The French have always placed great trust in graphology – the analysis of handwriting – when it comes to screening job candidates. And perhaps they are not entirely wrong.

In his now infamous autobiography, Jean-Marie Messier, the humbled former head of Vivendi Universal, explains how he was turned down for a job at Total, the French oil company. When he was still studying at Ecole Polytechnique, he wrote to Total asking if they would sponsor him through an MBA course at Harvard.