EU Career Compass: Guidance from the Pros | Malene Bresson

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Malene Bresson

Personal Coaching for everyone! This is our new series where your personal coaches give 5 tips on the most relevant topics about starting your dream EU career.

This is the first feature in our new series where your EU Training coaches put together a list of tips about various topics, anything from EPSO prep tips and EPSO test methodology to fine-tuning your CV. They will share the best advice they give their own coaching clients to help you excel in your EU career endeavors.

Malene Bresson | 5 Tips | EU Recruitment

In my nearly 20-year career as a coach and trainer, I have met many candidates with quite impressive CVs. They have a long list of previous jobs that might be interesting for future employers. When I say might, this is because many of these candidates don't even get called for the interview, despite their vast experience and that is why they end up coming to me for help. 

Unfortunately, they spend too much time focusing on describing how much responsibility they have had, and the exciting high-level tasks they performed instead of explaining why this experience is relevant to the job they are applying for. 

Here are my tips on how to improve your CV to help increase your chances of getting called in for the interview.

  1. Only mention experience relevant to the job in the cover letter, don’t overwhelm recruiters with unnecessary information.
  2. Always remember to create a link between previous experience and the new job. 
  3. When mentioning your professional experience make sure to describe it in a way that makes it possible to understand your level of involvement. Describe your role and the types of activities you performed.
  4. Especially when your background is from outside of the EU, translate your experience into EU jargon. 

The above four tips will help the recruiter easily recognise your skills and their relevance to the position for which you are applying.

  1. Last but not least - a tip for when you get called in for the interview - SMILE.

Whether the interview is online or in-person, first impressions are important. Many candidates are so nervous, or concentrating so hard on what they will say, they forget about the vital initial connection with the interviewer. And one of the best things you can do is smile and calmly introduce yourself. In the end, recruiters are people hiring people, so a positive personal connection is always important.

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