In episode 42 of the Graduate Job Podcast, I am joined by Andras Baneth, a former EU official, founder of EUTraining.eu, and the author of The Ultimate EU Test Book, as we explore how to pass the EPSO test, and work for the institutions and agencies of the European Union. We delve into the intricacies of the EPSO or European Personnel Selection Office test to give it its full title. This testing process stands between you and a job in the institutions of the EU, such as The European Parliament, The European Council, The European Commission to name but a few. We explore all aspects of the EPSO test, from how to apply, to how to ensure that you are fully prepared for the rigorous application process. We take you through the psychometric testing, the EPSO assessment centre, what you can expect in the case study, through to the new intermediate test phase. No matter where you live in the world, this episode is for you, as we explore the EU’s internship scheme which is open to applicants from around the world. Before we start many thanks to those of you who have completed the survey over at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/survey, your feedback helps me to create the episodes you want to hear. I’ve timed it and it takes less than 90 seconds to do, so please do get on over to www.graduatejobpodcast.com/survey and help me out. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
MORE SPECIFICALLY IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:
- All aspects of the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) test
- How to successfully pass the pre-selection EPSO tests
- Why you need to be at the top of your game when it comes to psychometric testing
- The secrets of the EPSO assessment centre
- What you can expect from the ESPO case study
- How to pass the EPSO intermediate test
- How you can apply for an internship with the EU, no matter where you live
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE SHOW:
- Check out the ‘How to Get a Graduate Job’ step-by-step online course at https://howtogetagraduatejob.com/
- Don’t even think about applying for graduate jobs until you’ve read my free guide, ‘The 5 steps you must take before applying for graduate jobs’. Click here NOW. It will completely change the way you apply for jobs!
- Would you like a free 30-minute video coaching call? Simply select a time that works here https://calendly.com/gradjob/ We can go over your CV, application, or anything that you are struggling with.
- Assessment Day – One of the top providers of psychometric tests. Click HERE and support the show
- Career Gym – Use code GJP to get 20% off all of their tests!
- Job Test Prep – One of the top providers of psychometric tests. Click HERE and support the show
- www.eutraining.eu – Andras’s excellent EPSO training website.
- The Ultimate EU Test Book – Andras’s book on everything you need to know to not just pass but smash the EPSO test. Click on the link to buy now from Amazon!
- Made To Stick by Chip and Dan Heath – Andras’s book recommendation. Click on the link below to buy now from Amazon!
Transcript – Episode 42 – How to pass the EPSO test and work for the European Union, with Andras Baneth
James: Hello and welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, with your host James Curran. The Graduate Job Podcast is your weekly home for all things related to helping you on your journey to finding that amazing job. Each week I bring together the best minds in the industry, speaking to leading authors, entrepreneurs, coaches and bloggers who bring decades of experience into a byte size weekly 30 minute show. Put simply, this is the show I wish I had when I graduated.
In episode 42 of the Graduate Job Podcast, I am joined by Andras Baneth, a former EU official, founder of EUTraining.eu, and the author of The Ultimate EU Test Book, as we explore how to pass the EPSO test. The European Personnel Selection Office test to give it its full title, I what stands between you and a job in the institutions of the EU, such as The European Parliament, The European Council, The European Commission to name but a few. We explore all aspects of the EPSO test, from how to apply, to how to ensure that you are fully prepared full the rigorous application process. We take you through the psychometric testing, the EPSO assessment centre, what you can expect in the case study, through to the new intermediate test phase. No matter where you live in the world, this episode is for you, as we explore the EUs internship scheme which is open to applicants from around the world. As always, all links to everything we discuss and a full transcript are available in the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/EPSO. Before we start many thanks to those of you who have completed the survey over at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/survey, your feedback helps me to create the episodes you want to hear. I’ve timed it and it takes less than 90 seconds to do, so please do get on over to www.graduatejobpodcast.com/survey and help me out. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Finally before we start, as you’ll hear in the show, passing the ESPO tests requires a lot of practice and hard work, so I’m pleased to say Andras has offered you my amazing listeners a very special 15% discount on his excellent website at www.eutraining.eu, where you can practice super realistic EPSO style tests, track your progress and make sure you’re ready for the real exams. Simply enter the code EUJOB2016 on the checkout page, that’s EUJOB2016, to get 15% off. See the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/epso for more information. Right, lets crack on with the show.
James: Warm welcome to András Baneth, man of many talents, a former EU official himself, public affairs and strategic comms expert. He’s the founder of EUtraining.eu and Speaker Hub HQ, managing director of the Public Affairs Council’s European office and the author of the Ultimate EU Test Book, to name but a few. András, welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast.
András: Well thank you very much, it’s my honour to be here.
James: Excellent, and today we’re going to cover getting a job in the European Union. Now, not the continent, but the institutions and agencies in the European Union such as the European Parliament, European Council, European Commission, European Court of Justice, etcetera etcetera. So, András, starting at the beginning, would you like to fill us in on the process of how you begin to apply to these institutions.
András: Sure. It’s a fairly big topic to discuss European careers, but the way I like to approach it is essentially looking at two different ways to deal with European affairs. One is to work in the institutions, and the other one is to work with the European institutions. What I mean by the first category is exactly what you just outlined; so working inside the European Parliament, inside the European Commission, inside one of the European agencies, so be a direct employee, or as they would be called civil servants in these institutions. Whereas working with the institutions means that you deal with European affairs but you’re not directly employed by them. So, for instance, if you are interested in public affairs, also known as advocacy, also known as lobbying, also known as government affairs, also known as activism, all of these areas and organizations, whether it’s a civil society, an NGO (non-governmental organization) or a corporate perspective, or a think tank, they work on European issues, energy policy, foreign policy, environmental issues, and whatever else it may be, but they are not directly inside the institutions. But, what we’re going to discuss today is the jobs inside those institutions. Now, talking about the ‘in’ part. Basically, we can look at three main types of contracts. One is to be a trainee, or intern, or as they are very often referred, even in English, though it’s not an English word, is stagiaire, coming from French, meaning, as you can guess, trainee. So, getting the traineeship is usually the entry point of any European career because traineeships are fairly open and they are fairly easy to get. That means that each of the European institutions, or all of the European institutions, have very structured and organized traineeship program. These are available online, so you can apply and find out more, usually they last five months, and they run twice a year, especially for the European Commission, which takes in about 1,200 trainees per year. Number two would be temporary agent or contract agent. Which are pretty much like a fixed-term contract jobs. Which, again, are fairly large in number, it runs in the thousands, but, as the name suggests, they end at one point. Usually they last anything between two to five years. And then there’s number three, which is being a permanent civil servant in the European institutions, which requires a candidate to undergo the selection process administered by the European Personal Selection Office, or as it’s often referred to by its abbreviation, EPSO. These are the three types of contracts that we can talk about while working in the European institutions, and the way to get these, obviously, requires very different techniques and very different approaches, but that’s the formal part. What the actual job entails, so what the content, the substance of the job is, can be vastly different, because someone who is formally an intern can do extremely interesting and high responsibility jobs. Whereas someone who is a permanent official may have lower levels of responsibility, but there come other benefits or other things that go with it.
James: Brilliant. So starting with maybe the traineeship, the intern so to speak, you mentioned that they were five months in length, and two intakes a year. What age range do they focus on? Is it people still at university, or post-university, or even before university?
András: I don’t recall the exact criterion, but as far as I remember, they would require maybe two or three, I think probably two years of studies at the minimum, usually at university level. So, four semesters behind you, and then you can apply. So, they don’t require any candidate to have a full-fledged B.A., bachelor degree, or master’s degree, but certain minimal level of education is required. And, on top of that, linguistic knowledge plays an important role. So, usually English plus at least another language. And sometimes they look for, how should I put that, something more than the average candidate given the vast amount of candidates who’d like to get the internship. They look for some extracurricular achievement, activities. Whether that’s a scientific achievement, whether that’s any sort of publication, or academic awards, whatever is may be that distinguishes a candidate from others would be certainly a big asset in the evaluation of their application.
James: For the applications, do you apply to the specific institutions themselves, or is it more of a general pool and then they place you?
András: Interestingly, for the traineeship it usually goes by institutions, so there’s no central traineeship office. The European Commission is the largest, I don’t know if the word employer is appropriate when it comes to traineeships, but it is the largest institution, or the institution that takes the largest number of interns or trainees. So, the Commission has its traineeship office but they only deal with European Commission trainees. Whereas the European Parliament, it’s different, being a political institution. Someone might be a trainee at the European Parliament as an administrative organization, but you can also be a trainee at individual members of the European Parliament or even at the different political groups. So, for the Parliament it’s a little more fragmented. And then also the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg, they have interns just like the European Investment Bank. So, there’s no central management of the trainees.
James: I know from other graduate employers I’ve spoken to, the people who undertake traineeships and internships, they stand in really good stead for getting the actual job itself. If you complete a traineeship, is there then a fast track way for you to then to go on to get a permanent job when you’ve finish your university course, or do you have to just apply for the same process as everyone else later on?
András: Unfortunately, it’s the latter. So, there’s no fast track and there’s no direct way into these institutions as a temporary or permanent official once you have completed a traineeship. The rule is that traineeship is strictly for the fixed number of months, for which you were granted that given traineeship, and there is no formal or informal way to become a temporary or a permanent official. But, having said that, at the same time you can definitely apply for the open competitions to become a permanent official, and I do know a few cases when an intern was actually offered a temporary job, but that was mostly due to a lot of things happening at the same time. For instance, the trainee obviously had a lot of talent, but apart from that there was a vacancy because of maternity leave, or there were some sort of opportunity opening up at the right time in the right place. But, normally there is no direct way. On the other side, or on the other hand, when it comes to the working with the institutions, so the private sector, or in diplomatic areas, or in advocacy organizations, or similar, the opportunity of following the traineeship and getting actually a longer term job or longer term opportunity afterwards is possible. So there is a very common career path that someone would go in as an intern, and I even know someone who’s a now senior partner at a consultancy.
James: I imagine that the experience from the traineeship will stand you instead for whichever career you want to go down. The opportunities that you get, and the work that you’ll be doing will be great to talk about at interviews and the contacts that you make will stand you as you go forward.
András: Yeah, that’s correct.
James: And, of the applications that would be received for the traineeship, do they have quotas per country? Or is it entirely open?
András: It’s a strange system, let me put it that way because the EU tries to be as democratic as possible, as the same time it’s trying to be merit based, and it’s also trying to make sure that there is no extreme disproportionality between the 28 member countries. So, that’s a very tall order because you need to reconcile conflicting priorities. Because of that, what happens is when trainees apply, what they say is they are trying to establish a broad geographic balance between the applicants. So you would certainly have more German trainees than Maltese given of the sheer size of these member states, but no specific quotas which are prescribed. Another interesting thing is for European traineeships, it’s not just who EU citizens who can apply. So, when it comes to these positions anyone from a third country, meaning a non-EU country can apply, so I have personally met trainees who were coming from Costa Rica, from Israel, from the Middle East, or some Asians countries. Quite a few, but still it’s important to know that there’s such opportunities, so maybe some of your listeners who have interests in European affairs would like to apply and give it a shot.
James: Brilliant, and where can people find out more information about the traineeships that are on offer?
András: The traineeship itself is very easy to find out. You just Google European Commission traineeship, or European institutions and traineeship. And then you can find all the relevant links online. The trickier part is, so to say, optimizing your application, and I think that many of the podcasts that you’ve run in the last few months will come in very handy for optimizing your CV, trying to position yourself, and trying to brand yourself as a very positive candidate in the selection process.
James: That’s a nice plug I like that one Andras, it’s definitely worth checking out the previous episodes. So, moving on to the permanent official position and the EPSO application. How many people a year would be applying through the EPSO application?
András: A lot. That’s the short answer, and the more specific and more detailed answer is that usually what happens is that you’d have about 200 applicants for one post. That’s quite a staggering proportion because you might argue that there are too many candidates or too few posts, depends on your perspective. But in any case, it’s a very very fierce competition, though there are some caveats. And one of the caveats is that it depends on which competition we are talking about. Now, let me give you a little bit of a background. When someone applies for a permanent EU job or permanent EU position, they don’t actually apply for a specific vacancy. They don’t apply for a specific job. What they apply for is a competition. And the goal of the competition is not to fill in a very concreate vacancy, but to establish a so-call reserve list. So, what you do in a competition is that you prove your abilities that you’re suitable to be chosen for a specific vacancy afterwards. But that’s why EPSO is called this way because they are the Personal Selection Office. They are not the recruiting arm; they are the selection arm of all European institutions. So once you go through the whole process you are placed on the reserve list, and then when an institution has a very specific vacancy that’s when they can pick from this list a relevant candidate. Now, there’s quite a variation of these lists because some of lists are meant for generalists, and by generalists we mean anyone with any kind of degree can apply, and it’s usually a bachelor’s degree that’s required, and if they pass all the tests then they can be placed on the list. On the other hand, there are so-called specialist lists. For instance, macro-economists, or there might be a list for nuclear scientists, or there might be yet another one for competition lawyers. So, for these specialist competitions the process is pretty much the same as for the generalists, but the chances are far higher. Because, as you can imagine, if the EU is looking for competition lawyers, obviously they need someone with the relevant qualifications, so the number of such candidates would be far far smaller than for the generalists. So the ratio 1 to 200 applies for the generalist competition but the more specialized the competition is, the lower the competition for those posts.
James: That makes sense. And how long might you be waiting on a reserve list for?
András: A reserve list is, let’s see, probably the most sensitive part of the entire process though, to their credit, EPSO has made a lot of improvements in the past years to decrease the frustration of candidates that went through the entire process, were placed on the reserve list, and may not have managed to secure a job afterwards. So sort of say the success rate, or in marketing terms, the conversion rate of those on the reserve list actually ending up with a job is very high. So, roughly three quarters of them would get a job, and the remaining one quarter, very often would not get a job, not because that they would not be called for a specific position, but out of their own decision, their own will they just changed their minds, or their life circumstances have changed, or they moved to South America and they no longer want to pursue a European career, there are so many factors there that usually it’s the candidates themselves who may not be actually available anymore.
James: So, digging into the specifics then of the EPSO application, you mentioned earlier about languages and the importance of languages. I know English, French, and German are the three key languages in European institutions. Are they all weighted equally? Could you have French and German, or do you need English in there?
András: In practical sense they all three are weighted equally, so when it comes to the competitions someone with French and German language combination can easily pass and end up on the reserve list. It might be a little more difficult in the very end to actually get a specific job if they don’t speak English, but considering the nature of this podcast I don’t think not speaking English would be an issue here. It’s very often, especially for British candidates, they’re struggling. And the British government is struggling to convince enough British students to actually apply for these jobs, and they have even put in place help through the Embassy, or though the so-called EU mission, so the British representation towards to EU, to help such candidates and increase their chances of passing the competitions. So, very often, apart from the big politics and how the EU is perceived, the practical challenge is that not enough candidates speak French or German at sufficient levels as to be able to apply for these competitions. Now, there’s a little loop hole in the system, and we’ll get to actually discussing what the process is for the competitions. But to anticipate that, to already highlight, there are two core parts of the competitions. There’s a pre-selection test, followed by an assessment centre. And in the pre-selection tests, which are psychometric tests, the language can be any of the EUs 24 official languages, whereas for the assessment centre it must be English, French, or German, as long as it’s different from the first language. So, if somebody sits the pre-selection tests in any of those 24 languages, let’s say some of your listeners might speak Spanish, or might speak Italian, or might speak some of the odd languages, and I can say that because I’m Hungarian. Let’s say someone happened to speak Hungarian good enough, or at least to write and the reading comprehension is at sufficient level in Hungarian to take those pre-selection tests in Hungarian, then they can choose English for the assessment centre. You can play around with the languages, but the German, English, and French native speakers are, in some sense, at a little bit of a disadvantage if you take that, because their language choice might be more a little more limited than those who speaker smaller languages.
James: Speaking of eligibility criteria then, apart from being a member of the, well, is it EU residency that you need to apply?
András: It’s EU citizenship.
James: Right, are there any other eligibility criteria?
András: Other than that, there are some core eligibility criteria, fairly formal, fairly basic, so you need to be, I’m trying to recall the exact wording, but something about good moral standing, for instance you’re not being convicted, you’re not under some sort of legal limitation or restriction of your rights as a citizen, you need to have completed your military service if you happen to be coming from a member state where it’s compulsory. I don’t know if that that’s the case anymore in any of the EU member states, but these are fairly basic formal criteria, the most important being is that you need to be a EU citizen. That’s the formal part. When it comes to the variable parts of the selection criteria, it usually depends on the competition that we’re talking about. As I said before, when it comes to generalist competitions, very often the basic criterion is that you need to have at least a bachelor’s degree, but they don’t require any work experience. When it comes to more specialized or specialist competitions, the criterion tends to be a degree in that specific field and maybe one year or three years of work experience. So these are the variable parts and it depends from one competition to the next, but one important thing, and this very podcast is called Graduate Jobs, so those that have just graduated or are about to graduate, they can apply for the generalist competitions which are announced always in March, so this year’s round is coming out in a few weeks, even if they actually get their degree in the summer. So, you don’t need to have your diploma in your hand to apply, and they don’t require any work experience for the entry level jobs or entry level competitions to be eligible.
James: So if you’re graduating in September you can still dust down your application and get started in March.
András: That’s correct.
James: So, you mentioned the pre-selection tests. Can you take us through what makes up the different aspects of the testing?
András: Sure. So, the core idea in all the competitions, whether we talk about specialist or generalist, or whether we talk about the two main categories which are administrator competitions, these are the AD level, administrator, or assistant level, that’s the AST level. And now there’s actually a third category, kind of like a sub-category of the assistants, which is secretaries. Secretaries are not to be confused with the assistants, assistants can still have a lot of substantive policy jobs, even though the name might suggest more of a clerical function, but that’s not the case. Clerical jobs are on the secretary level. So, the main categories as administrator, assistant, and in some sense the secretary competitions. The way the competitions are organized is that you always have a pre-selection test and you have an assessment centre. The pre-selection tests are essentially psychometric tests. What you have there is verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, abstract reasoning, and situational judgement tests. So, these are fairly classic psychometric tests and the way EPSO approaches these is pretty much industry best practices. So, you would have a very limited about of time, and quite a lot of questions for each of these exercises with a pass mark that is usually 50%, so at least half of the answers have to be correct. And then that’s where the actually competition comes in, because you not only need to pass these tests with a decent score, but you need to be among the top ranking candidates in order to qualify for the next round.
James: And of that top ranking, will that be done across all the different languages and people that were sitting it, or are or just competing against the people who will be sitting it the same time as yourself?
András: It’s anyone and everyone who’s sitting in that given competition, because if you think about it logistically it’s a huge exercise. Because the EU having the 28 member states, but obviously European Citizens who are eligible for these competitions maybe anywhere around the world. So EPSO has a contract with, I believe it’s with, Prometric so one of the providers, who run various test centres around the world. So, if you happen to find yourself in China, or Venezuela, or in the United States you can still sit these competitions and compete with everyone else in that given competition. So logistically it’s a major exercise and the tests usually run over two or three weeks. And then the results are aggregated and the ranking is established.
James: So the test is done at a specific location, so there’s not so much scope for people getting their mates to do their maths tests for them.
András: No, probably not. That wouldn’t be advisable.
James: No, definitely. And what advice would you give people on the day then to make sure that they’re preforming well, and even before the test, how can people practice properly?
András: I don’t think I’m revealing any big secrets here because a lot of people ask me for the magic method, what’s the secret? And the best analogy I can find is comparing it to a sports event or preparation or training for a sports event. For instance, everybody who’s in good physical health can run a 100 meters, but not everybody can beat the Olympic champions and run that distance in under 10 seconds. So, what you really need to do is focus on the preparation and, the same way as with every sport, you can look into the methodology, because all these tests have a very specific methodology and I believe Ben Williams, our psychometric expert, has spoken at your podcast. So, he talks about the design of the psychometric tests and understanding the design you might hack and use that understanding for your benefit to improve your performance. So, there’s a methodology. There’s persistence and perseverance where regular practice definitely improves the performance. So, we have spoken to hundreds and hundreds of candidates and those who use our website for the preparation services, they provide information to us, and we also see our statistics, how somebody’s performance under time pressure actually improves over the weeks when they practice. So, it might sound a little generic, piece of advice, but knowing that there is method to it, and there’s a system to it, there’s a certain best practice to it could definitely improve performance.
James: So, you know pretty well the more you practice the better you get. It’s the same in golf, or whatever sport you’re playing. If you put the practice in, then you’ll pay the benefits. And for listeners who haven’t already listened to Episode 35 – How to pass psychometric tests with Ben Williams is well worth a listen. And András, say if you take the test and it doesn’t go as well as you hoped, is there an option to retake it or is that it for the year?
András: Well, there’s no option to retake that specific test. When you’re sitting one competition then that’s your chance, those 45 minutes are your chance to actually shine. If your performance is not as good as you wish it to be, what you can do is sit another competition because in any given year you have dozens of competitions that are open. You may not qualify for everything because if they require three years of job experience and you don’t have that then you cannot apply based on formal grounds, but there might be several others where you do qualify. So, you might try any number of these competitions, and I know people who are subscribed to three, four, five, different competitions, hoping that one of them is going to work out. Usually one type of competition is being run once a year, so for instance the generalist’s competition that I mentioned for administrators tends to be the most popular, because it’s a generalist one and administrator is a better paid, higher profile, with more responsibility kind of job. So that’s opens in mid-March, but regardless then are many others for translators, for interpreters, for lawyers, for specialists as well. So, there are other opportunities. The good thing is, I’m trying to find a good word. There’s no black list, there’s no negative history of the tests you have taken so you always start with a clean slate. And no one looks at how many competitions you’ve taken before, whether you’ve passed or you’ve failed.
James: That’s good to know. And say, if it doesn’t go well, are you able to get any feedback on what your score was or the areas where you might not have done well? Or I guess, if they just get too many applications it’s difficult to do.
András: Indeed, you get feedback because you get your score, but unfortunately it’s not the full picture because you don’t actually see the test questions that you answered. You could always see that in the test centre where you were taking it, but for the sake of confidentiality and for the integrity of their question pool they wouldn’t reveal the actual questions. So, all you see is that for question 23 you answered D, whether that was correct or incorrect that’s indicated, but you wouldn’t actually see what the question was unless you have fantastic memory and you recall that.
James: If you do have fantastic memory you probably wouldn’t have gotten it wrong in the first place.
András: You may have, but that probably takes us to the second part of the competition, which is the assessment centre. And if you happen to fail the assessment centre, you do get a very detailed feedback. So, whether you pass or you fail, you get a so-called competency passport, and that’s a very valuable document or piece of information because it provides a very detailed feedback about your performance measured on the basis of the various competencies that EPSO looks at.
James: Do you know the percentage of the people that make it from the pre-test through to the assessment centre?
András: Let me give you an example, but approach that from the other way around. So, the competition always starts with the notice of competition which mentions the number of places that are available, or the number of places that EPSO seeks to fill on the reserve list. So, let’s assume that there are 300 places on the reserve list. So, the way they would look at it is they establish this number based on the needs of the European institutions who said, “Well we’re going to need that many people.” So 300 people publically announced. The number of candidates who are invited to the assessment centre in the very end is usually two and a half times that number. So, anything between, say, 700 and 900 candidates will go to the assessment centre in that case. So then you take a step back and say, okay how many people applied? 30,000. So, out of 30,000 you have 900 who actually go to the assessment centre so, that’s a pretty fierce competition. One thing I haven’t mentioned yet, because I’m trying not to overload anyone with technical details and confuse anyone with the process, but since last year EPSO introduced a so-call intermediate test and that sits between the pre-selection and the assessment centre. So what they do is they actually have more people pass the pre-selection, and they get them to sit a so-called e-tray exercise. It’s yet another layer of sifting, and a certain number of those who pass the e-tray exercise can actually go to the assessment centre, and the reason why they introduced this is because they didn’t want to fail so many people in the pre-selection test who would then go to the assessment centre, cause the pool of the candidates was not large enough. So they tried to include this intermediate step to increase the quality of the candidates and also to give, maybe, a little more chance to the initial applications.
James: Shows the importance of making sure that you’re at the top of your game for the psychometric testing if they’re whittling down that many people and only 900 people, for example, or 700 people are getting through to the assessment centre. You really need to be in that top-top percentage quartile of people.
András: That’s correct. I know a lot of people who pass, but didn’t pass. So they did in formal terms, they got points or scores high enough to pass all of these tests, but they weren’t in the top cut, the top percentage or percentile of successful candidates.
James: So in the assessment centre, what would that be made up of?
András: The assessment centre has a bit of variation from one competition to the next, but by large what you have in the assessment centre is three or four core exercises. And these are, there’s a case study, in technical terms it usually takes place a few weeks before the actual assessment centre but in procedural terms it’s part of the assessment centre because the case study evaluates competencies. It doesn’t look at knowledge; it looks are competencies. And then, part of the assessment centre, there’s a structured interview, or competency based interview. There is also a group exercise, and often, not for all competitions but most, there’s an oral presentation. And then if we’re talking about specialist exams, say the ones I mentioned like nuclear inspector, or competition lawyer, or development cooperation advisor; for these there would be a second interview which tests a person’s technical knowledge or technical background. Or for interpreters, translators there would be an actual translation exam where they need to use a source language and translate that into their main language.
James: And you mentioned the case study a couple of weeks before, what would that be? They’d send it to you a couple of weeks before and you’ve got a couple weeks to work on it? Or you have to submit it a couple weeks before and then you talk about it when you get there?
András: No, actually it’s a standalone exercise or exam which takes place in an exam centre. So, it’s not that they would send you any document that you work on on your own. But, what happens is you go to the test centre again and it’s a computer based case study which features a lot of background materials, all sorts. They’re very diverse in the type and range of documents; emails, newsletters, European regulations, and what not. And you need to process that information and answer two or three fairly broad questions. But the point there is they don’t test your knowledge so you don’t need to go there with any pre-existing knowledge about the EU or any other field, but you need to demonstrate your writing skills, you need to demonstrate your communication skills, you need to demonstrate your analytical skills, your so-called delivering quality and results, that you’re able to come up with sensible solutions and answers to the questions raised. So, it tests a lot of things but not your knowledge. Hence the importance of those background documents that you need to read during the exam.
James: So, I’m just conscious of the time and want to be respectful of your time Andras, and just so maybe one more question just on the assessments and the process. What advice would you give candidates to ensure that they stand out and preform at their best at the assessment centre.
András: The assessment centre is the most fun part of the exam or of the competition, because the concept of the pre-selection test is to select out. Meaning that there are so many candidates that they had to find a scientifically valid way, which is gender neutral or, so to say, education neutral and test people, but is not related to the actual job. On the other hand, the assessment centre is about selecting in. So, there they’re looking for qualities and competencies and skills that someone needs to have in order to work for the European institutions. So, preparing for the assessment centre is essentially improving your presentation skills. It’s essentially about using your writing skills, it’s using your interpersonal skills in the group exercise. So there are a lot of good things that, as part of your self-development, that you can invest in and that’s going to pay off whether or not or pass the assessment centre, hopefully you do. But even if you don’t, it’s still a valuable investment in your own personal development.
James: I love that, that’s a really nice way of putting it. The assessment centre is your chance to select yourself in as opposed to getting yourself selected out. So, András, time is running away with us so couple of final questions before we finish. Our weekly staples of questions. What one book would you recommend that our listeners read?
András: There’s one book which I particularly like, it’s probably more like that I love that book and I do a lot of trainings on the basis of that book. It’s called Made to Stick. It’s about effective communication, it’s about making memorable messages that sticks, that the audience will remember. And it’s given me so much in terms of how I speak, how I write, how I communicate in general so I very much recommend it. It’s written by two American brothers, Chip and Dan Heath and it’s available on all online platforms.
James: Excellent, that’s a new one on me but, just like the book and everything that we’ve discussed today, will be available in the show notes at www.GraduateJobPodcast.com/EPSO. And you’ll be able to find all links to everything we’ve discussed. Excellent, and András, what one website would you recommend our listeners visit?
András: This one I haven’t given much thought to because I, myself, follow so many news sources and other sites. For jobseekers or for those who are interested in EPSO jobs, might sound too selfish but our site on eutraining.eu we have so much free information; e-books, tips and tricks, and tons of free webcasts, that I hope will provide a lot of value and further information to anyone who’s interested in that. Maybe that’s not the broad generic website you might expect from me, but off the top of my head this is something that I would surely recommend.
James: We don’t mind a little bit of nepotism.
András: Or actually, may I add to this? There’s a new website which I just launched, and some of your extrovert readers and listeners might be interested. It’s called speakerhub.com which is a platform, completely free platform, for anyone who’s into public speaking, or is a trainer, or a moderator can sign up and then be found by conference organizers. And it’s a brand new project that I’ve launched, so I’m really recommending anyone to join and be more visible when it comes to their most interesting topics.
James: Brilliant and, as I said, I’ll link to that in the show notes, and listeners will be able to find out more about it in the show notes.
András: Great.
James: András has been very generous and we have a special discount code for listeners, which I will be revealing shortly for eutraining.eu. So if you have an EPSO test coming up, you know where to go to get all of your hints, tips, and practice tests. So keep listening and I’ll reveal all of what you need to do. And finally, András, what one tip would you give listeners that they can implement today on their job hunt?
András: I think one tip, and now I talk more generally about job hunts and not EU jobs or specifically European affairs jobs, but I think leveraging the internet is what they need to do more. When I speak to graduates, when I speak to those who are the very beginning of their professional career, it’s amazing that everybody’s on FaceBook, everybody’s using social media, but very few people actually understand the deeper layers of the internet’s capabilities to brand themselves, and to showcase themselves. And very very basic simple example, is that if they’ve written a thesis why not put it on various websites, slide shares, print.com, whichever it may be, and link to it from their professional resumes or CVs. So, especially if you’re not a native speaker, and you’d like to showcase your English writing skills, what better way then actually demonstrating it through your thesis or any writing piece. Or starting a blog and try to dig deeper into topics where you’d like to have an employment in. So using the internet, probably there are tons of books written on that, but very few people, at least among those that I speak to actually understand how they can use it to leverage it for their professional advancement.
James: I think that’s brilliant advice and definitely one that listeners should look towards. I mean, starting a blog is such a great idea and it’s one that we’ve touched upon in recent episodes. Just a good way of getting your brand out there and get your presence out there. And start to build a presence that people can find. András, it’s been an absolute pleasure having you on the Graduate Job Podcast. What is the best way for listeners to stay in touch with you and to find out more about the things that you’re working on?
András: Very simple. They are welcome to have a look at my personal site, which is my surname so baneth.eu. I’m on Twitter, I’m on FaceBook, I’m on LinkedIn, and I’m more than happy to help anyone with advice, with ideas, or just point them to a relevant link that gives an answer to whatever question they may have.
James: András, many thanks for appearing on the Graduate Job Podcast.
András: My pleasure, thank you so much.
James: Many thanks to Andras for his time today and being an all-round great guest. I hope you found it useful, and it has inspired you to apply. One key takeaway for me to leave you with today, and it is……practice makes perfect. As Andras said, the EPSO process is competitive, yes lots of people apply, but you have to be in it to win it. That said, if you do apply, make sure you put the hard work in, practice, practice, practice. There is no glory in practice, but without practice there is no glory. Make sure you know your verbal and numerical tests inside out and that your language skills are up to scratch. To that end take advantage of the 15% off all of the practice tests over at www.eutraining.eu use code EUJOB2016 for 15% off. Let me know how you get on, It’s always lovely to hear your success stories.
So there you go, thanks for listening, please leave me a review on iTunes if you’ve enjoyed the show, if you want to get in touch you can contact me on twitter @gradjobpodcast, or hello@graduatejobpodcast.com let me know if you’re enjoying the show I do love to hear you. Please do check out my short couple of questions at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/survey it will be a big help! I hope you enjoyed the show today, but more importantly, I hope you use it, and apply it. See you next week.