The sheer number of comments at the main post ‘So I Won’t Be A Commission Official‘ has been causing problems, so all the old comments are here instead, and hence searchable.
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Question from EPSO/AST/41/07:
When setting up a data query system using Business Objects, what, apart from the specifications,
is the first thing you should do ?
a) design the report layout
b) define the query interface
c) create the universe
d) analyse the disk space available for executiong reports
Someone know the right answer ? Thanks !
@alexia
I can only describe my interview with EPSO
also 45 min long
there were three interviewers
– one from the DG – asking questions related to my prevoius experience and my knowledge of the work field at his DG; also what would I like to do if I was chosen, at which partcular department (they obviously think we know in details the structure and tasks of their units)
– one from EPSO ( a woman, to guarantee gender equality, I suppose) – she asked about my motives and what I think about moving and working in Brussels; also what were my experiences in a certain area (I had none, which I explained, then I told what I knew about it nevertheless and she seemed satisfied)
– one representing workers rights (forgot the institutions name) – he put some general questions on my knowledge of EU institutions – I mentioned the new Lisbon Treaty and changes it is bringing, he seemed thrilled….
They also tested my third language and I didn’t do well in that field – but it didn’t really matter
My general impression – they liked me because I was relaxed and confident about themes I knew and didn’t bluff about themes I knew nothing about; I told more than was asked, I used their questions only as a cue and talked on my own,
It certainly helps if you know details about the institution, their organisation, field of work etc. It impresses them, and vice versa – they might feel offended if you don’t know enough about it.
Your previous experience – emphasising the parts which are useful for the position you’re applying might help.
@ Nola
The interview is being organised by the recruitment of one of the Institutions but they got my details as last year, there was an open call on EPSO to which I had applied.
Now some long months later, I’m asked for this interview and got no clue what they’ll be asking…
>> any ideas?
@alexia
You didn’t say where’s your interview – at EPSO or somewhere else?
My question for you – how did you manage to compete as a linguist? Didn’t they request any formal education?
Hey sophistiCat,
It was a case study. You could chose from various questions, I don’t remember them all, here is what I still recall:
1. Elections for the EU Parliament will take place in 2009. You have 10 million euros (might have been 20). Devise a communication strategy and allocate the budget.
2. There is a new EU Agency for Gender Equality (in one of the Baltic countries). You have 100.000 Euro. Draft a strategy for the agency’s new website.
3. You are working in the EU’s foreign policy department. One morning your boss calls you asking for an emergency press statement, because some EU soldiers have been killed somewhere in Africa (don’t remember the exact location).
There was one more question, but I don’t remember what it was about. We had about 2 hours, then you had to write a summary of what you had just written in your mother tongue.
Hope that helps.
Hi everyone,
I’m new to the EU competition. I’m aiming at the audit concours (AD/126/08).
I have no idea how long EPSO waits since the closing of the subscription period before starting the preselection tests.
So, do you know when the preselection tests are about to occur for this concours ?
Thanks & good luck to all !
Hiya all!
It’s been really great reading all these posts and getting to know info that possibly I wouldn’t have encountered as yet…
Now, next week, I’m being asked for an interview as a linguist as a contract agent and at this point, they didn’t tell me anything except for 45minutes duration. I’m quite perplexed on what I should prepare myself?
>> any ideas – and do you think they will pick on me as i’m actually a lawyer and not really a translator.
thanks!
Congratulations to all who passed AD.94.07 written tests. What were the topics for written tests? Was it an essey or case study? Many thanks!
@ Milda, Andreea
Great help! appreciated
The interview was in my 2nd language – english. As my native language, I assume, would not be very useful for the job. Andreea is right, prepare yourself for questions about motivation, why you want to work in EU institution, or this particular DG, and what are your skills relevant to the possition. And don’t worry!
Do not worry, they will just ask about motivation and skills, and also what would you do in this situation or the other…just like any other interview in a company 🙂
Good luck, be calm and ask yourself if you really want that job, in that place…because they try to see if this is the case, they don’t need people coming and going because the climate is though, for example…
Thank You Milda,
was the interview in your native language (or 1st language as in my case english). What about the second laguage, did they test your second language (in my case – spanish, really not fluent as of yet)?
Thanks again
@EV
My interview was only about my experience, motivation. That’s all.
Good luck!!!
Hello,
I got an interview for an contract staff group 2 after submitting my cv about one month ago. Could anyone could give me any clue what should I expect in an interview. Do the interviews for contract agents (1 year contract) are as challenging (EU knowledge) as interview for permamament eu officials? I only got two weeks and it is seems impossible to get a grasp of wide EU matters and facts in such a short time.
Thank You to the kind ones who would share their experience
EV
@pedder: there were slightly more participants in the AD/27/05 competition for audit than 850. From the press release at that time it shows that 2473 had registered.
But don’t worry, out of the 11005 who registered, only 60% max. will take the pre-selection tests.
Most of them will not fulfill the elegibility criteria, so with some studying/preparation, it is as feasible to pass as it was in the AD/25-29/05 competition.
BTW: EPSO will publish a huge round of AST 3 competitions for all sorts of profiles (lots of relevant p.e. required though) next week.
EPSO announced that more than 11000 (sigh!) people signed up for the audit concours AD/126/08.
As far as I know, merely 850 took the last EU 25 audit concours (don’t know, however, how many signed up at the beginning). But 11000 sounds a bit odd to me! How come that so many people are interested in audit now? Does anyone have an idea?
@AD
Does the same apply to linguistic administrators at the Council? Do they start at a grade higher than AD5?
Council has higher grades. HoU in the EP or Commission starts at AD9, while the Council has them start at AD11. Staff regs are the same for ALL institutions as a matter of law.
I know Administrators-Linguists who work for the EP and are located in Brussels. Of course, monthly travel to Strasbourg…
I don’t think salaries are higher in the Council, but rather that promotion happens faster, hence the pay rises…
pay is the same in all institutions, naturally. strange that you don’t know that by now, after years spent in a competition.
so just think of what sort of work you prefer: more political (European Parliament), technocratic (Commission), no work at all :)) (e.g. Committee of the Regions)…
I had the same idea about pay being equal until several people told me adamantly that salaries were higher at the Council. Wild speculation, I guess…
Location is obviously also a factor. Working for the Parliament means being posted in Luxemburg, while working for the Commission means commuting to the outpost of Evere. Does anyone know whether there are any plans for DG Translation to relocate to the city centre?
Hi everyone,
I am currently on an EPSO reserve list for administrators-linguists. The competition was interinstitutional, which means that I may receive job offers from any of the EU institutions or bodies. Before I accept any offer, I would like to have some idea of which institutions are the most interesting to work for (both in terms of job satisfaction and pay).
Any suggestions?
Many thanks.
… ah, the bottom line is, there seems to be a coherent lack of discipline when it comes down to coherent recruitment practices within the EU institutions, and paving the way for informal/semi-formal channels to win the day. That’s, well, sad.
@ Nola
What’s next…. “special” favours 😉
Boy oh boy… I’m working @ a 2K/day tariff nowadays… I doubt the EC losers will ever see me writing some cajoling letter again; they prefer hungry stagiaires with some Brussels NGO rotting away in a cockroach-infested shoe-box at night….. doesn’t stop me from wanting my tax money back, bunch of nepotists.
You might not believe it, but it’s true – the EC official and a friend of mine is giving me his sincere advise on how to get “in”:
“….Take the opportunity of the ……… to speak with my director ……..and my colleague . In addition you have to approach the relevant head of units where you are interested to go and sell them your experience on the policy dossiers they are responsible for. I know it is quite challenging but you shouldn’t stop now!
Last advice, if you have any “influential contacts” in (your country) that could open you some doors in the Commission, use them. ”
Please forgive me, if you’re reading your own words…..
guys, really, don’t bother with that CV. nobody is looking for people in that database. they have enough people (to ignore) in the official database of laureates.
I had the same problem. You have to switch off the popup-blocker in the Internet-Explorer. After this operation I got access to the CV without any problem. But after every change in your CV you store, you’ll get a confirmation mail: “Thank you for your application”. Good luck !
@sunflower
I didn’t face any problem to enter my EU CV online tonight, but was very surprised to see that some rubrics only were filled in and the CV is not made accessible …. while in the past (I mean, a few months ago when I created it) it was completely filled in and accessible!
I really do’t understand how this could happen.
@sunflower
This happened to me as well a few days ago. I guess the server does not work well sometimes. Try again later.
Does anyone of you recently succeeded to enter in the “EU CV online” page? I was trying to update my cv, but when I click on “connect to your active account” it goes on the french page “vous connecter on votre dossier existant”, but it doesn’t allow you to get inside…
@ AD;
The reserve lists for AD 2005 comps have only been out for a year and less than 25% have been recruited (mostly insiders, but epso DG Admin refuse to give statistics here). Some of those 2004 lists (which probably only have been out for 2 years, not 3) target specific DGs. You have the example of DG sanco which is severly hit by quota … there’s some public health lists with less than 20% recruited out there since 2004.
As the quota first and foremost target the AD category launching new comps now will piss off a lot of people (who had been waiting for up to 8 years for these general comps). I do believe in order to avoid more litigation they will try to recruit at least 50% of the first merit groups 😉 This implies they’ll have to recruit some EU15 outsiders as well and that, my dear, will take at least up to 2010 given the ongoing quota. There’s a reason why AD comps don’t mention preset maximum expiry dates for the related reserve lists.
@hopeful
During the orals in January (EPSO/AD/53-60/06, last orals, EPA/HR) there were quite a few questions on the Reform Treaty.
Hi there
Has anyone got the faintest idea of what exams after pre-selection tests consist in?? I’m currently going through AD/100/07 and i’d like to know what’s in store for me next time …
Are we supposed to know how to translate texts from German or French to English if we registered at Option 1?
Gee … I don’t even know this…
Hey there, can anyone tell me how an oral exam might look like? Astonishingly, I passed AD.94.07 written tests.
The existing AD reserve lists (where someone from my country could be) are from concours that were started in 2004. People who have NOT been recruited from those lists have been on them for 3 years. That flies in the face of what the “brilliant” Kallas has been saying, i.e. that people shouldnt sit on the lists soooooo long. Perhaps they simply don’t fit the profiles that are needed. It also means that people who are qualified, are unable to get into the stream, because there are no concours announced.
@AD, so you want them to announce new AD concours although the existing reserve lists are
far from exhausted…? And basically turn the AD comps also into a joke (not that they are not but at least not that flagrantly as the CAST Relex..).
It strikes me that a lot of the competitions and calls are a joke. Kallas is a joke. He says one thing in his letter to EPSO (which should be a clear outline of what he, as the commissioner, sees as Commission HR policy and strategy), and then turns around and does the exact opposite.
He bitches and moans that the AD reserve lists sit and rot for years, and thus are a poor source of available laureates (because they’ve moved on to bigger and better things), but then fails to announce new concours…
For all those wondering whether Relex 2008 competition is a joke – very likely. Cast 27 Relex was already a joke (or so it seemed from my perspective), since the database of an earlier Relex competition – Cast Relex 2005 – hasn’t been exhausted. I was on a reserve list of that competition but was never approached by Commission or its delegations. Later I found out that Cast 2005 Relex was used for re-hiring of the Contract agents already working for the delegations. Same story in 2007 as many posts here suggest, and so quite likely it will repeat itself in 2008…
@hopeful
I thins, it doesn’t make much sense to study the Lisbon Treaty in details. I passed the AST/43/07 pre-selection end February and there wasn’t one single question on it. When I asked the reason to a communication officer from Brussles (who is teaching people from EU institutions how to pass the competitions), I was told that it’s too early to get the matter included in EPSO tests.
You shold not ignore it, of course, but don’
t spend too much time on it.
AD.94.07 results are there and… woooooooooooow
I’m still on the race… This is perhaps the largest concours ever but don’t worry, Epsolites, we keep on rocking
See you all in the oral exam 🙂
Check here http://ec.europa.eu/civil_service/job/official/index_en.htm and bear in mind that they update the amounts (i.e. of the basic salary and the corrective coefficient, not the % of the allowance) every year.
Ia have a copy of EU’s Staff Regulations:
EXPATRIATION ALLOWANCE
Article 4
1. è1
An expatriation allowance equal to 16% of the total of the basic salary, household allowance and dependent child allowance paid to the Established Official shall be paid:
(a) to officials:
– who are not and have never been nationals of the State in whose territory the place where they are employed is situated, and
– who during the five years ending six months before they entered the service did not habitually reside or carry on their main occupation within the European territory of that State. For the purposes of this provision, circumstances arising from work done for another State or for an international organisation shall not be taken into account;
So you will get the expat allowance again.
@ student
It sure does. My main concern was the expat allowance.
@ student
@ AD
If you are staying in the same city, there is no another installation allowance. In case you change your residence, even within the same city, you are entitled to 1 or 2 days off. If you are going to another city or country, you get a relocation allowance.
Working for an EU body does not count for the expat allowance so you will never lose it.
For daily allowance I don’t know, I think you get it again but I’m not sure.
I hope this helps.
@riviere
I agree with you that “we†should seek clarification in this really obscure matter. Immediately after the resulted were published in November in fact already once contacted EPSO (their helpdesk). I asked them what implication on the pass rate the “ex post deletion†of some question had. No reply, however. Still, I believe that – provided some others join us – we should do it.
Another thing: Is the CAST 27 now officially dead (as least as the RELEX positions are concerned??
By recruited, I mean as a permanent official.
Tough and unfair as it seems to be, for me it is just another competition to study for. Can Iask you all for some advice on what to study/buy for CAST 2008 group IV? In your opinion, is it better to study the existent Treaties or the new Lisbon Treaty?
Thank you.
Here’s a theoretical situation:
One is hired as a temporary agent, gets the installation allowance, the daily allowance and the expatriation allowance, works for 4-5 months and then is recruited to a different EU body.
Does one get another installation allowance? Does the expat allowance dissapear (after all, one was working in BXL already…)?
My profile is ‘Political Matters Adviser’ – which is still listed in the current ( 2008) Call for Expressions of Interest as one of the
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concrete areas where candidates might be employed
Function group IV
External Service/Delegations
Adviser – Operational Section with subprofiles
Operations Adviser – Infrastructuresinfo
Operations Adviser – Rural Development, Food Security and Environmentinfo
Operations Adviser – Economic, Private Sector and Trade Develomentinfo
Operations Adviser – Social and Cultural Issuesinfo
Operations Adviser – Good Governance and Securityinfo
Finances/Contracts/Audit Adviserinfo
Economics/Commercial Adviserinfo
Political Matters Adviser info
Press/Information Adviserinfo
Regional Security Adviserinfo
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