Now that webcast is behind us, is there any specific issue you would like to have answered on our website?
 

·         Is it necessary to have any kind of second language certificate?
 

No certification is necessary and language never has to be proven in an EPSO exam by documents, only by practically demonstrating your knowledge via e.g. verbal reasoning or the assessment centre.
 

·         Are the AD7 tests significantly more difficult than the AD5s?
 

No, they are more likely the exact same level as the AD5, the difference is in the required work experience to qualify for AD7.
 

Read on for further questions and answers!

Some EPSO exam candidates might have heard the name of 2010 Administrator (AD) exam applicant, Dimitrios Pachtitis. Mr. Pachtitis is the candidate who successfully challenged EPSO’s pre-selection method by highlighting the "mis-allocation of competences

In a somewhat startling about-turn, I have decided for the time being not to pursue secretarial jobs, having made it to the AST1 reserve list. Believe me, this has been a very difficult decision to make, but it feels like the right one for, at least for now. As much as I desperately want a job in the European Commission, so this is pretty heartbreaking, I have realised that to start in such a junior position would not make sense professionally, financially or... 

For the whole of July, I had been gingerly logging in to my EPSO account every single day, waiting for the little red flag to say that I had ‘1 new email’. Well, the end of July came and went, with no sign of the assessment centre results. Just as I was about to start harassing the EPSO team and inundating their inbox with emails of complaint, I logged in to my account on Monday early August and there it was! (click to read more!)

The EPSO Assessment Centre - (Part 2).

The day began with the candidates being taken into a large meeting room, where the EPSO representative sat down with us to explain what was going to happen and give us our individual schedules. There would be four parts to the assessment, as outlined in the invitation letter... (click to read the full post!)

Following the CBT tests for the AST1 competition, I was extremely surprised and happy to receive a letter in my EPSO account inviting me to attend the assessment centre. However, when I looked at the date, my heart sank as I realised that I was not going to be available.

At that time I was extremely busy and the original assessment centre date coincided with one of my marking deadlines, so there was no possible way I could go. Fearing the worst (that it would just be ‘tough luck’), I emailed the EPSO candidate contact service...

Having decided a year ago to make a commitment to getting a job in the European Commission, I realised I had some serious work to do if I was going to be ready for the EPSO Competitions this year.

I started researching everything I could about the various stages of the process, and what competitions I would be eligible to apply for. For 2010-11, my options were Administrator (AD5-7) in the field of European Public Administration and Assistant in the secretarial field (AST1), so I applied...

EPSO's recruitment reform from March 2010 has been a huge success. It has lowered the barrier to entry for many potential candidates by eliminating the much hated EU knowledge tests (think of "How many times has Viviane Reding been a European Commissioner until now?") and thus opening the door for some 37,000 applicants for the Administrator exams this spring.

But this new system has a huge inherent danger: many of the new recruits will know very little about how the EU institutions operate when they start working in them...

When was the last time you actually used a pen? We may be total geeks at Arboreus, but a few days ago when we had our executive meeting and looked for a pen, we realised that since we moved to our new office in the summer, we used a pen only once: to sign a contract with a bank some three months ago. Isn't that strange?!

When EPSO announced its new selection procedures, it was welcomed by many with enthusiasm. Lowering the barrier to entry while selecting more suitable candidates via the Assessment Center by removing EU knowledge tests was a big relief for most people. But recruitment is not limited to EPSO: consider the (s)election of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), the European Commission President and other senior politicians. Maybe a change of procedures is the answer to the EU's problems?