The results of the concours for administrators are now out, and – surprise, surprise – I did not manage to pass. Here’s the extract of the letter:
The selection board for the above competition has now finished marking the pre-selection tests in which you participated. I regret to inform you that although the marks you obtained in these tests were above or equal to the pass mark, you were not amongst the top 630 candidates.
Point B.1 of the competition notice stipulates that only those candidates with the 630 highest marks in the pre-selection tests would be asked to submit a full application with a view to their possible admission to the competition.
Your marks are as follows (1):
Test a): 38.333 /60 (pass mark 30)
Test b): 15.263 /20 (pass mark 10)
Test c): 30.769 /40 (pass mark 20)Total: 84.365/ 120
For your information, the candidates who obtained the 630 highest combined scores had at least 92.611 points.
I would add that the Selection Board’s decision does not preclude you from taking part in any future competitions organised by the European Personnel Selection Office.
It’s beyond me how one can get 15.263 / 20 when there were 40 questions, but anyway, c’est la vie. All the best to all the geeks who know who won the Sakharov prize in the year X or other equally useful everyday facts.
FILE DOWNLOADS
Blog commenter ‘viking’ has made some new test files available for download, and he had also supplied the manual for electronic Reserve Lists. Some additional test files have been provided by Sorina (see comment #1003) – download 342kb, ZIPped. Enjoy!
SOCIAL NETWORKS
If anyone is a member of Facebook there’s the ‘So I won’t be a Commission official’ Facebook Group, and the EU Integration Traveler IQ challenge (you need to add the Traveler IQ Facebook application) – a more fun way to revise for the concours…
NOTE
Due to such an enormous number of comments here I have had to divide the comments function. The latest few hundred comments are below, and all the older comments are archived here. All should work technically now.
I’m invited for an interview for EPSO AD/99/07 on 21/01/09. I know from 6 other applicants that they are also invited on 20/01 and 21/01 (with different first/second languages and fields). Is it only by chance? When you are invited? Could it be that only a small number have passed the professional multiple choice test?
Tiffi
@Pedder
I see what you mean. One could easily infer from the question that the model / modèle is a concept rather than the drawing on the paper. Still, they did remind us while distributing the paper to fill in the extra sheet if answering question 5.
Was anybody taking the exam in German? It was strange that they only spoke the instructions in English and French.
It says “set out the logic of the Erasmus student mobility strand (action 2.2), using the “Programme Logic Model” format attached”.
I was kind of surprised that we had to turn in the attached form. I thought we had to describe it step by step, in analogy to their Programme Logic Model (the attached form). As we had to turn in the form at the end of the test, I assume they just wanted us to note down some key terms on the attached form… (describing it (in full sentences) on the lined answer sheet paper takes a lot longer, of course, than just noting down some key terms on the form…)
But now – having read the French language version – I would still not interpret it as “fill in the blanks on the form attached”… Mmh… Why did we have to turn in the form?
@olak
did not really check any answers. I was just really pissed when they asked us to turn in the attached form. I talked to some native speakers who interpreted the task the same way I did – so I assumed there might have been a translation error in the test…
Question 5a of the written test said:
“présenter la logique du volet “Erasmus” pour la mobilité des étudiants (action 2.2) en utilisant le modèle de “cadre logique d’un programme” figurant en annexe;”
What did it say in English?
I did it also in EN sorry. Have you checked the answers? Can you post them here?
Audit AD 126/08
Did anyone following this forum take the written test ( Audit 126/08 Friday last week) in either German or French??
I took it in English and would be interested about the exact wording of question 5a) in German or French. Would be great if you could post it here!! Thanks!!!
Has anyone been already through an interview with ERCEA/REA? How is it like?
Thanks for any comments, information, advice.
Yes, I got invitation for 22 Jan for AD6 profile, ADM field
Hei,
Has anyone heard anything new from the ERCEA/REA jobs?
@A
My interview went ok, thanks… I’m happy to share my experiences but would rather wait until the reserve list has been published in a couple of weeks. I’ll come back!
@Kiwi
How was your interview? I hope it went well.
If possible for you, please share your impressions with us (what questions to expect, how to prepare).
It might be very useful for me soon.
Thanks!
@A
Oops! Does what I write give the impression that I’m a little bit frustrated still?! Well, I suppose so, but I’m still glad I applied, at least I have had some realistic feedback, which would help me should I decide to apply again. Most of all I’m frustrated that I didn’t have enough time to prepare enough because the exams were scheduled at a really inopportune time for me personally – but those things are just down to luck!
Sorry to hear you didn’t make it through the first round – I was surprised to make it through the first hurdle myself as I kept getting random questions about the European Ombudsman thrown at me and I just had to guess most of them! I think my good score on the reasoning test got me through, partly thanks to tactics that I picked up the night before the exam from a book I ordered from the European Bookshop (not sure of the name of the book but if anyone’s interested, I can check it).
I stand corrected on the frequency of concours for English translators – both you and Kiwi have put me right on that one! I evidently just register those that I can apply for 😉 – added to which I’ve been busy with babies for the last few years so I really don’t always know what’s going on in the wider world! So maybe I shouldn’t give up hope just yet that I may be able to apply again. I wasn’t aware that the EU officially had such problems recruiting English translators, but I can well imagine that is the case, and the UK is certainly abysmal when it comes to promoting foreign language learning – in the 14 years since I graduated, my uni languages department stopped offering one language after another until this year they finally closed the department (Bradford, which in the 80s and 90s had an excellent reputation). There may be other reasons for this, too – I know other universities still have thriving language departments – but I do think it is symptomatic of a general trend.
What a loaded question – do I think you’re a native speaker or not?! Do I really have to answer that?! Based on your contributions here, it’s difficult to say, because we all make small mistakes when we write spontaneously. I would say that it is possible that you are a native speaker but I wouldn’t rule out that you are a very good non-native speaker either!
@Caro
Actually my oral is this afternoon! hence the procrastinating on the internet…
Sorry, I completely forgot to get back to you about the marks etc. I did contact EPSO but they don’t give out the marks until you fail, ie if I pass the oral I’ll never know what my marks were, but if I fail then they’ll tell me!
I’m pretty sure the orals are all held in Brussels…
There was actually another concours for English translators in 2006, but you had to have a central or east European language.
As for my background – I did French at school and university and then did a masters at a French university. I lived in France for 4 years at that stage, married a Frenchman and have now been back in France for another 3 years. So my French is fine, but I always assumed I couldn’t do a concours because I didn’t have another language. I dabbled a bit in German at university, and then switched to Italian – did an evening class for a year, then a 2-week course in Italy, then went back to NZ and did nothing for 7 years. Two years ago I decided I wanted to do a concours, so I studied on my own to refresh my memory, did a super-intensive course in Italy for a week, then an advanced evening course for a year at the Dante institute where I live. Then the concours was announced so I had private lessons once a week and did an intensive one-to-one course in Italy for a week. I practised by doing lots and lots of translations from current affairs magazines and also from the EU site. My tutor doesn’t speak English, so I would do the translation and then go through it with her translating my English version orally into French so she could check my understanding. At the end I tried to do the translations in 2 hours like in the concours, including writing them out neatly.
Sorry this is all a bit involved, but hopefully gives you encouragement that it can be done. It is a nightmare doing it with children – I have a 5 year old and my second baby was 8 weeks old when the concours was announced, so I sympathise!
I have 9 years’ translation experience – 3 years full time at the Council of Europe and then 6 years as a freelancer, mainly for the Council of Europe plus a couple of other international organisations.
I think you should consider trying again as you were so close, especially if there really is a shortage, and work on your 2nd language from now until the next concours… I found intensive courses in the country extremely helpful, if expensive. Not easy with kids I know but maybe once they’re a bit bigger you could leave them for a week? I left my older one with grandparents and took husband and baby with me, and had to run back to the flat in every break to breastfeed!
@A
Re your comment: “… the EU cannot find sufficent translators … this is why they repeat this concours so often.” Is this really the case? I applied to this concours and the last one as well – in 2002 – so I don’t think the English-language translator concours comes up any more frequently than those for other languages (approx. every five years).
As far as I am aware, they found sufficient candidates at the last concours to fill the reserve list, and the validity of this list has been extended at least once. You do have a point about the British not being the best language learners, but there is no specific nationality requirement, so people from all EU countries can and do apply to the English language translator competitions, although many presumably fail the translation test due to unidiomatic English.
@jmo
Unfortunately, you can’t apply to a concours for English language translators with just one language – as you say, there are a lot of English native speakers with one good language (in spite of our terrible reputation – oops, I’ve outet myself as a Brit!). This is true in my case – I studied German and Russian, and have worked as a German-English translator for over ten years, but I do not have a second language of a comparable standard. I have been trying to add French for the last few years, but with family commitments (two toddlers) and a full-time job it really isn’t that easy! In the past the EU institutions have sometimes even asked for three languages (French, German and one other), which has totally barred me from applying. I applied to the most recent concours and just failed the second translation by one and a half points (comment: good translation but not quite up to the required standard), so I am still feeling a bit frustrated by that. People talk about adding languages sometimes as if it’s really easy and requires no effort, but speaking a language pretty well and being a really good translator are two entirely different things. It has to be said, too, that the standard of the EU is extremely high …
@Kiwi
You mentioned that there are only 7 days for oral tests and were wondering whether fewer candidates got through the translation test than the maximum allowed by the competition. Have you considered that they may be holding interviews in different locations? I took my exams in Brussels but there were simultaneous tests in London and (I think) Edinburgh and Dublin. So perhaps the same is true of the oral interviews?
Hi, I apply for the EPSO/CAST/SECR 2008, does anyone know what can I study to prepare the third part (specialised knowledge in the field of secretariat)?
@PB,
I believe your strategy is the proper one. It is indeed surprising you haven’t been contacted yet especially given your nationality… I’ve been told at numerous times it was no use to see me for an interview as long as the EU10/EU12 quota applied.
Reading about these EU 10 internal comps really takes the cake… things really couldn’t get much murkier…. The EU10 dynasties have been founded it seems… now we have a breed of EU10 outsiders as well, tax paying fedal serfs.
Take care… and don’t beat yourself up too much… worst thing you could do is stall your career, waiting for the commission with all its nepotism and unwieldy red-tape madness. I didn’t and am certainy not regretting this.
@Kiwi
“Does anyone know whether they ever have more than one panel for the oral test?”
For each specific competition, they always had a single panel for reasons of comparability of the results. And the maximum number of candidates, assuming that you need between half and three quarters of an hour per person, adds up to around seven candidates per day.
Author of the books “Succeeding in the EU Oral Examinations” and “La Voie de la Réussite aux examens oraux de l’Union européenne”.
Is it possible to work for the European Institutions as an English language translator with only one other language, apart from English? If so, I think there would be no shortage of candidates for the post as there are many English people with a good level of either French, Spanish or German, but relatively few who can speak two foreign languages fluently.
I have been on the reserve list for administrators for more than a year now. (the AD5 one for economists, I am EU10) However I still have not heard anything from anyone. I did send some CV/cover letters to some DGs I am interested in, but have heard nothing from them. I have no idea what to do. Am I supposed to just wait for them to contact me? (afraid that I will be contacted for some position I am not interested in, if contacted at all)Or am I supposed to lobby or what? It’s quite frustrating that I am being kept in the dark. It would be much easier if the system was more transparent, for example if once you are on the reserve list, you get access to a database with vacancies and the dates for those vacancies. Thereby you can apply for the positions you are interested in. And if you’re contacted and manage to get a position, how flexible are they on starting dates? I am currently working (don’t like my current job much, so wouldn’t mind changing)so I don’t have the flexibility of joining right away… I thought being on the reserve list was going to be the easy part, after 3 rounds of grueling exams and interviews, but I guess not… What is the best way to secure a position? (I do have a list of DGs that I would like to work for)
@kiwi
If I recall correctly from previous posts (sorry but I will not go through the list now to double check), you are taking part in the concour for English translators.
So most probably your assumption is correct. Less days for oral tests due to smaller number of people who got through and this due to… the fact that the EU cannot find sufficient English translators. That is why they repeat this concour so often. Brits do not speak foreign languages as much as needed. What about you? Are you from UK, from the minority learning foreign languages? You don’t have much competition this time. Good luck!
Does anyone know whether they ever have more than one panel for the oral test?
There were supposed to be 80 people selected for my oral test, but they’ve only allowed 7 working days for the orals. According to the book on how to succeed the oral exam he reckons they can’t do more than 7 interviews a day, which would only make 49! Obviously I hope this means only 49 got through, but am wondering if there might be another reason…
Thanks
@ Jessica,
Me again,
Sorry for the wrong information…don’t know how Ijumped to the conclusion that the person from Italy applied for Adm.Officer…he applied indeed for an AD6 with REA post but he didn’t specify the domain
Have a nice day!
@ Jessica,
follow this link http://forum3.concorsi.it/forum/showthread.php?p=206323 …you can see that it’s somebody from Italy who was not called to an interview with REA/ AD6 Adm Officer.Maybe in your case no news means good news 🙂
Personally I applied for REA AD5 – Adm Officer and I’ve already received a negative answer. But I am still waiting for ERCEA reponse for the similar vacancy
TA/REA/08/ADM/AD6 Administrative Officer
TA/ERC/08/ADM/AD5 Administrative Agent
I have applied for the above posts but have not heard anything. Does anyone actually have any facts about either of these positions: eg has anyone been interviewed/called for interview/rejected/appointed etc? It does, indeed, seem a very strange process.
Thanks, in advance, for any information
RELEX INTERVIEWS??
Most grateful if anyone with knowledge / experience could advise as to what exactly is going on with Relex – ie are they actively recruiting and if so A] for which countries and B] for what kind of positions / job titles ?
I passed the Relex 07 exams for Political Adviser ( I am also, in fact principally, qualified as an international lawyer ) and since then have heard zilch. Emailing the Delegations of various countries I am interested in ( Portuguese / Spanish speaking plus New York ) has produced almost no acknowledgement, let alone interest.
All info / advice gratefully received…………. !
@ daniel @ ergo
I’m not sure about the selection according to the score. Mine is 82% ok. But I think they do look at CV first. Then a list for country / profile is made and sent to the delegation, the delegation emails you to set up a phone interview. Good luck!
@ Abdel
Nice to see that somebody else got a letter of intent from ECHA. I just got my firm offer and will be starting at ECHA in 1st of March. So I will be seeing you soon in Helsinki. I´m from Helsinki, so if you have any questions regarding Helsinki/ Finland you can contact me ritvaliini at gmail.com
@Roman: For CAST Relex, do they send you an e-mail in advance or do they just call you without any notification in advance? thanks
@Roman,
Please, can you tell me which was your mark on the tests at the CAST RELEX 08. I suppose that they will start calling to the best marks in each group…
I hope you have good luck with your interview.
Daniel
@Roman
I am very happy to read that they’re calling from the Castrelex. I wish you the best and cross the finger for me (I am also on that list).
I am also preparing the interview for AD/99 field 2 and since I read you have good material to study, I would be grateful if you could send me at pinojumb (at) libero (.) it
Good luck
Hi everybody, and specially the ones who are going to take the AD/126/08
Exactly the same as Cyan and Emilie897 would it be possible to add me in the list ?
simpucis@yahoo.co.uk
Thank you so much, and good luck for a great success in your exam !
@jurist
I’ve been contacted for Indonesia – not a country of my choice.
And no, I’m not working for the EU.
Good luck!
@ Roman
Could you please provide us with the countries that you have been interviewed for?
Are you already working for the EU or you have just passed (as most of us) the cast relex 08?
Thank you
For CAST RELEX competition :
Yes, I do confirm they started interviews. By phone. For me, related to G. IV – Infrastructures.
Good luck to everybody.
@Olivia
Dear Olivia,
You cannot say Brussels is less work, it depends very much on the place you are. You can have a lot of work, you can have less, but most people I know complain from too much work.
Regarding the fun, you are right. Bru offers much more than Lux.
Hi everybody, and specially the ones who are going to take the AD/126/08
Exactly the same as Cyan… would it be possible to add me in the list ? (emilieberger@hotmail.com)
Thank you so much, and good luck for a great success in your exam !
Hello,
Anyone taking the written exam (on dec. 5th) for Audit (AD5), ESPO/AD/126 who would be so kind as to send me a copy (scanned or otherwise) of the “questions”. I would be really grateful, as I missed the comp. by a mere 0.16 points but I still would like to know “what if?”. I’d appreciate your help. mail: jtrapl (at) web (dot) de Thank you very much.
From the previous posts its turns out that there have been interviews.
Best,
M.
Hi Miriana,
what do you mean exactly? who is interviewing? for which positions? or for which countries? is there something going on for function IV good gov.?
how are they interviewing? by phone? or in brussels?
thanks for any info
@Dante K
As far as I remember(vaguely) the optional exam will take place (if the examination panell will decide, there is a need of an optional exam) much more later. You´ll get first the results of the written test. Personally, I think, as lawyer you have already the mandatory legal language tools to make a good translation. And exactly how you said, improving your language skills can be very helpful for the future, beyond your initial-AD5competition-purposes. ECJ ist absolutely okay. Many of my friends working there complain Luxembourg is quite boring; that might be the reason why everybody wants to Brussel. Lux. pretends, in Brussel- there is less work and more fun. I dunno, all these could be just rumours. Tell me how it is when you´ll get there. Alles Gute, Olivia
@Olivia
Thanks again Olivia, your help is very appreciated. Actually it wasn’t my choice with French: for the ECJ channel, French as first language is compulsory. I don’t regret that anyway :=). My doubts were about choosing between the ECJ channel and the EP/Council channel, which seems a lot easier (you could choose English as 1st language, French as 2nd) but also more crowded. Moreover, as an Italian lawyer, and despite some knowledge of common law issues, translating from an English legal text can be awfully difficult if one has to face common law concepts that do not exist in our civil law. I came up with my choice reasoning on the fact that for Italian lawyers the combination French/German is quite rare, as opposed to English/French or English/German. We’ll see. In the meantime, I bought a German/Italian and a French/Italian legal dictionary, and will soon start translating from textbooks and ECJ sentences. At the end of the day, this preparation might turn out to be very helpful in general, and beyond my original purposes. I’m trying to be optimistic :=)
One last question: do you know anything about the optional exam? I put English as 3rd language, I know this exam doesn’t count for the final score, I was only wondering if the exam is to be taken the very day of the other two.
@Dante K
Yes, you are right, the translation from German could be quite difficult, but you made well choosing French as first language. The first part is more difficult than the second one(at least, so seemed to me. I choose German as first language, maybe this was a mistake. If you don´t find some German legal terms, tell me which they are, maybe I can help you(or the others, writting on this site). The exam will take about 5 hours (2 h first part, 1h break and 2 h second part)and you have to translate about 2 maximum 2 1/2 A4 pages for each part….actually, it can be even less(but not less than 1 1/2).
I did know very few things about the competition before, maybe this was done on purpose. There are some legal dictionaries (german-french/english) try to get one. Something more: it seemed to me that I had to translate from legal TEXTBOOKS, not legal texts- but reading and translating them-helps(they are difficult, indeed); you also can read the case law/some judgements from ECJ (even more difficult)…etc…
@ignazio
Sundan was one of your country choices or they selected you according to your qualifications.
thank you for information, anyway, the procedures are awfully long and the information is minimum.
best luck for everyone
I really don’t understand what’s going on with the REA/ERCEA posts… I got a negative reply from REA, but still nothing from ERCEA. At this point I’d rather think no reply means a ‘no’, still… I’d think either they have troubles mass-communicating back answers in due time or they keep some of us on a sort of a waiting list in case their shortlisted quota falls through for some reason. Go figure.
hi everyone,
nice to find the brothers and sisters in arms 🙂
i have already received negative answer from ERCEA, but still nothing from REA regarding competition TA/REA/08/ADM/AD6. as far as I understood, some of the candidates are already interviewed or my information is not up to date?
It seens it has been a relex interviews campaign.
@Olivia
Thank you a lot for your answer. This concours does indeed seem to be very challenging, and I wouldn’t expect it to be easy. The only problem is the lack of information, most likely due to the fact that it’s a very specialized competition and the numbers -in terms of applicants- are usually small. I will try and read/translate legal texts as much as possible in my spare time. I have chosen the combination French/German/English and although I did research in French, worked in German and studied and worked in English, I’m scared by the German part. On the other hand, there should be considerably less competition in the ECJ channel, due to the language combination. We’ll see. However, I find it weird that you’re asked to translate from any kind of legal text: one may be an expert in German corporate law and not be able to translate concepts of German labour law. I’m reading EU legal texts and finding that in many cases there’s no English, French or Italian translation for some German terms. Thus this competition seems to me not only challenging, but also, at least to some extent, very aleatory. Good luck to you for your competitions!