Ludovic

CFO CFA Project Manager

Hello Ludovic, thank you for taking the time today to tell your story.
The idea is to start from childhood to now. Where do you come from? How old are you?

I am 55 years old. I come from Paris, I went to Bordeaux at the age of 14.
It was there that I learned to be an electrician.

Did you already know you wanted to be an electrician? What was the dream or the job you had in mind?

Not at all. No dream. In my generation, we didn't have dreams.
I try to return the school quota, to work for my parents, but otherwise my head was on fire. I did sports, whatever I liked.

You arrived in Bordeaux and there you trained to be an electrician?

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In Bordeaux, I started to train as an electrician. At school, things were not going well. I was in the third grade and was given a test. I was manual, so I was oriented in that.
I found a business myself and started my apprenticeship for two years. That's when I realized that I was good. At school, when I was interested, I was average, but on a construction site, I saw that it was concrete, that it was cool.
My father was a railroader, we didn't have much money.
I made money at 17 by myself.

Then, I did a professional electricity diploma until the age of 22, then I went to the Air Force. I wanted to be a sergeant. I went there for the money. But I quickly realized that authority, if it's not my father, is complicated.
My personality is a bit free. When you live in a city, you don't want to go back there.
I became self-employed at 22. I left the army at 23 and partied. I am passionate about music and sports. I was living to the fullest. I was not interested in work.
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I did a fixed-term contract in electricity. Three months I saw it as a temporary job, without being attached to it. I needed freedom, movement.

Do you quickly feel that you want freedom?

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Life is freedom, otherwise it is dead. I knew how to do it, I had been in the army, I knew how the world worked. I didn't want to lock myself into a frame.
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I joined a temporary employment agency in Bordeaux. First mission. I saw that it paid well.
But I understood that I had to be serious and square. That's when I understood the temporary employment approach: if you're good, you have freedom and respect. In a CDI if you are good we don't see you. There is pressure, performance, but also questioning. And I like that.

I have the impression that you want the temporary contract is a bit halfway between freelancing and permanent employment? That when you become older, do you choose your projects, do you choose your missions?

Exactly. You choose when you work. When you gain experience, you choose your missions.
But you are not the only one to choose, there are also the imperatives of life. When you need, you take what we offer you.
And this is where your interlocutor, your interim agency, the one who knows you, he puts you on the right missions because he knows that you will manage. It's a compromise: everyone does their part. You give, so does the agency.

So now you are still in Bordeaux and are you slowly arriving in Paris?

I was in Bordeaux, doing my interim. I could stop or resume whenever I wanted, a power that you don't have on a permanent contract.
I was 23, 24, I had made money. I was doing music, skateboarding, surfing. I was doing 3 months of interim, I went to London for concerts, then I came back. I was making money from music, but I was investing it elsewhere.
Electricity allowed me to pay my rent. I was autonomous, free.

So it was a means, not an end?

I like what I do. If I don't like it, I don't stay. This is what made me autonomous: I decide when to stop, when to resume.

So now is the moment when you say to yourself, interim is what suits me, I am free, autonomous and I decide.
So then you arrive in Paris? At what age and when?

At the age of 33, I came back to Paris because I had created a music label. I worked with the state, gave rap lessons in prison. I worked in fashion, music, radio. My label worked for a year before we stopped. I went back to Paris for my passion, not for the job.
When you know how to work in Paris, you have work to do. Those who say there are none are because they don't want to.
I immediately looked for a temporary job.

And why the profession of electrician?

I discovered the versatility of the electrician profession, there are several bodies. I worked in the cinema, on boats, in construction. It's a very broad profession: public lighting, marine, etc.You can work in oil platforms, but I refused this type of position.

And to a 12-year-old child, how would you describe this position to him?

For a 12-year-old child, being an electrician is simple: light, that's it.

And what are the projects where you said to yourself I am proud to have participated?

Honestly, all of them.

What construction site are you on now?

Today, I work at the D'Aulnay operating center until 2027.

And what are the big issues at the moment?

Reliability, we have the project not particularly well thought out beforehand, plans not verified.
Not everything is always well prepared, but we move forward.

And how many are you on the team?

We are divided in two. I work with about sixty electricians, three construction managers, two site managers, three project managers, two project managers, the director and the guys from the design office.

Will it be over on time or not?

No It doesn't exist. It's political, you have to go quickly. Everyone has to make their money.

If there was one thing we could wish you, what would it be Ludovic?

I have to live by the sea and not far from the mountains.
No, but keep going like this. Meet real people. True wealth is the encounter.
On construction sites, I talk to Egyptians, Italians, Iranians. Each worker has a story. I have worked with people from all over the world. Some are real monsters of know-how.

Do you think that you are being respected at your fair value today?

Today, I feel respected by my temporary employment agency and my colleagues. Of course, all of this is not free. Nothing is static, everything is mobile. It's good to know that everything is moving, that nothing really belongs to you.
You don't get hung up on anything, everything is fleeting. And that's fine the way it is. Even when there is a problem, you know that it will eventually move. You are moving forward.

Exactly, thank you so much David for your story.
It was a nice conversation.

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