Navigating Academic Job Applications in France

During the 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 cycles, I was on the job market in Europe, mostly in France.

The French system is very different from most places, so I'm writing this page to document my experience and how it works. Feel free to drop me an email if you have a question or want access to my application material; I'm always happy to help.

I also recommend reading this very good guide for CNRS/Inria applications.

TL;DR

French academic positions are all state-funded: higher education and research in France are part of the public sector. This has two consequences:

Types of Positions

There are two main types of positions: full-time researcher and assistant professor. As the name indicates, full-time researchers have no teaching obligations (but can teach), whereas assistant professors have a teaching load.

Full-time researcher positions

These positions are primarily available at CNRS and Inria under the name "Chargé de recherche" (CRCN). They carry no teaching obligations and are highly competitive. Inria offers a variant called "Inria Starting Faculty Positions" (ISFP), which includes a small teaching load (between 32 and 64 hours per year). ISFP positions are technically a permanent employment contract ("contrat à durée indéterminée", CDI), not civil servant roles, but are very close in practice. If you are interested in CRCN roles, I recommend you apply to ISFP roles too.

Unlike in most other countries, the recruiting committee is broad, and members of the team you are applying to are considered to have a conflict of interest. In practice, this means the team you're applying to will actively help you write your application and rehearse your job talk. From my point of view, this is a very healthy approach, and as a candidate, it provides emotional support.

For CNRS and Inria, the process is the same (with CNRS usually running one month in advance of Inria). For a given team you want to join, it is recommended to apply both with CNRS and Inria, as it basically doubles your chances for the same price.

It is recommended to apply to multiple labs. For reference, I applied to 4 different teams.

A full-time research position is tied to the national institute (CNRS or Inria), so after a few years, it is usually possible to switch labs and go elsewhere in France.

Note that candidates' names and final results are publicly announced online. While this prevents secret applications, it enables candidates to build statistics and assess the competition. For reference: in 2026, the CNRS (section 2, Computer Science) received 168 applications, invited 28 candidates for a formal interview, and filled 6 positions across all computer science fields. Section 2 maintains a semi-official website, cn2.fr, where they post recommendations, results, and statistics promptly. Inria has similar numbers.

Assistant professor positions

These positions are called "Maître de conférences" and are roughly equivalent to assistant professor roles elsewhere. The teaching load, however, is heavy: 128 hours of lectures per year (equivalent to 192 tutorial hours, "travaux dirigés"). Recruitment opens in March, and as with researcher positions, contacting labs in advance is strongly recommended---unsolicited applications are almost always rejected outright.

A French peculiarity is that a PhD alone is not enough to be eligible for these positions. You must first obtain a "qualification aux fonctions de maître de conférences" (official qualification to be an assistant professor).

This is a separate process that begins in the fall with an early deadline (around November) and assesses whether your PhD, publication record, and teaching experience meet the bar. The qualification is valid for multiple years, and while competitive in many disciplines, it is relatively straightforward to obtain in computer science. It is administered by the section 27 of the national university council. Don't wait for the results of the qualification to contact labs you want to join!

An assistant professor position is tied to a University, so it is difficult to move once you get such a job (except when you're promoted to full professor after around 10 years, in which case it is customary to change institutions).

The community-maintained website Opération Postes offers information about available positions, and may give the result of the formal interview before you get an official notice.

Application Process

While the precise months vary between the type of job you're applying to, the process is always the same.

1. Informal contact with labs.

This is a critical and undocumented step. You must reach out to labs/teams before the official application window opens as their support is essential. The earliest window is CNRS, which typically opens in late January. Take this step in October/November for CNRS/Inria, or a little after if you apply only for an assistant professor position (but I recommend you apply to all possible positions!). The usual approach is to contact the team leader, who will often arrange an informal interview to assess fit. Treat this informal interview as a visit day.

2. Application writing.

French applications are substantial documents---my CNRS application ran 15 pages excluding references, split equally between an account of my past research and a detailed research agenda. The research agenda matters especially: since you effectively receive tenure upon hiring, the committee needs confidence that you have both a short-term and a long-term vision.

The teams you are applying to will usually offer guidance and proofread your application. This step starts in December, and you can reuse text written for one application for the other.

Letters of recommendation are expected (between 2 and 4), and usually include your PhD and postdoc advisors. Letters from people without a conflict of interest with you are highly appreciated (e.g. an expert in your field who happens to know your work).

3. Pre-selection.

After your application material is sent, an anxious wait begins to learn whether you have been pre-selected for a formal interview. The pre-selection is made based solely on the application materials you provided and the input of the teams that you're applying to. At least, this is the only step for which you don't have anything to do!

4. Formal interviews.

If pre-selected, you will be invited for a formal interview. These are brief---typically 20 minutes of presentation followed by 20 minutes of questions. Presenting in person is strongly recommended, even if a remote option is available (contrary to most places, travel costs are not reimbursed). These interviews occur from March (for CNRS) to May (for assistant professor positions).

As for the talk itself, ask the teams you're applying to for rehearsals: French job talks follow unspoken conventions that take practice to internalize. The key high-level advice is to stay non-technical: recruiting committees rarely include more than one expert in your specific area, so the goal is to persuade people outside your field. Also, because most positions are civil servant roles, interview procedures are regulated by law---you must strictly respect the time limit.

Questions were what I dreaded most. The best advice I received: treat them as opportunities to shine a spotlight on your work. Indeed, each committee will assign one or two "reviewers" to your case. They will read your applications in detail, and if you reached the interview phase, they already support your case. Note that I got broad questions as well as research-level questions about one of my papers.

5. After.

From a few hours to a few days after the interviews, a ranking will be established by the scientific committee. This ranking gives a very good indication of your chances of getting the job. For assistant professor positions, the scientific committee's ranking is almost always final. For full-time researcher positions, a final (and more political) committee will convene, usually in June, and produce the final list. While the CNRS final committee usually follows the CNRS scientific committee, this is not the case for Inria: in recent years, the final Inria committee made important modifications to the scientific ranking.

The final committee establishes a main list of people who will get an offer, and an ordered reserve list of people who will get the job if a person from the main list declines. If you are on the reserve list, you can be offered a job very late in the process: I was contacted at the very end of July!