Not to mention working in Paris is like working part time here. 35 hour weeks!!! Mandated by law too. Of course this might also be why there isn't a vibrant startup culture.

Companies can easily workaround the 35 hours week with the "cadre" status that basically nullify the regulated hours constraint, and they do.

I don't know any developer in Paris that do a 35 hours week. Actually it's even the contrary, French managers have a strong culture of evaluating employees performance based on presence. So you see a lot of peoples doing 10-12 hours a day, or coming back to the office on saturday.

This. I don't know any french developer not being on a day rate instead of an hour rate. An awful lot of people on an hour rate have a number of extra hours factored in their salary by default.

It's still better than the US, "cadre" status (but not top management) is officially around 180-190 day of work per year (depending on the unions).

I'd say that in Paris, a referral is necessary and often sufficient. Le "piston".

In SF, it's often necessary and hardly ever sufficient.

> I'd say that in Paris, a referral is necessary and often sufficient. Le "piston".

+1.

I think it's a core deep cultural issue about France. The whole system is completely corrupted, people are used to get "passe-droit" (not sure about the translation) for anything, and even the top Political leaders are acting this way. Politician asking cops not to be fined for something illegal they just did, a friend of a friend asking the School President to let their kid attend their school, etc.

The whole French society is based on this. Many say it's a Monarchy, and not a Republic.

I think the English word you're looking for is "nepotism."

"Passe-droit" means "special favor" in french.