Key Takeaways
- Lacoste uses Cegid HR (DigitalRecruiters platform) as its ATS, shared across all MF Brands Group sister brands including Gant and Aigle, so a single well-completed candidate profile works across the portfolio.
- French is the working language for Paris headquarters roles, with English as the international second language. Most HQ postings expect B2-or-higher in both, and applying in the wrong language or with machine-translated French hurts your candidacy.
- Contract type matters enormously in France: CDI (permanent) and CDD (fixed-term) are legally and culturally different products, and stage (internship) and alternance (apprenticeship) are dedicated hiring tracks with their own pipelines and school calendar constraints.
- Retail hires in two or three rounds over two to three weeks with strong weight on customer role-play and store fit; corporate hires in three to four rounds over four to six weeks with strong weight on portfolio, case study, and culture fit.
- The brand codes are load-bearing: court sport, craftsmanship, understatement, French sensibility. Candidates who demonstrate genuine literacy in Lacoste's heritage and current positioning consistently outperform candidates with stronger generic resumes.
- Quantify everything on your CV in the metrics the business actually runs on: conversion rate, UPT, ADT, comp sales for retail; CVR, AOV, return rate, time-to-market for e-commerce; sell-through, markdown rate, margin for merchandising. Generic activity statements lose.
- Paris 2024 Olympics partnership, the Emma Raducanu and continuing Novak Djokovic ambassadorships, the DTC pivot under Thierry Guibert, and the Greater China recovery are the current strategic storylines; referencing them accurately in interview signals that you have done your homework.
About Lacoste
Application Process
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1
Go to careers
Go to careers.lacoste.com and switch the language toggle to the language you want to work in, not necessarily your native language. The site is published in French, English, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal variants), German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (Simplified), which tells you the markets where Lacoste hires heavily. Retail roles are typically posted in the language of the store's country, but Paris corporate roles are frequently only fully described in French even when you view the English version.
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Use the filters on the /annonces listings page: Positions (the functional family
Use the filters on the /annonces listings page: Positions (the functional family: Retail, Digital, Merchandising, Marketing, Finance, IT, Supply Chain, HR, Product, Design), Contracts (Permanent Contract = CDI, Fixed-term = CDD, Internship = Stage, Apprenticeship = Alternance), and Work period (Full-time, Part-time). Contract type is a load-bearing signal in France and you should not apply to a CDD if you specifically need a CDI; recruiters filter both ways.
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3
Click into a specific annonce
Click into a specific annonce. The URL pattern is careers.lacoste.com/en/annonce/{numeric_id}-{slug}. Read the full posting carefully, including the French-language body on Paris roles, and note the explicit experience level (for example 'At least 5 years of experience (Senior level)'), the education line (MBA, Bac+5, Bac+3, or no requirement listed), and the location including the postal code, which indicates the specific office or store.
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Hit the Apply button
Hit the Apply button. It routes into the Cegid HR / DigitalRecruiters application flow, which is the ATS Lacoste uses across all brand sites. You will be prompted to create an account or sign in with an existing one, upload your CV, fill in structured fields, and answer a handful of role-specific screening questions.
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Upload your CV as a PDF
Upload your CV as a PDF. Cegid HR parses PDF reliably and extracts work history, education, and skills into its candidate profile. Do not upload a Word document when PDF is available because the parsing is noisier, and do not upload scanned images or photo-based CVs, which parse to empty fields and force you to type everything manually. In France a CV should be one page for candidates with under roughly eight years of experience and two pages at most for senior leaders.
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Complete the profile fields even when they feel redundant with the CV
Complete the profile fields even when they feel redundant with the CV. The recruiter-side search tool in Cegid HR queries the structured fields, not the free-text CV, so incomplete profiles are literally invisible to screening filters. Pay particular attention to the languages block (list French, English, and any other language with the European CEFR level: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2) and to the availability date, which in France signals whether you can honor a notice period.
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Answer screening questions honestly
Answer screening questions honestly. Typical knockout questions include right-to-work status in the country of the role, French-language proficiency for Paris positions, availability for shift and weekend work for retail positions, willingness to relocate for store manager tracks, and in some cases salary expectations (fourchette de salaire). French law allows employers to ask about salary expectations but not about age or family status, and Lacoste's screener respects that distinction.
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For retail roles, include a lettre de motivation (cover letter) if the posting h
For retail roles, include a lettre de motivation (cover letter) if the posting has a field for one, even when marked optional. French hiring culture still weights the cover letter heavily, especially for boutique sales associate and assistant store manager positions, and a customized two-paragraph letter that mentions the specific boutique (Champs-Elysees flagship, Printemps Haussmann, Forum des Halles, La Vallee Village outlet, etc.) will land better than a generic one.
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For corporate Paris roles, especially in product, design, marketing, and digital
For corporate Paris roles, especially in product, design, marketing, and digital, be prepared to submit a portfolio link if the role is creative. The Cegid HR application supports attaching additional documents beyond the CV, and a clean Notion page, Behance profile, or personal site showing work is expected for designers, art directors, visual merchandisers, and e-commerce UX roles.
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Submit and save your confirmation
Submit and save your confirmation. You will receive an automated acknowledgment from a no-reply address on the lacoste.com or digitalrecruiters.com domain. Real recruiter replies typically come within two to four weeks for corporate roles and within one to two weeks for retail roles, though peak seasonal hiring (August-September for back-to-school and October-November for holiday) can stretch retail response times. If you have heard nothing after five weeks on a corporate role, a single polite follow-up email to the recruiter listed on the posting is acceptable.
Resume Tips for Lacoste
Match the language of the posting
Match the language of the posting. If the annonce is posted in French, send a French CV. If it is in English, send English. If it is in both, send French with an English summary section at the top. Google Translate output is recognizable to French recruiters within ten seconds and will hurt you more than a short, imperfect but human CV written in your second language.
Use the French CV format for Paris roles
Use the French CV format for Paris roles. That means photo in the top right (still standard practice at French fashion houses even though it is optional by law), one page for under eight years of experience, date of birth optional, driving license mentioned only if the role requires travel or retail fleet work, and sections ordered as State Civil (name and contact), Experience, Formation (education), Competences, and Langues. Reverse-chronological within Experience.
Put tenures in months, not just years, for roles under two years
Put tenures in months, not just years, for roles under two years. French recruiters read short tenures as risk, and 'Jan 2024 - Oct 2024' reads honestly where '2024' reads like you are hiding something. Never blur dates.
Quantify fashion and retail results with the metrics that matter: comparable sto
Quantify fashion and retail results with the metrics that matter: comparable store sales growth, UPT (units per transaction), ADT (average dollar transaction), conversion rate, clientele book size and retention, markdown rate, sell-through on a specific drop or collection, and Net Promoter Score where you have it. For e-commerce roles, quantify AOV, CVR, bounce rate on PDPs, return rate reduction, and time-to-market acceleration on catalog launches.
Spell out the boutique and channel context
Spell out the boutique and channel context. 'Sales Associate, Paris' means nothing to a Lacoste recruiter. 'Sales Associate, flagship (1,200 sqm, 40+ staff, 18M euro annual revenue)' or 'Sales Associate, premium outlet, 30-person team, top three in EMEA region for conversion rate' both communicate instantly. If you have worked for a competitor, name the competitor (Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, Sandro, Maje, Hackett, Fred Perry) and say so plainly. Lacoste hires from its adjacent brands constantly.
List your languages with the CEFR level (A1 through C2) and the context you used
List your languages with the CEFR level (A1 through C2) and the context you used them in. 'English B2 (daily use in international role)' reads better than 'English: fluent'. For Paris headquarters roles touching international markets, C1 English and B2+ French is a realistic baseline; for retail outside France, the national language at C1 plus English at B1+ is typical.
Highlight sport, if you have it
Highlight sport, if you have it. Lacoste is a tennis brand at its soul and the brand publicly celebrates employees who play, coach, or have competed. Listing tennis, golf, sailing, or any sport you pursue seriously is a genuine cultural signal, not filler, and interviewers often ask about it. Do not fake this.
For creative roles (design, visual merchandising, art direction, creative copywr
For creative roles (design, visual merchandising, art direction, creative copywriting, content production), pair the CV with a portfolio link above the first experience entry. If you have worked on campaigns, shoots, or collections with named photographers, stylists, or agencies, name them. The Paris fashion community is small and credit lines trigger recognition.
Tailor the keywords to the posting
Tailor the keywords to the posting. Cegid HR's recruiter search matches on skills, tools, and titles from the structured profile. Echo the job posting's exact phrasing for tools (PIM, PLM, Centric 8, SAP, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Shopify Plus, Adobe Suite, CLO3D, Gerber), methodologies (Agile, OKR, category management, clienteling), and certifications (chef de projet digital, management de la mode, CAP metiers de la mode) that match your background. Do not invent keywords you cannot defend in interview.
For alternance (apprenticeship) and stage (internship) applications, make clear
For alternance (apprenticeship) and stage (internship) applications, make clear upfront the school, the dates of availability, the required duration, and whether your school has a CERFA-registered contract template. Lacoste hires heavily into both tracks and the logistical details of the French education calendar (rythme 3 semaines entreprise / 1 semaine ecole, for instance) are make-or-break for the recruiter matching you to a manager.
Avoid the American tactic of stuffing the CV with every skill keyword you have e
Avoid the American tactic of stuffing the CV with every skill keyword you have ever touched. French recruiters read CVs as signals of taste and discernment; a CV that lists twelve design tools reads as someone who has mastered none. Three to five tools you can actually demonstrate in a portfolio review is stronger.
ATS System: Cegid HR (DigitalRecruiters platform)
Lacoste runs its global careers site and application flow on Cegid HR, the recruitment suite operated by Lyon-based Cegid, which absorbed the DigitalRecruiters product line. The branded footer still carries the DigitalRecruiters 'DR' logo, and the ATS is the same one used across the wider MF Brands portfolio (Lacoste, Gant, Aigle, Tecnifibre, The Kooples), which is why you will see a shared cross-brand careers portal at careers.mf-brands.com linked from the footer. Cegid HR is not a giant like Workday or SuccessFactors; it is a mid-market European recruitment platform optimized specifically for French and European labor law compliance, contract types (CDI, CDD, stage, alternance, interim), GDPR candidate data handling, and multilingual career sites. Its parsing of uploaded PDF CVs is solid but not magical, and its recruiter-side search leans heavily on the structured profile fields rather than free-text CV scanning.
- Upload a PDF CV, not a Word document or a photo. Cegid HR parses PDF cleanly into structured fields but has noticeably worse extraction on docx and effectively zero extraction on image-based CVs.
- Fill in every structured field even if it duplicates the CV. Skills, languages with CEFR levels, tools, previous companies, education institutions, and diploma levels all power the recruiter's internal search. A complete profile with no CV gets more views than an uploaded CV with an empty profile.
- Use one candidate account across the MF Brands portfolio. You can apply to Lacoste, Gant, and Aigle roles from a single Cegid HR profile, and recruiters inside MF Brands can see cross-brand applications, which sometimes routes you to a better-fit role at a sister brand.
- The system supports right-to-be-forgotten requests under GDPR. If you withdraw your application or want your data purged after twelve months, you can request it in the candidate portal and Lacoste's recruitment team is obligated to act within thirty days.
- Do not rely on in-system messaging. Once a recruiter engages, communication almost always moves to direct email, and you should save the recruiter's email address from the first reply as the durable channel.
- The application deadline on a Cegid HR posting is the advertised closing date, not a soft target. Roles typically close on or near the listed date and reopen only if the recruiter has not found a qualified shortlist.
- Expect screening questions to be strict knockouts. Answering 'No' to 'Are you authorized to work in France?' on a Paris CDI posting will end your application there, regardless of how strong your CV is, unless the posting explicitly offers visa sponsorship (rare outside senior technical and senior executive roles).
- The portal is GDPR-compliant and will not discriminate on legally protected fields, but it does collect optional self-identification data for equality monitoring in France; you can decline these questions without penalty.
Interview Culture
Lacoste's interview process is recognizably French fashion house in its formality, its patience, and its focus on cultural fit alongside technical competence.
What Lacoste Looks For
- Genuine familiarity with the brand codes: court sport, craftsmanship, understated elegance, French sensibility with international scope. Candidates who can speak fluently about why the crocodile matters, why the L.12.12 polo was a design revolution, and how those roots show up in a 2026 collection always out-interview candidates who have only studied the job description.
- Bilingual French-English capability for Paris headquarters roles. French at B2 or higher for integration into the team, English at B2 or higher for the international dimension of almost every HQ function. Explicit trilingual candidates (adding Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, or Spanish) have a real edge for roles that touch those markets.
- Retail experience with a premium or accessible-luxury house for store roles. Prior tenure at Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Sandro, Maje, Hackett, Fred Perry, or a comparable brand reads as directly transferable; prior tenure in fast fashion (Zara, H&M, Primark) reads as a different skill set and will require you to explain the transition credibly.
- Hard numbers on commercial performance, not just activities. Recruiters and store managers alike filter ruthlessly on whether your resume and interview answers include conversion rate, UPT, ADT, comp sales, clienteling retention, and similar metrics, because these are the literal language of store P&L conversations at Lacoste.
- Product and category literacy. Candidates who cannot tell a polo placket detail apart from a shirt placket, who do not know the difference between pique and jersey, or who have never thought carefully about fabric weight are visibly out of their depth in design, product, merchandising, and visual merchandising interviews.
- Portfolio quality over portfolio quantity for creatives. Five beautifully executed projects beat fifteen rough ones. The brand is particular about craft.
- Willingness to work in Paris for HQ roles, or at least an honest conversation about relocation. Lacoste runs a predominantly in-office hybrid model at headquarters (typically three days in office), and fully remote corporate roles are uncommon; candidates who need full remote usually filter themselves out at round one.
- Cultural adaptability for regional roles. North American candidates interviewing for a New York merchandising or retail leadership role should still demonstrate that they understand Paris sets the direction and that collaboration with the French team is a daily requirement, not a quarterly one.
- Discretion and poise. Maus Freres is a famously private Swiss holding company, Lacoste is a brand where understatement is a virtue, and candidates who come across as loud, self-promotional, or overly aggressive commercially struggle in the interview even when their numbers are strong. The brand hires for restraint.
- Sport, ideally but not required. Tennis, golf, sailing, or any individual sport practiced seriously is a real plus because it connects authentically to the brand's DNA and comes up organically in interview small talk. This is not a box to fake; it is a bonus for candidates who genuinely live it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What applicant tracking system does Lacoste use?
Do I need to speak French to work at Lacoste?
What is the difference between a CDI and a CDD at Lacoste?
Does Lacoste hire international candidates for its Paris headquarters?
What does the interview process look like for a retail sales associate?
What does the interview process look like for a Paris corporate role?
Does Lacoste offer stage (internships) and alternance (apprenticeships)?
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Who owns Lacoste and does that affect hiring?
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Open Positions
Lacoste currently has 20 open positions.
