How to apply for EU job opportunities
Your first step: The European Personnel Selection Office
The EU institutions do not usually recruit to fill individual posts. Instead, they hold annual competitions (called ‘concours’) to identify panels of qualified candidates, who can then be recruited by the institutions as the need arises.
The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO), the recruitment service of the EU institutions and agencies, manages this process and is the place to start your search for an EU job.
The EPSO website contains information on all aspects of EU careers, including detailed profiles of available job opportunities and upcoming competitions.
This is also where you take your first step in applying for a specific post by creating or logging into your EPSO account.
While EPSO runs many different recruitment competitions, the posts are usually divided into three key types:
AD Concours for General Administrators
This is a general graduate entry recruitment competition. At the time of application, candidates must hold – or expect to shortly receive – an honours degree from a third level institution. Candidates should also be proficient in at least two EU languages, one of which must be a language specified for that competition. Irish is an official EU language. Explore our ‘How to apply for EU job opportunities’ page for more information on the application process.
AD Concours for Translators, Interpreters, Linguists, Lawyer-Linguists
The recruitment process for the interpreters, translators, linguists and lawyer-linguists is much the same as for the general administrators except that in these cases candidates are required to sit an extra language test at the assessment centre to demonstrate competency in a minimum of three EU official languages.
AST Concours for General Assistants
The AST Concours, aims to recruit general assistants and secretaries to serve in key support roles within the institutions. These posts have a non-graduate profile, with the key qualification requirements being a secondary education and at least three years of professional experience, as well as competence in at least two EU languages.
Visit our ‘current and upcoming EU job opportunities’ page to view EPSO competitions.
The Department of Foreign Affairs offer support to Irish candidates. Please visit our ‘supports available for EU job applications’ page for more information.
Before applying
Before you can apply for any position in the European Institutions, you should create an EPSO account via the EPSO website. Remember, you can only have one EPSO account.
You will usually be asked to complete a questionnaire and attempt some sample tests before you begin an application process.
This is a self-evaluation mechanism that EPSO uses so that prospective candidates can determine whether or not a career in the EU institutions is something that would suit them. EPSO does not record or use the results of these tests.
For certain, more specialised selection procedures, you will be required to answer some additional detailed questions about your qualifications and experience as part of the application form.
The main steps of the competition
The competition steps can vary depending on the type of competition but may involve:
- Publication of the Notice of Competition
- Self-assessment of eligibility via a specific survey, followed by application
- Reasoning tests on a pass/fail basis
- Digital skills test (when applicable)
- EU knowledge test (for ‘generalist’ competitions) or Multiple Choice Questionnaire (MCQ) in the field (for ‘specialist’ competitions). The responses will be ranked
- Written test (e.g. case study, for most competitions, with a focus on drafting skills) corrected only for those with the best results in MCQ
- Eligibility checks at an appropriate stage (final verification before placing on the Reserve List; checking of second language, if necessary)
- Reserve list: The database of successful candidates
General tips for applying
- Check your EPSO account at least twice a week during the selection procedure.
- Additional information about the selection procedure and information about the timing of the different stages will be available and regularly updated on the EPSO website.
- For any questions you may have please contact us in the EU Jobs section at the Department of Foreign Affairs.