Do you need to speak French to work in France?

France job market map

There is a common belief that you need to speak French to work in France. And this is true in most cases, but there are some exceptions to that rule, that we will discuss in this article. In almost any country , speaking the local language is a must to get a job, but this does not apply to specific sectors of the economy. For example Tech Jobs often only require English and do not require you to speak the local Language.

What Type of Jobs do require French?

A lot of Jobs do require French as prerequisite. Here are a few sectors of the economy i can think about, that most likely require French:

What Type of Jobs do not necessarily require French ?

Some other types of Jobs in the following list do not necessarily require French:

The thing is even if the Job is in English, you might still require French for practical day to day life, for example: how to order in a Coffee, how to rent an appartment, paying taxes, speaking with the locals and more.

How to get an English Speaking Job in Tech in France ?

With the Rise of AI, getting a Job in Tech as a Junior is not as easy as it used to be a couple years ago. Many Fresh Graduates struggle to find an Entry Level Job and Tech CEOs are asking themselves: why should i hire a Junior for that Job if AI can do a better Job? One Senior programmer with AI can do as much work today as 4 Entry Level Programmers used to do a few years ago. So the market has fundamentally shifted. Not all tech CEOs are aware of this , so you might still get a chance of getting a tech Job in France. But with time the market will shift and AI will eventually automate 90% of tech Jobs. So if you still want to work in tech one option would be to specialize in AI/Machine Learning, an other option would be to learn Vibe Coding (interacting with AI generated code), and one other option would be to start your own tech business. Think about Jobs AI can not easily replace like Data Entry Jobs/Email marketing and more.

Is France a Good country for you if you dont speak French ?

I will give you my honest answer on this, since i have lived in France for a long time and know the French culture. France is maybe not the best country for you if you dont speak French. Outside big cities, you will struggle to communicate with people if you dont speak French. Paris is an exception, because Paris is very International and English is widely spoken and understood there. But if you go to the country side or any rural area in France, you are supposed to know how to speak French and it will be difficult to interact with people without it. For example according to multiple sources, only 30 to 40% of French speak English (even though a study says this grows to 48% for young people). Some other Countries in Europe are more English friendly, for example the Netherland where 90% of the population speaks English or Germany (around 60%) and scandinavia as well. Of course there are the obvious ones which are UK and Ireland but these are the native countries for English.