EPSO and EU Competitions in a View
Ready to take the chance to make a difference in Europe? Then EU welcomes you to partake in their competitions to have the opportunity to work for a new and exciting EU career. Not only will you find yourself in a totally dynamic work environment, you will also find yourself growing in your skills and achieving your full potential.
Wondering if you will find the right EU career for you? Not to worry as EU provides a wide-range of careers that best fits what you are looking for. Promising to not offer “a job for life” but “a lifetime of different jobs”, you will find yourself with endless choices that will help explore your abilities as well as improve many lives. To help you with your search, we have listed below the following EPSO competitions/EU competitions:
Permanent Official EU Competitions
EPSO competitions are classified according to the contract’s duration period. As such, permanent contracts for permanent official competitions tend to be highly sought after and are much more rigorous in their procedure. It allows the applicant an opportunity to become a member of the EU civil service under three types of permanent contract that can be awarded:
Administrators (AD)
An EU career as an administrator will have you involve in:
- Drafting policies
- Implementing EU laws
- Analysis or advisory work
The policy sectors covered include:
- Administration
- Law
- Finance
- Economics
- Communications
- Science
- Translators and interpreters
- ICT
This career opportunity is broken up into a range of grades from AD 5 to AD 16. AD 5 is the entry-level grade for those university graduates seeking to enter this EPSO competition. Furthermore, those who are seeking for a more specialist role, other selection and recruitment are offered at higher grades from AD 6 to AD 7 where you will have to demonstrate several years of relevant experience. Grades AD 9 to AD 12, on the other hand, are for middle management.
Assistants (AST)
Another competition under the permanent official contract is for the Assistants. When employed in this role, you will be engaged in an executive or technical role in:
- Administration
- Finance
- Communication
- Research
- Policy development and implementation
- ICT
Just like the Administrators competition, this career is broken up in grades that range from AST 1 to AST 11. The typical entry-level grades are from AST 1 to AST 3. Candidates must have a minimum of completed secondary education with previous relevant experience or vocational qualification.
Assistant-Secretaries (AST-SC)
The last permanent official contract that can be awarded is the Assistant-Secretaries. Those employed through this competition will generally be involved in office management or providing administrative support at the EU institutions.
Grades for this position ranges from AST/SC 1 to AST/SC 6. Entry-level of staff is at AST-SC 1 with candidates having a minimum of any of the following:
- Post-secondary education of at least 1 year attested by a diploma directly related to the nature of duties.
- Secondary education attested by a diploma giving access to post-secondary education followed by at least 3 years’ professional experience directly related to the nature of the duties.
- Secondary education attested by a diploma
- Professional training of at least 1 year, followed by a minimum of 3 years’ professional experience directly related to the nature of the duties.
Benefits and Salaries
The benefits and salaries of these three EPSO competitions vary according to the grade level and seniority steps of the applicant. The basic monthly permanent official salaries range from around €2,300 per month for a newly recruited Assistant-Secretary (AST/SC 1) official to around €16,000 per month for a top level Administrator (AD 16 official) with more than 4 years of seniority.
On the other hand, the benefits are subjected as follows:
- Those who left their home country to work for an EU institution are entitled to an expatriation allowance equivalent to 16% of their basic salary.
- Those with family-related situations are entitled to allowances that varies according to:
- Household allowance
- Dependent child allowance
- Educational allowance
- Pre-school allowance
Application Procedure
If you are interested to apply to any of the three permanent official competition, then it helps to keep yourself updated on what is published on for open competitions. Once you have sent in your application, then you will be invited to take multiple tests that will determine whether or not you are fit for the job.
The first round of tests will be computer-based where you will partake in aptitude and ability psychometric exercises. If successful, you will then move to the assessment centre where you will have to complete a number of work-related exercises in a group environment before at least two assessors. The skills you will be tested on will touch on the following core competencies as required by the EU institutions:
- Analysis and problem-solving
- Communicating
- Delivering quality and results
- Learning and development
- Prioritising and organizing
- Resilience
- Working with others
- Leadership (for graduates)
After you have successfully passed the competition, you will then be placed on the reserve list from which institutions will draw recruits as and when they need them. Therefore, it helps to understand how this competition is not to fill a specific post but to create a reserve pool for recruitment needs as they arise. The reserve lists for EPSO competitions are usually valid for 1 year.
EU Contract Agents
When you are the type who is still finding for the right EU career for you, then a contract official competition will allow you to explore multiple types of work. As the name implies, contract officials or agents (known as CAST) work for the EU institutions on a fixed-term contract basis. Some will be employed on a fixed minimum period, often with a shorter initial contract of 6 to 12 months depending on the type of job. There is also that possibility where EU bodies also extend contracts for an indefinite duration. Other times, some contracts offered is permanent for the duration of the agency.
Those pursuing competitions under the contract officials are recruited to manual or administrative support-service tasks or to provide additional capacity in specialised fields where insufficient officials with the required skills are available. A wide range of jobs that require different levels of qualifications are available. Therefore, it helps to apply here when your skills fulfill the following:
- Manual and administrative work
- Clerical, secretarial or office management tasks
- Executive tasks, drafting, accountancy, or equivalent technical tasks
- Administrative, advisory, linguistic and equivalent technical tasks
Below are the EPSO competitions under the contract official or CAST post with their tasks according to their function groups (FG):
CAST Selection
With the varying types of EPSO CAST competitions, so are the selection processes. However, unlike the permanent official, there is only a limited number of pre-selected candidates that will be tested. Therefore submitting an application does not ensure that you will be invited to sit the computer-based tests. Those shortlisted candidates will only be invited to sit the selection tests when a vacancy arises.
Here is a closer look into the CAST selection procedure:
- Complete and validate your application/s, keeping in mind to update it every six months to confirm your on-going interest.
- When there is a vacancy in your chosen CAST competition, the recruiting services will select and shortlist from the database of all validated applications a number of candidates whose profiles best fit the criteria of the services.
- Those candidates who are shortlisted will be invited to the selection tests organized by EPSO. They will then take the computer-based multiple choice question tests (CBT).
- Once you pass the selection tests, you will be invited to the recruitment tests organized by the recruiting services, which vary from an interview and other optional evaluation forms.
- If you succeed during the recruitment tests, the recruiting service may then make an offer of employment.
EPSO Temporary Staff
Another type of EPSO Competitions is the temporary staff where candidates can be employed by the EU institutions on a temporary basis. The posts are usually available in highly specialised fields such as scientific research, IT, etc. Temporary staff also fill the exact same positions as the Administrators, Secretaries, and Assistants.
To apply, you will have to continuously check for news of the current selections and vacancies on the websites generally run by individual EU institutions and agencies. You can also introduce your details into the EU CV online database.
As of writing, here are some examples of the open Temporary Agent competitions:
- Finance and Administration Officer
Reference: EASO/2018/TA/014
Deadline: 17/12/2018 – 13:00
Location(s): Valletta (Malta)
Grade: AD 5
Institution/Agency: (EASO) European Asylum Support Office
Type of contract: Temporary staff
More information: https://www.easo.europa.eu/about-us/vacancies
- Head of Payroll and Entitlements Sector
Reference: EASO/2018/TA/013
Deadline: 10/12/2018 – 13:00
Location(s): Valletta (Malta)
Grade: AD 8
Institution/Agency: (EASO) European Asylum Support Office
Type of contract: Temporary staff
More information: https://www.easo.europa.eu/about-us/vacancies
- Head of Training Operations Sector
Reference: EASO/2018/TA/012
Deadline: 10/12/2018 – 13:00
Location(s): Valletta (Malta)
Grade: AD 8
Institution/Agency: (EASO) European Asylum Support Office
Type of contract: Temporary staff
More information: https://www.easo.europa.eu/about-us/vacancies
- Administrator
Job title: Administrator
Reference: COM/TA/MARE/18/AD8
Deadline: 12/12/2018 – 23:59
Location(s): Brussels (Belgium)
Grade: AD 8
Institution/Agency: European Commission
Type of contract: Temporary staff
More information: https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/mare/item-detail.cfm?item_id=637532
- Adviser
Job title: Adviser
Reference: COM/TA/ENER/ADV/18/AD13/BRUSSELS
Deadline: 13/12/2018 – 12:00
Location(s): Brussels (Belgium)
Grade: AD 13
Institution/Agency: European Commission
Type of contract: Temporary staff
More information: https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/selection-temporary-staff-directorate-general-ene…
- Research Assistant
Reference: EASO/2018/TA/015
Deadline: 10/12/2018 – 13:00
Location(s): Valletta (Malta)
Grade: AST 4
Institution/Agency: (EASO) European Asylum Support Office
Type of contract: Temporary staff
More information: https://www.easo.europa.eu/about-us/vacancies
- Operations Officer – Resettlement
Reference: EASO/2018/TA/016
Deadline: 17/12/2018 – 13:00
Location(s): Valletta (Malta)
Grade: AD 6
Institution/Agency: (EASO) European Asylum Support Office
Type of contract: Temporary staff
More information: https://www.easo.europa.eu/about-us/vacancies
- Chief Prosecutor
Reference: N/A
Deadline: 14/12/2018 – 12:00
Location(s): Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
Grade: AD 15
Institution/Agency: (EPPO) European Public Prosecutor’s Office
Type of contract: Temporary staff
More information: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ%3AC%3A2018%3A418A%3ATOC
- Personal Assistant to the Director
Reference: FRA-TA-PADIR2-AST4-2018
Deadline: 09/01/2019 – 13:06
Location(s): Vienna (Austria)
Grade: AST 4
Institution/Agency: (FRA) European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
Type of contract: Temporary staff
More information: http://fra.europa.eu/en/about-fra/recruitment/vacancies
Seconded National Experts
This type of EPSO competition are for those national or international civil servants of persons employed in the public sector who are temporarily working for an EU institution.
Most seconded national experts (SNEs) are from a European or European Economic Area country. In certain cases, non-EU/EEA nationals can also be seconded to the Commission.
When successful, the secondment can be for a minimum of 6 months and up to a maximum of 4 years in principle. They can return for a second period of secondment once an interal of 6 years has passed. SNEs have a dual role:
- To bring to the EU Institutions their experience of the issues they are used to dealing with
- To take back to their home administration the knowledge of Community issues which they acquire during the secondment
Eligibility
Those who wish to apply for a SNE position must fulfill the following criteria:
- A national of an EU or EFTA Member State or a country with which the Council has decided to open accession negotiations
- At least 3 years work experience at an appropriate level
- Have worked for an eligible employer for at least 12 months before the secondment
- Thorough knowledge of one of the EU languages and a satisfactory knowledge of another EU language
