Don’t Quit Your Corporate Job And Move To Paris

is it ok to never have a corporate job and move to paris?

I thought Americans would learn not to go to Paris after Henry Miller, but people call me stupid all the time for that. 

you don’t speak french bro

I like this. It made me feel better about life. 

I like this. It made me feel better about life. 

I really enjoyed this. I’ve been struggling for so long with what I want to do with myself and have been realizing more and more that moving away isn’t necessarily going to fix my problems.

I like how you came to realize that you are more an American and Texan. Sometimes I feel that way about my hometown too… I feel like I was meant to live where I live.

Couldn’t you have gotten a real job in Paris with your corporate experience? Anyway really liked this article , definitely more well written than most articles on TG these days. 

Take away the overused cliche inspirational soundbites, or just the last paragraph in its entirety, and this is a pretty okay piece. I’m glad that spending less than half a year in somewhere other than your hometown gave you such invaluable life experience that you felt it necessary to preach the secrets of happiness to all us naive unworldly readers. Still, if it’s made you happy then I’m happy.

Oh, and I’m glad you noticed me masturbating outside your apartment. You should come back to Paris some time, doll.

Take away the overused cliche inspirational soundbites, or just the last paragraph in its entirety, and this is a pretty okay piece. I’m glad that spending less than half a year in somewhere other than your hometown gave you such invaluable life experience that you felt it necessary to preach the secrets of happiness to all us naive unworldly readers. Still, if it’s made you happy then I’m happy.

Oh, and I’m glad you noticed me masturbating outside your apartment. You should come back to Paris some time, doll.

this is so poignant and relevant, everyone thinks about this, sometimes every day (at least I do), why are we wasting our youth away at a desk, at a job we don’t really care about? we get crazy ideas, that may or may not make sense in the real world.
thank you for writing this, at this particular moment, when we’re not young enough to be completely carefree but not old enough to settle and not try new things.
you tried, you learned, you’re grateful, not bitter

Stuff on TG just sucks don’t it, thank Jebus we have TC.

I too work a corporate job all day and have dreamt of Paris (or anywhere). I really liked this and felt it was relevant to my life. Maybe it’s better to keep the corporate job and vacation in Paris instead…

i didn’t speak spanish when i moved to spain

ZING

Ahah! This is awesome! I usually find myself dreaming of quitting my engineering job, selling my beach-side town house, cashing in my 401k and moving to Sydney, Australia to become a bike courier. Thank you for experience! And awesomely written. 

I’m happy you wrote this.  I probably needed to hear it.  My dreams have been carrying my away lately.  

As a recent college graduate working at my third internship and currently seeking full-time employment, THIS ARTICLE IS THE STORY OF MY LIFE! I could not agree with this post more! Love reading and relating to other! :-)

Man, I so needed to read that this morning (as I sit at my desk job, discontent). Thank you.

Phew, considering the bunch who contribute to TC I thought this would be a humblebrag of sorts, telling readers YOU shouldn’t leave the US for Paris but look what *I* did and how hard (awesome) it was.  A pleasant surprise!

I liked the realism and message in this.  I think Emerson wrote that people shouldn’t travel in order to find themselves, your happiness isn’t necessarily across an ocean or in a bigger city, it should be within you.

I still want to have a vacation in Paris though, romanticism isn’t lost on me!  I just won’t move there.

Just to be clear….. the “Paris” in this article is Paris, Texas…. right? 

oh my god this was really good

I am definitely one of those disillusioned college graduates…and I am 28 years old. I don’t know what it is-or was about my generation, and I am not blaming the way my parents brought me up, but I definitely didn’t even consider that my future would be anything as disappointing as it is. I relate to this article 100%. 

Ok, what a dick. Calm down.

Glad you have learned from this experience and could give some insight on being an au pair in Paris, but as soon as I read “au pair,” I felt you were doing it wrong.

An extremely enjoyable read this was.

Thanks for the typo catch!

Being a recent graduate having made the move to an agency as a web developer, I can definitely relate to this. It’s inspiring to hear about someone who, fed up with the office environment much like myself, had the balls to escape it.

Of course, it’s also interesting to hear how that panned out, although my idea of Paris is London, ON doing a masters in philosophy (reading and writing all day on my own time just sounds so great) so I’m not quite sure how my experience would compare.

Alas, I suppose the grass will always be greener on the other side. Maybe one day I will find out for myself.

You just picked the wrong city! It can be done.

The reasons for moving away always make me wary of Americans who choose to live abroad for no particular reason besides they haven’t grown up yet.

Wow… this is just me allover! Why is this happening to our generation? Bunch of 26′s-28′s years old just lost…

Thank you for this, I need it.

lolol

+1

The only time I’ve ever debated cashing out my 401k was to get the hell out of the big city & go to Africa to feed starving children. Because they’d be a lot more well-behaved than those bratty little Frenchies, right?

hell yes about finding out how awesome being from Texas is. I’m traveling Europe right now and all I want is a Torchy Taco, a margarita from Azul Tequila and the greenbelt. Oh! I’d also do unspeakable things for a bottle Lone Star… sad. i know.

A real, sincere article. Whoo! Thank you for your honesty.

Nice article. I am glad you don’t regret it. I think everyone should do that crazy thing that they long to do.

I left my unfulfilling job and moved to Paris. And, guess what? I am still here two years later, doing a… somewhat less unfulfilling job. But hey it’s Paris which makes it soooo much better, right?

I’ll probably go back home one day, but I’ll never regret moving here when I did.

Every awake alcoholic already knows this:

No matter where you go, there you are.

What’s a better reason?

I would blow someone for a Lone Star right now.  I don’t care.  

Loved this article!

I wasn’t trying to be mean about it, it just seemed unnecessary.

I wasn’t trying to be mean about it, it just seemed unnecessary.

Lindsey, I’m writing this from my gray windowless office. It’s 10 oclock and I’m already thinking about what I’m having for lunch.  And after reading this I feel like someone has staged an intervention. I was playing the “I’m going to move away to ___” game with myself duing my commute in this morning.

This was a fantastic read, spot on and honest. Thanks.

it’s hard to get a “real” job in paris as an american because to get a visa (other than an au pair or student visa) you basically have to prove that you are doing a job a french person couldn’t do.  such as teaching english.  but getting a work visa is a crazy catch-22 process with lots of red tape.  a french company won’t/cannot legally hire you if you don’t have a visa already and the prefecture won’t give you a visa if you don’t already have an “embauchement” (proof of employment).

Great stuff that everybody in their twenties needs to hear.

“I was one of those people for a couple years. I worked in the public relations department of a Fortune 500 company  right out of college and quickly learned office politics and personal development and syncing Outlook to my iPhone and checking my work email on Saturday mornings and “downloading” people on missed meetings and “following up” and “action items” and all that other bullshit that takes over your life and is never taught in college.”

I wonder if their is a market for helping people adjust/cope to the workplace.  Thoughts?

I’m a college student studying public relations. Graduating and ending up in a corporate job that I hate is one of my biggest fears to be honest. I wonder if working for a nonprofit would make me hate life less, even if it meant dealing with a shitty salary

Great.

I will thank my mom from stopping me going to France. and thank you!

I did the same thing, kind of! I quit my really awesome job I got out of college that gave me health benefits and gave me a damn good pay check for easy work to move to Germany and work as a waitress on an air force base. It was actually pretty awesome, I loved the traveling until one day I got sick. I spent all my money on German doctors and had to come home because I didn’t get better. So now I’m living at home in the spare room, going to doctors here, broke and will have to start over. 

Oh well, that’s life. At least I met a nice guy while I was over there.

The nonprofit world has just as much BS/office politics as the for-profit world and it ends up being just a job like anything else.

Torchys <3

I think your main problem was the whole au pair thing.

Totally, and usually half the pay versus corporate / agency PR

Your idea of Paris is London, ON? 

Being from London, ON – get on a plane and live your life, bro.

I agree. 

I’m glad you learned your lesson. I’ve learned lessons the hard way too. 

My foresight is way better now. 

I’ve been to Paris a few times and I lived in London for five years. I much preferred London.

Different strokes I guess. It was probably the people you met and had in your life in London. London is full of great people. 

I like the idea of this article, but I think you’ve effectively refuted your own point. You say what you shouldn’t have done (quit that job) but then you go on to say that you don’t regret quitting your job or moving to Paris. And isn’t that one of the finest points of being young (and semi-privileged)? Making irrational decisions that are not completely irreversible? Sorry, but I say move to Paris every time. Even when you come back, you still have the experience to build on. And the corporate job still sucks.

having the balls to uproot and move to the other side of the world takes a lot of courage.  it’s a huge decision.  a grown up decision.  

me too! minus the guy. totally relate to it. it was great to have it kind of explained to me.
 

I’m so glad I have the sense to not be an au pair when I move to France. Teaching assistantship and graduate school in France, here I come!

If Only You Could Be Boring

This sounds so much like me, except I’m still in Paris and loving it

great piece.  I actually did just that – quit my corporate job and moved overseas (to Australia) – now been here 10+ years and absolutely love it (although still have the corporate job, but hey, it’s in another country!)

I like this article. It’s a realistic depiction of what is most likely going  to happen when I drop everything and move Rome. However, and this may be the 17 year old in me, it’s not enough  stop me. It just motivates me to make a better plan because the current one:

1. Move FAR away
2. ???
3. Profit!

apparently is not gonna cut it in the real world.

Yo Jocelyn, definitely don’t let it stop you. I moved to London last year and it was the best decision of my life. I’m at home with the culture, I’ve found the first friends I can actually see myself still hanging out with in 20 years, I’ve got my life together. If you’re not happy in the culture/location that you’re in, always explore – people are always saying life isn’t always fun, but that’s not the way it has to be. You DON’T have to be in a place that you don’t love, you can go anywhere. The world is your mother fucking oyster. As long as you can COMPLETELY give up your American culture to adopt your new (Roman) one, you can do it, you will love it, and you will succeed.

and here’s a big fat FUCK YOU to the author for (probably unintentionally) implying this is what happens when you leave home/America. Writers on this site need to be a lot more “this applies to me, don’t think it applies to you” when writing serious pieces like this 

this is not the universal truth on leaving home – just so the people getting discouraged about moving abroad know. this chick’s shit planning and typical American inability to adapt and adopt a new way of life were her downfall. if you want to go abroad because you don’t like where you come from, or the culture you come from you’re in the right – if you’re going because you think Paris is glamorous, you’re going to regret it

I know you succeeded in this post, because you made me simultaneously hate you (you sound like Paris Hilton #whitegirlproblems)love you(I’m also in my twenties with zero direction in life AND no college degree). good piece

Thanks for the reinforcement dude. Fuck this country.

the due respect to the writer and those who identify themselves with the text, but i think you’ve got sad words and mistaken thoughts. aparently you, writer, and i, did similar choices and took the same route, however our attitudes are completely opposite. 1 year and 4 months ago i left my beloved apartment where i lived the best days of my college life. i left my family, my little sis, my friends. left my 13 years old dog and i wanna believe she will be there when i get back. my little cousins are growing and i’m not there to watch it. i left my master’s degree. i left all the most important things for me, i left my quite and nice life in my country to be “a second-class citizen”, to be an au pair in america. i’m not trying to make a drama, i want the people to know there’re others and amazing versions of your story. i’m not a liar so no longer i can say that being an au pair it’s my kind of job, my degree is a lot far from it. however i took this program (yes, it’s a program of work + study as any other; i payed to be part of it; i’m not trying to get married with an american guy for christ’s sake) as a personal experience, of all kinds, and to improve my poor english skills was the main point. i’m going home in 5 months and i’ll tell you, it was the best decision i could have taken when i was just like you, lost in my own life. no idea about how much you know or how much you care about kids but what i know is: there’s no money to pay the love that invades your heart when a  1 year old little girl, who barely speaks 20 words, run to you saying “i love you”. it’s not about career, it’s not about money, it’s not about how many times you had to let your pride aside. it’s about human relationships, it’s about you let the others add good values to your life and about you acting the same way. i’m definetely not a romantic person but i still believe in it, even and especially between different languages and cultures. and if you and your host kids didn’t get along at all, well, you know…the little ones learn by watching you, after all, you get what you give. now it comes your impressions about paris…i’m just chocked! but probably cause i’ve so many plans and dreams to run this world that do not fit me. some people just dont have the maturity, or they’re not ready, or they don’t have the sincere desire to try a totally different life for a while. it’s not easy at all, you have to open your mind…otherwise, “in my country we used to be like blablabla” will be the same talk ever. and i didn’t mentioned the all diferent and interesting people and places you get to know, i would have to spent all night long talking about it. writer, think about it before you give your advices, i just think you weren’t born to run. my grandma always says “education and life experience are the only things that no one can grab from you”, and believe me, she’s is an incredible woman :) think about the bright side and look back with fondness on everything you can, it was not a waste of time.

sorry about this, didn’t mean to get that long. i just couldn’t shut up my mouth!

thank you for sharing this story. i have a glamorous NYC advertising job that most, if not all of my friends, are envious of. i sometimes, and by sometimes i mean constantly, dream of quitting and getting on a plane  to go to (insert cliched european fantasy here) – and you have pretty much convinced me why i shouldn’t.

thank you, thank you, thank you.

You reading it is unnecessary. Cut a girl some slack for trying to find her way in life and having the courage or the good humor to write about it.  She’s young.  I’m sure her writing and her experiences will grow with time.  Everyone has to start somewhere, and she seems like she’s off to a pretty good start to me.  

this was an excellent article, i agree