How to apply for an EU job

Landing a job is never easy, but landing a foreign aid job with the European Union is really tough. First of all, candidates must pass a public competition whose aim is not to fill a vacant post, but to create a reserve list of candidates from which EU institutions can recruit, when and if they need to. Being successful in a competition doesn’t mean getting a job, though. According to a survey of the European Personnel Selection Office, only 11,000 of 300,000 applicants have passed one of more than 300 competitions to date and among them, 8,400 were hired. EPSO’s task ends when the reserve list is published. The recruitment is essentially up to the human resources staff of each EU institution or European Commission directorate-general, including the Directorate-General for Development and Cooperation – EuropeAid. Selection procedures EPSO carries out two main selection procedures both for positions in Brussels and EU delegations around the world. They are competitions for permanent staff, namely administrators and assistants, and CASTs, which are exams for fixed-period contract agents. The selection is based only on merit and there are no quotas for EU member states. EPSO cannot consider any application or CV outside those selection procedures. EPSO’s website as well as Facebook and Twitter pages present the best sources for information on upcoming and ongoing selection procedures. The competitions are not used to select candidates for specific job posts, but for the specific “profiles” the EU believes will be needed in the near future – administrators in the fields of law, audit, communications and external relations, for instance. There is an annual cycle of competitions for the most common job profiles. On its website, EPSO publishes an indicative calendar of planned competitions. Usually, the selection for administrators begin in the spring, for linguists in summer, and for assistants in winter. Profiles sought, meanwhile, change from year to year. EPSO also organizes competitions for specialist profiles. According to a human resources officer with the EU, profiles can sometimes be very specific and indicate where the candidate may be placed. As such, if a competition relates to development cooperation, it’s likely that the position would be with DG DEVCO, also known as EuropeAid. For each competition or CAST, EPSO releases a so-called notice of competition where the eligibility criteria, selection phases, number of candidates that will be included in the reserve lists, pass marks and other practical information are explained in detail. For each competition, a selection board is also appointed. DEVCO is not always part of the panel. The names of the selection board’s members are published on the EPSO website. Candidates are strictly forbidden to contact them. Making past the competition or CAST is certainly not a piece of cake — far from it — and that’s something candidates need to be very much aware of. “Your competitors are extremely strong, well prepared, know many languages, [have] professional experiences even though they are very young,” Cesira D’Aniello, director of transparency of the Council of the European Union’s General Secretaria, said last year during an event in Siena organized by the Institute for International Political Studies. “In the last competition, only candidates with a mark of 9 out of 10 have passed; 8.5 hasn’t been enough. You have to know who you are going to face.” How to apply Regardless of the selection procedure, the process begins with an online application. As a rule, candidates can apply to as many competitions as they want, even if there may be some restrictions mentioned in the notices. Candidates must open an account on EPSO’s website, which should be used for all competitions they are interested in. They can be disqualified for having more than one account. Other reasons for disqualification include making false declarations and applying for profiles without meeting the qualifications. The online application involves filling out a form with the information one normally puts on a CV, such as education and training, professional experience and language skills. However, the information requested differs depending on the competition. For specialist profiles, for example, the online application form asks to fill a “talent screener” tab that contains questions to assess if the candidate’s qualifications are relevant for the profile sought. Work experience is not always an eligibility criterion. But for it to matter to the application, it must involve real, genuine work, which means a paid job as an employee or service provider, according to EPSO’s guidelines. The online form requests users to indicate two languages they will use during the competition. Language 1 must be one of the 23 official languages of the European Union, and this is usually the candidate’s mother tongue. Language 2 is the second language, which must be different from the first one and among the three EU working languages — English, French or German. Generally, exercises for the second part of the competition are done in the second language. On the Europass website, there is a self-assessment grid that helps candidates evaluate their language skills. The candidate’s motivation and strengths are also established through specific questions. For instance, a recent CAST selection in the regional security field asked the following: - How is your education and experience relevant to this particular profile? - Why do you want to apply for this particular career opportunity? You should also explain why this particular profile interests you. - What specific contribution do you think you could make to the work of the European institutions and agencies? In what role could you best contribute? - What particular strengths would you bring to your work? - Outline two of your main achievements. Describe what they are, the process you went through and their positive outcomes for you and for others. Candidates are cautioned against applying for competitions when they don’t meet all eligibility criteria. “[Candidates] should make sure that they fill in properly the criteria in order to apply because what happens is that if they apply and they are not eligible, they will still take the competition. But when the time comes, they won’t be recruited,” an EU human resources officer told Devex. The officer added: “I have to tell you frankly that we have a lot of cases where people applying in the end are not eligible … They are taking their chances, I understand to some extent, but it’s a waste of time and money for everybody. It’s still taxpayer’s money.” Application forms are examined by the selection board only after the computer-based testing or after the assessment center phase. It is the selection board that decides which qualifications are acceptable or within the framework set by the notice of competition. Candidates should validate their applications before the deadline, after which they cannot modify or delete them anymore. EPSO suggests consulting the account at least twice a week because it is the only way applicants get updated by EPSO about the competitions they have applied to. EPSO also offers a manual to help candidates fill up their online applications properly. All information about the competition a candidate has applied to, from legal documents to latest status updates, are published on EPSO’s dedicated blog or on its Facebook page.