to be important for their jobs. Though they'll have to master the method of the plan above.
But what is the "culture générale"? Well, I've been doing it for the past 7 years, and I still don't know. Basically, you have to write about a "general topic happening in contemporary [French] society" in 3-5 hours, and to provide an answer. From what I understand, this is about showing off our ability to bull****.
To take an example, a few years back I had to write 4 hours on that topic: "The poor people". I was supposed to see all the aspects in the topic, to find what questions this topic arises, and to answer them in 6 to 8 handwritten pages. Easy. Well, I got a terrible mark, because my bull**** didn't match the official standards of bull****, but some fellows did brilliantly.
In some exams, you might not have economy or public law. But you always have "culture générale".
There is also the foreign language exam. You'll face it only if your dissertations are deemed acceptable (it's an oral exam, and only those who pass written tests are allowed at the oral). The foreign language exam is the one that weighs the lowest in the overall mark. If you're good at languages, it might be the "plus" you'll need to get ahead of the competition, but it would be stupid to prioritize languages if you aren't too hot in the other matters (you have to face an oral of "culture générale", and another one of economy/public law anyway)
3. It is very important to master the formal language used by the bureaucrats to get in. You're NOT supposed to talk jargon during the exams. However, you're supposed to know the buzzwords that make a bureaucrat feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And you're supposed to use them at the right moment (if not, the judge will see he's being manipulated, and won't like it).
Mastering this language is a long process. Those who went straight to the administrative Grandes écoles (highly selective superior education) after highschool are highly favored in this regard, in comparison to those who went to the university, or to those who studied something else like engineering. That's because this specific language is omnipresent at the grandes écoles, whereas it is basically absent from other curricula.
Also, you have to know a very correct French. Obviously, those who have grown up in an environment where correct French was used are immensely advantaged over those who grew up in neighbourhoods where the language was far from the standards (i.e the ghetto, to be clear). Those who had parents as teachers are greatly advantaged in this regard.
One of my profs summarized this demand: "You are required to write like newspaper Le Monde".
Another thing is that you're supposed to have an excellent spelling. Now, the French rules of spelling aren't nearly as absurd as the ones in English, but they're far from streamlined either. Especially in our time, where many youngsters mostly write on MSN or send SMSes, and thus have barely any exercize in correct spelling. Once again, this strongly favorises people who grew up in a cultural environment.
That's it for now. I wrote this thread because I think some people here are interested in what French bureaucracy is, and because many are interested in what European bureaucracy is (the latter takes the former as its inspiration).
Now, I'm no bureaucrat yet, so I can't tell you how the bureaucracy actually works, but I think the recruitment phase is fairly interesting.
You'll notice I have strongly emphasized the inequalities about cultural backgrounds, and not about the economic backgrounds. However, they are very present. Some of my friends want to become bureaucrats too, but they cannot afford to spend one year without working and earning their living. The cost of the curriculum isn't too bad in itself (800 Euro total, and they can be paid for by the state if you're poor), but the cost of living in Paris is terrible when you neither have a job, nor parents who can provide the roof and the money.
School has started again for me past monday. I am now studying to prepare the competition that leads to becoming a French bureacurat. Fierce competition, as you apparently have ten times more candidates than jobs offered. The exams I'm preparing will occur in fall 2007 and january 2008. It's a full year course, just to prepare three different one-day-long exams.
My profs spent that first week explaining what the judges want. They are adamant about the use of specific methods. Those who are interested in understanding French bureaucracy might be interested in knowing how the bureaucrats are recruited.
1. Regardless of what type of bureaucrat you want to be, you'll have to do a "dissertation" (that's the French word). It has nothing in common with what people call dissertation in English, i.e a long scientific research that took monthes or years to write.
No, here you spend three to five hours in an exam room, and you are to write about some topic given at the beginning of the exam. The topic holds in a few words (for example, "the cultural politics today").
Once you see the topic, you have to think of what question arises from this topic, as you aren't allowed to do a mere description. Once you found the question, you think about it for about 15 to 30 minutes, and you have your answer. Science
. The whole point of the exercize is to justify your answer through rethorics, while showing off your knowledge.An essential part of the dissertation is the plan. You have to organize your ideas into sections and subsections. Now, there's nothing surprising with it. The Anglo-saxon tradition also supports the idea of a plan where you have as many points as you wish, as long as they indicate a logical progression in your reasoning.
However, here you are restricted to two sections, and two to three subsections. That's how it works, and there's no way around it. If you make a 9-point presentation, you'll be rejected, regardless of how brilliant you are.
2. The exams ask you about the following topics: economics, public law, and the fantastic "culture générale". Now, there's nothing wrong about asking administrators about their knowledge of economics or public law. It's going to be important for their jobs. Though they'll have to master the method of the plan above.
But what is the "culture générale"? Well, I've been doing it for the past 7 years, and I still don't know. Basically, you have to write about a "general topic happening in contemporary [French] society" in 3-5 hours, and to provide an answer. From what I understand, this is about showing off our ability to bull****.
To take an example, a few years back I had to write 4 hours on that topic: "The poor people". I was supposed to see all the aspects in the topic, to find what questions this topic arises, and to answer them in 6 to 8 handwritten pages. Easy. Well, I got a terrible mark, because my bull**** didn't match the official standards of bull****, but some fellows did brilliantly.
In some exams, you might not have economy or public law. But you always have "culture générale".
There is also the foreign language exam. You'll face it only if your dissertations are deemed acceptable (it's an oral exam, and only those who pass written tests are allowed at the oral). The foreign language exam is the one that weighs the lowest in the overall mark. If you're good at languages, it might be the "plus" you'll need to get ahead of the competition, but it would be stupid to prioritize languages if you aren't too hot in the other matters (you have to face an oral of "culture générale", and another one of economy/public law anyway)
3. It is very important to master the formal language used by the bureaucrats to get in. You're NOT supposed to talk jargon during the exams. However, you're supposed to know the buzzwords that make a bureaucrat feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And you're supposed to use them at the right moment (if not, the judge will see he's being manipulated, and won't like it).
Mastering this language is a long process. Those who went straight to the administrative Grandes écoles (highly selective superior education) after highschool are highly favored in this regard, in comparison to those who went to the university, or to those who studied something else like engineering. That's because this specific language is omnipresent at the grandes écoles, whereas it is basically absent from other curricula.
Also, you have to know a very correct French. Obviously, those who have grown up in an environment where correct French was used are immensely advantaged over those who grew up in neighbourhoods where the language was far from the standards (i.e the ghetto, to be clear). Those who had parents as teachers are greatly advantaged in this regard.
One of my profs summarized this demand: "You are required to write like newspaper Le Monde".
Another thing is that you're supposed to have an excellent spelling. Now, the French rules of spelling aren't nearly as absurd as the ones in English, but they're far from streamlined either. Especially in our time, where many youngsters mostly write on MSN or send SMSes, and thus have barely any exercize in correct spelling. Once again, this strongly favorises people who grew up in a cultural environment.
That's it for now. I wrote this thread because I think some people here are interested in what French bureaucracy is, and because many are interested in what European bureaucracy is (the latter takes the former as its inspiration).
Now, I'm no bureaucrat yet, so I can't tell you how the bureaucracy actually works, but I think the recruitment phase is fairly interesting.
You'll notice I have strongly emphasized the inequalities about cultural backgrounds, and not about the economic backgrounds. However, they are very present. Some of my friends want to become bureaucrats too, but they cannot afford to spend one year without working and earning their living. The cost of the curriculum isn't too bad in itself (800 Euro total, and they can be paid for by the state if you're poor), but the cost of living in Paris is terrible when you neither have a job, nor parents who can provide the roof and the money.
I would say that is their problem and will be their problem. 
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