ENA graduates?

Question

I'm wondering what the graduates of ENA (Ecole nationale d'administration) do after their study there. ENA is known as the most prestigious school in France. What kind of career are they going to have after graduating from the school?

Answer 1

Most of Enarques do not involve in politics - they ( about 100 each year ) are aimed to work as higher executives in ministries and national administration -

ENA is not THE most prestigious school in France -

It is only one among others such as Polytechnique for highest ingenerie of which under branches are Mines, INSEE and I forget the third one

Besides there is Ecole Centrale des manufactures, engineers too

And for higher teachers Ecole Normale Supérieure, either Sciences or Literature -

Army has its own schools such as Saint-Cyr, for general officers, and Ecole Navale for Marine and Salon ( I think )for Air officers

HEC - ESSEC -and INSEAD are worldwide famous business

schools at high level ( level of prices too )

Concerning your question about private/public "bridges" they exist but in a non-significant number - most of private companies recruiting enarques doing this mainly in order to "have  a foot " in State mechanisms

PS it's not really accurate to speak about ENA "graduates" since ENA being not part of university does not produce diplomas but prepares people before their direct access to public-work

Answer 2

They become politicians and high level government administrators.

Lionel Jospin, Bruno Mégret, Philippe Séguin, Dominique de Villepin, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Ségolène Royal and Jacques Chirac are all graduates.

Of the 15 members of President Sarkozy's cabinet, two attended the elite Ecole Nationale d'Administration.

EDIT:I'd note that one doesn't have to run for office or be elected to anything to be considered a politician. For every politician who actually runs for elected office there are (at least) a hundred more who hold appointed offices or otherwise make their living thru politics.

There are 2,285,507  civil service jobs in France and being involved in politics is one way to land a good one. (And that number doesn't include millions of other jobs that are part of the government payroll but not, strictly speaking, considered civil service jobs).

The ENA exists for the purpose of training government leaders and while there may be a graduate who has wound up in private industry I can't think of one off hand.

Note also that in France the dividing line between a politician and a civil servant is very blurry if it exists at all (unlike USA for example).

In the American model one is usually not allowed, as a civil servant, to engage in poltical activity and must resign his or her civil service job to engage in politics. In France it is considerered proper for a civil servant to simply take a leave to seek elected office and, if they fail at the ballot box, to simply return to their position.