It is hard to imagine a student of l’Ena, future senior government official, dump fish on a trawler in Costa-Rican waters. Yet this is exactly what Olivier Pau, in first year at the National School of Administration, did for eight days in early October, swapping his suit and tie for a fisherman’s outfit.
“Eight days on a boat is a year in real life,” laughs the 25-year-old young man who is leaving Côtes-d’Armor on Wednesday 23 December. “It’s a memory I’ll never forget. “
Break the “above ground” image of Ena
Le Nordiste discovered the department in May. “In the first year, we do an internship of several months in the prefecture”, explains the future enarque. “It’s something traditional, in effect for over 60 years. With, however, a novelty this year.
“Usually, it is coupled with another internship in the private sector, often in large French companies. But, with the economic crisis affecting the country, the director of Ena wanted us to discover the reality and the difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises. It is also a way of showing that the school is not above ground, as we can sometimes blame it for.
“Like a true fisherman”
Olivier Pau, who, when he was younger, dreamed of being an airline pilot, had never set foot on a boat. However, he made the choice of a costarmorican weaponry. During four weeks, he discovered the life and the functioning of the company. Including the work of a fisherman, on the trawler Diogenes, from October 12 to 19.
Embarked as an observer, he does not hesitate to take his share of the work. “It was impossible for me to tell myself that I was going to sleep while the others were working,” he defends. “Obviously I didn’t have the toughest jobs. But I felt like a real fisherman. He even suffered from earth sickness when he returned home, although he was more afraid of seasickness.
They really marked me. And I think I marked them too.
At sea, he will therefore have secured his post, without ever complaining. On the deck every three hours to empty the trawl, kneeling in the water sorting the fish, gutting them, cleaning them. Short periods of sleep with the sound of the engine in the eternal background. What to force the admiration of his colleagues for a week. “They gave me my chance and saw that I was holding on,” he says.
Not different
This is, anyway, what Olivier Pau also wanted to prove by this internship. “I might be at Ena, but we’re not different people. During these eight days, links are forged between the future enarque and the fishermen. “We shared intimate moments, they told me about their difficulties. “
Weeks later, they continue to exchange messages and Olivier Pau has already planned to come back to see them. “But as a vacationer this time! “. In the meantime, he will find Ena in early January. Realizing that, even when he became a senior official, he would not forget this experience. “They really marked me. And I think I marked them too. “
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