The V.I.E Program: a win-win situation for everyone
Well acquainted with the V.I.E program since he experienced it himself, Arnaud now employs a young professional under V.I.E contract and shares his experience, knowing how it feels to be on both sides: as a recruit and as a recruiter. This article is the first part of Arnaud’s feedback about the V.I.E program. Stay tuned, […]
Arnaud Seigne
Business developer in North America for ORME
Arnaud works as business developer in North America for ORME, a French-based company located in Toulouse. The company’s expertise ranges from R&D activities, such as development of signal and image processing algorithms, to development in scientific computing for test analysis, and software solutions. ORME works with large companies in the aerospace, automotive, rail, space, agriculture, smart cities, health, energy as well as cosmetics sectors.
Well acquainted with the V.I.E program since he experienced it himself, Arnaud now employs a young professional under V.I.E contract and shares his experience, knowing how it feels to be on both sides: as a recruit and as a recruiter.
This article is the first part of Arnaud’s feedback about the V.I.E program. Stay tuned, another article is coming in which Arnaud will share his tips for small and medium companies looking to recruit a talent under V.I.E contract.
Experience with the V.I.E Program
Arnaud joined the V.I.E program to work for the competitive cluster Aerospace Valley based in Montreal about 10 years ago. This cluster supports cooperative and innovative projects in R&D in aerospace, encouraging its members to grow and to tackle tomorrow’s challenges.
According to him, the V.I.E program is the easiest way for a young professional to find a job abroad without facing the administrative burden and uncertainty related to international mobility. The program comes as a full package – with health insurance, a French contract regulated by French law and a monthly income calculated on the local cost of life – and makes it very safe and comfortable to dive into the experience. Plus, it is a good opportunity to prove that one can adapt. “Very often I see written on resume that people are able to adapt, well the V.I.E is a good opportunity to prove it,” explains Arnaud.
This year, Arnaud switched hats and became the mentor of a young professional who came to Toronto under a V.I.E contract. Pierre, who used to work for ORME in France, recently joined the Canadian subsidiary to help Arnaud develop the local business and provide technical support to local customers. Already cumulating few years of experience, Pierre wished to expand its horizons and add a working experience abroad to his resume. It is during an annual review that ORME came with the idea to send him to Canada as a V.I.E, enabling the company to develop its activities in the country while helping Pierre to gain further knowledge in a different environment. Despite a bumpy process due to the sanitary crisis, Arnaud is very happy with the help received from Business France: “I want to highlight that Business France was pretty amazing and really helped us go through the visa options.”
Arnaud’s first steps and first lesson learned as a young French professional in Montreal
Few years have passed since Arnaud discovered the V.I.E program. However, he still remembers very well each step of the recruitment process: first uploading his resume in the VIE database, getting in touch with Aerospace Valley after 2 months, having a second interview 3 weeks later, and flying to Montreal only 3 months after the process started. He remembers a very quick process and a strong support from Business France at each step.
When arriving in Montreal, Arnaud’s biggest challenge was to understand how business works locally and then explain it to the teams remaining in France. For Arnaud, when going after a new market in a new country, it is not just the V.I.E but the whole team that must adapt and find compromise. It is crucial to adapt to the local regulations, culture and even metrics (inches vs cm for example), but also to new customers’ corporate mindset and processes which may differ from the ones the company is usually dealing with. “It won’t change your core business but those are slight differences that will make your integration into the North American market way easier.”
According to Arnaud, the V.I.E program is a perfect fit both for companies already settled abroad as well as for companies deploying their activities. In the case of ORME, it is also a wonderful solution to retain talents eager to gain a meaningful experience abroad.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, working from home, and managing teams from a distance is the new normal. It does not take a lot more efforts to manage someone based on the other side of France or based in North America. Between French and North American east coast time zones, there is half a workday overlap. It is easy to organize time: plan collective work or follow up in the morning and individual work in the afternoon.
