From Canada to Charente-Maritime publié le 08/03/2023

From Canada to Charente-Maritime

From 2006 to 2010, I studied at a business school called HEC Montreal

. I got a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in operations management, a field that I was passionate about but in which I never worked in, my whole career having surprisingly been spent in marketing. I worked in Montreal for about ten years in different industries (video games, entertainment...) and it was not until my return to France that I completely changed tracks and turned to teaching.

Life in Canada appealed to me because everything seemed very simple there : interpersonal relationships, daily life, work-life balance… Everything was – and probably still is – much lighter, smoother and more accessible there than in France, where rigid hierarchy, social tension and daily stress sometimes seem to be the norm. Moreover, beyond these considerations, Canada offers an extremely enriching geographical and cultural diversity. The country has indeed a dual French-speaking (Quebec and part of the Maritime Provinces)

and English-speaking culture. It is full of splendid landscapes (Charlevoix, Niagara Falls...) and its proximity to the United States allows you to enjoy the Adirondacks

, New York or New England in just a few hours’ drive.

Thanks to the arrangements set between France and Canada, this country is relatively easy to access in administrative and migratory terms. Encouraging our students to have an experience there by benefiting from the “working holiday permit” seems particularly interesting to me. While expatriation - even temporary - is not always an easy choice, the benefits, in terms of personal maturity and enrichment, are huge and deserve to be highlighted by teaching staff who, in increasing numbers, have been fortunate enough to have such an experience.