Tips and tricks

During the course of the FREE 2018 EPSO AD Information Webcast a number of questions were raised by participants about the 2018 EPSO Administrators Generalists (AD5) (EPSO/AD/356/18) competition.

While we haven’t seen the Situational Judgment Test (SJT) for a while now, the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) will be reintroducing it at the 2018 EPSO Administrators (AD5) competition. Let's refresh our memory about this test and how to pass it.

Figuring out the concept behind the EPSO exams can be extremely frustrating. Our EU Training personal coach, András Kőrízs, has shared his thoughts and tips on how you too can approach the EPSO exams from a different angle to help improve your chance of success:

We have already reached the middle of the examinations period and as candidates share their experience, there are some very interesting conclusions that other applicants might find helpful for future competitions. We have gathered the most useful comments, as it is worth having a look at them:

We have finally reached June and the first milestone of the big EPSO AD5 competition has passed.

The majority of people interested in working for the European institutions seem to be busy with the current AD5 competition. However, there are thousands of candidates who are eagerly awaiting a response to their application for the contract agents (CAST) competition and have pinned their hopes on it. This seems fair because after a careful read of the Notice of Competition – the same for all profiles – everyone can conclude that it is far easier to reach the final step: interviewers’ panel door.

Recently, EU Training hosted a free 2017 EPSO CAST webcast to discuss the competition’s eligibility requirements, its structure, the individual tests to be undertaken, as well as effective preparation strategies. As part of this event, many useful questions were posed by the participants, so we thought we’d share the answers to these with you as well below.

You may have just registered for an EPSO competition or thinking about giving it a try…do you feel totally overwhelmed by the selection process?

Selection exams for ‘contract agents for specific tasks’ have been regularly advertised by EPSO under the banner of CAST Competitions. These contract agents are recruited by EU Institutions for a set period of time, ranging from 6 months up to approximately 2 years. While it is unknown when the next round of CAST competitions will be launched (we will keep you posted on specific dates when they are released), there will certainly be some key changes to the selection process due to the new CAST Permanent System being implemented. Through this new system EPSO aims to enhance selection efficiencies and manage candidates' expectations better.