14 Tips to Start an EU Career

Please note that the following transcript has been edited to make reading easier and may slightly differ

from what was said in the webinar recording. Disclaimer: We aim to ensure a high level of accuracy, but

the webinar and the transcript are for information purposes only and they cannot be considered as

legally binding.

Speaker: András Baneth

Today, we will be spending one hour with various ideas and tips and hopefully, you will find it useful and

relevant in terms of your career prospects and in how to advance your future in EU affairs.

This is Andràs Baneth live from Brussels and I am going to be sharing with you 14 tips to optimize and

make the most out of your career in EU affairs. I am a Senior Partner at Online EU Training. You might be

familiar with the Ultimate EU Test Book, which I wrote, and is currently in its 11th

and 12th

editions. I also

run the European Training Academy, which is a training company dealing with EU affairs and providing

corporate training for different private and public clients.

When talking about EU careers, we recently did a little poster in terms of how EU officials are viewed by

themselves, their spouses, their bosses and others. The reason is that there is quite a range of

perceptions when it comes to people working in European affairs and on European Union issues,

whether that is inside or outside the institutions.

Another nice poster I came across the other day, shows a gentleman who spent his last £500 advertising

himself, trying to look for a job in this very unique manner. This is not an endorsement that you should

do the same but there are ways to promote yourself, which are just as efficient as the billboard of this

British gentleman.

Tip # 1: Which is the right type of job for you?

This is a little bit of a high level approach but I do find it very relevant and important that in terms of

your longer career prospect and your job satisfaction, you make sure that you are sitting in the right

position and that you are doing the right type of job.

Let’s look at a few ideas. Are you more of anorganiser type or of an analytical type? This is an over

simplification and a quite blunt way of approaching your personality type. However, many people are

more inclined to be an organiser type, whether they are more agile and like fast moving things, like

myself, instead of an analytical type, which is the PhD type of person, who would sit down and go deep

into a given file.

If you happen to apply for a job which requires a lot of analysis, maybe a legal type of job or even a

translator or a lawyer linguist job, you need to be an analytical type, otherwise you may not be the right

fit for that kind of job.

The other thing to consider is whether you prefera flat organisation or a hierarchical organisation. What

I mean by this is that if you have the liberty to choose between two different jobs or decide on the type

of employer to whomyou would apply, small companies or small consultancies in EU affairs, tend to be

rather flat given their limited number of employees that usually does not exceed10, 20, or 30 people.

Therefore, there is not a lot of hierarchy in these types of companies.

When you work for a larger company, like PricewaterhouseCoopers or a larger consultancy, or even the

European Commission, there are various layers of hierarchy. Therefore, the question is not whether to

work for a public or a private company, but whether you are okay to work with procedures and different

layers of hierarchy or whether you prefer to be in a more flat organisation.

Another point to consider is whether you plan for the long term or the short term in the sense that if

you have a career opportunity that you would like to seize, would that fit your CV? Would that really

serve a consistent, coherent profile that you would like to have? Or would it be a good opportunity in

the short term because money-wise, it pays well -say an internship- but it may not be the perfect fit

when it comes to your overall profile and the impression it would give to a potential future employer?

Tip #2: Know which selection method your target uses

In order to get a job in EU affairs, you need to be, at least superficially, familiar with the type of

recruitment or selection process that takes place because you need to make sure that you passthese

filters in order to get a job.

In order to get a permanent job in the EU Institutions, you need to pass the European Personnel

Selection Office competitions (EPSO), which is something we help you with on our website through

eBooks, tips and other methods. This is a must in order to get a permanent contract.

When it comes to EU agencies, as a main rule, you do not need to pass these competitions. Although

there are exceptions, agencies select based on your CV, your profile and your cover letter. On the other

hand, EU consultancies, think-tanks, non-EU institutional actors and the broader private sector select

and recruit based on their own methods or preferred way of going through CVs and finding the right

candidates.

EU institutions do notorganise individually their own selections and the interview only happens in the

very end of the process, whereas EU agencies, look at the CVs and the interview. That is why I will spend

quite a significant amount of time in today’s presentation on how to optimize your CV and cover letter

and will share with you many practical ideas and a few mistakes that you can learn from. The same goes

forEU consultancies in terms of making sure that you are visible enough and positioned in the proper

way in order for them understand that your profile is the perfect match for what they are seeking.

Tip #3: The job that makes you ‘flow’

‘Flow’ is a concept developed by a psychologist of Hungarian origin, who works in the US. It meansthat

you are sufficiently stimulated intellectually and have a sufficient amount of challenges. At the same

time, these challenges need to meet your skill set and not being inferior to it. For example, if you speak

Spanish fluently and you apply for a job where you would need to translate letters into Spanish that

might be insufficient for the skill set you have. On the other hand, if the challenges are far superior to

your skills that would lead to disappointment, anxiety, worry etc. That would be the case where you are

requested to deal with the EU-China trade relations and you do not have the skill set which would

enable you to do that.Therefore, the right balance needs to be found between the perfect amount of

challenge and the perfect match to the skills that you possess.

Finally, which job makes you happy?This is kind of a philosophical question but there have been a lot of

studies and experiments conducted on this very topic. A famous American psychologist named Dan Pink

concluded that in order to have a job that really makes you happy, you need essentially three elements:

autonomy, mastery and purpose. In brief, what they mean is that you need to have an amount of

autonomy in your job which makes you feel comfortable. Some people need to have a lot of freedom in

what they do whereas others need more guidance. But there is an optimal level of how much freedom

you want to enjoy in being satisfied in your job. The number two is mastery, which means that what you

do teaches you something, you learn everyday and you become better at it. This is the number two pre-

condition in being happy in your job via learning from it andfeeling that you are improving on a

continuous basis. The number three, and this is where dealing with EU affairs is for many people very

important, is that they feel that there is a purpose in their job. It is not purely earning money, it is not

purely having a 9 to 5 job but there is a highergoal or a more important purpose in what they do.

Thus,what they do on a daily basis, serves a bigger objective.

Working for EU institutions

We will now look at the classic split in EU careers whether it is working for the institutions or working

with the institutions. This is something that I have been talking and writing about quite a lot so I would

touch on this quite briefly because my main focus is not so much the split between these two types of

jobs but really looking at optimizing your performance for either type of career.

Working for EU institutions is strictly speaking working in the European Commission, the Court of

Auditors or the Court of Justice, ideally with a permanent contract.

Tip #4: The job that makes you ‘Happy’

To work for an EU institutionyou need to pass the EPSO exam or the kind of selection that a given EU

agency proposes. Thereare three types of administrative positions you can have a) being a paid trainee,

under a fixed amount of time, such as five months, which ends there b) being a temporary agent or a

contract agent under a contract of a limited amount of time that can be anything between six months

and five years sometimes extendable on certain occasions and c) being a permanent EU official.

Regardingwhat you do on a daily basis, this is just a very short sample of the types of jobs you can have

in the European Parliament or the Council of the EU or in any other European Union institution. You

could be a scientific expert; a trade negotiator, a classic policy officer dealing with agriculture or the

freedom of movement or with any other issue where the EU has a shared or an exclusive competence.

In terms of how the selection and the recruitment actually happen, I would like to provide you briefly

with a few pointers to give you an overview. There are the so-called Annual Cycles. This means that

EPSOorganises selection exams every year and certain exams are organised at the select part of the

given year.Thus,they take place on a regular basis.

The exams and the competitions always start with a Notice of Competition, which is the official

declaration by EPSOsaying ‘listen people, we are selecting candidates.’ As a footnote, I would like to

mention that EPSO does not recruit itself but selectscandidates from a vast pool, which is then given to

the EU institutions such as the European Commission Directorate General for Education and Culture,

which eventually recruits the candidates who have been selected.

In most cases, during these competitions, you have a pre-selection test in three quarters of the exam,

which includes an abstract reasoning, a verbal reasoning, a numerical reasoning and a situational

judgment test.This is the pre-selection test by which EPSO filters out the largest number of candidates

who will be admitted to the next phase of the competition, the so-called Assessment Centre. Therefore,

this is a formal procedure whereEPSO checks the diplomas and qualifications of the candidates, making

sure that they meet the formal eligibility criteria.

The Assessment Centre is part of almost every single competition that EPSO organizes, with very few

exceptions. The Assessment Centre is essentially a one day series of exercises that usually includes an

oral presentation, a so-called structured interview, a group exercise, possibly a case study, and a so-

called in-tray exercise. There maybe also other exams for interpreters or translators. This is really where

your competencies and various skills are tested in a series of tests, which are quite relevant and related

to the job that you will be doing if you are successful.

The last part of the competition is that you are placed ona reserve list and once you are on this list, you

can be recruited. In that case,any EU institution that has a vacancy may invite you. What happen next is

that two or three candidates who are all on the reserve list would be invited to a classic job interview

during which the EU institutionwould choose the final and future colleague and employee.

The EPSO exams are about a personnel selection and not so much about a ‘personal’ oneregarding you

as an individual. A large number of candidates are being selected and then eventually recruited in any

given year. There are roughly 1,000 new EU officials who are being recruited per year due to retirement,

staff fluctuations, and other reasons despite the restrictions and certain limitation in the staff numbers.

Tip #5: Optimise your chances

From a very practical side, when you are applying for a specific competition, make sure that you choose

a so-called specialist profile. A specialist could be a nuclear scientist or a macro-economist but specialist

can also be a sub-profile in a given competition. Here is an example: where there is an administrator

competition, EPSO would usually have sub-profiles such as law, public administration, audit, finance and

others. The more specialist or unique profile you can choose because you qualify for it under the formal

eligibility criterion, the less competition you are going to face.

The sub tip here is to choose the exam language carefully. Make sure that the exam language that you

have picked is really the one you originally had in mind because the so-called ‘language one’ is usually

your mother tongue as long as it is an EU official language. That is the language in which you will sit the

pre-selection tests. For the current Croatian exams, it is a little bit different but as a main rule, you will

sit the pre-selection tests in your first language. ‘Language number two’ is your first foreign language as

long as it is English, French or German. Therefore,make sure that you are able to sit those tests in your

first language and then inEnglish, French or German at the Assessment Centre. In case you speak a

language at a sufficiently good level, you may decide to do it in a different way, only to make sure that

you have full verbal expression possibilities in the language two that you choose.

Tip #6: Master the methodology

Within the EPSO exams and within the field of working for the EU institutions, there is always a

methodology. This is not out of the blue, since it is not onlyborn geniuses who can pass these exams.

With practice, with the right approach and with a very methodological -I would even call it scientific

approach-; you can master both the pre-selection tests and the Assessment Centre. I myself do quite a

lot of training for the Assessment Centre simulation as well as other coaching. Based on feedback from

surveys that we have ran, via practicing, pre-selection tests can be significantly improved in order to

have your performance at a level which enables you, not just to pass but to be better than the rest of

the candidates.

Tip #7: Make a plan

It is of crucial importance to make a plan. However simple that sounds, I suggest that you form a study

group and that you have a specific timeline and a preparation plan because ad hoc preparation will not

yield in success. It will not lead to success.The most efficient and effective way of passing the

competitions is to make a plan and have peer pressure from your friends or colleagues, who maybe

preparing for the same exams.

Working with EU institutions

We will now proceed to the other and larger part of my presentation, which is working with EU

institutions but not necessarily inside as an EU official but in other companies and organisations

surrounding them. Then, we will be looking at specific examples of how you can actually optimize your

CV and your cover letter for having an impact.

There is one single thing that you need to do when applying for classic jobs outside the institutions. You

need to convince the employer that your CV and your profile is the perfect match. This sounds quite

simple but in practice there is a method to it and there are many things to master and bear in mind.

Recently, I hired an assistant and when I published the opening, there was a significant number of

people who applied, namely 196. Thus, I wanted to make sure that I do not miss anyone and I am fair to

every applicant. So, I went through all the 196 cover letters and CVs. I will share with you many of the

things that I saw, obviously completely anonymously and with privacy respected, wanting to make sure

that others can learn from certain mistakes that I have seen.

Tip #8: Check where you have the most chance to succeed

In an EU context, there are three main categories of jobs. One is the diplomatic type of jobs

whenworking for permanent representations. In particular, if you work in the EU and if you are citizen of

an EU member state, you can work in a permanent representation as a seconded national official or you

could be a diplomat in the foreign ministry. This is through the national channel. Thus,you would need

to become public servant or a civil servant through your home country.

In addition, there are the so-called SNEs, the Seconded National Experts, who are alsoofficials. They

have a public status in their home countries and if you happen to be German or Maltese or Slovenian,

you would be an official in those countries. In that case, your ministry or the Foreign Affairs

Ministrysends you to work in an EU institution but legally speaking, you are still linked to your home

administration. Again, this is more in the diplomatic field and in most cases you can get this job only

through national channels.

Then you have the so-called political jobs, which could be several types but I would only highlight three:

a) be an assistant to a member of the European Parliament. This means that an individual member of

the Parliament would consider you as an asset, as a helper andas a political advisor as long as you

basically share the same political views or at least your views are not far from that person’s. If that MEP

is representing the Greens in the European Parliament, you would need to be aligned with that. If that

MEP is a conservative or a socialist, he/she would want his/her assistant to be sharing a similar ideology;

b) working for a European Parliament political group, which is a political job but of an administrative

nature since all the major political groups in the European Parliament employ a number of people in

their administrations, who are not necessarily working for an individual MEP but for the political group

as a whole; and c)working foradvocacy organisations, anything from Greenpeace to various other NGOs

that have a strong valuesset and a strong agenda. I consider that as a political job because these

organisations want you to have a similar opinion or share the same values. Again, for these types of

jobs, you need to convince those potential employers that you are the best fit and you have the right

profile that matches their needs.

Last but not least is working inthe private sector, for think-tanks such as the European Policy Center or

others that search and research EU, Asia relations etc. If you are more of an analytical type, think-tanks

are probably a good fit for you. Consultancies are a very popular career path which basically comprises

lobby firms and public affairs companies thatfall under this category as well as trade associationsdealing

with photovoltaics and solar panels all the way to animal import and customs duties. In all of these jobs,

you essentially need to convince the recruiting person that you have a good CV and profile.

Tip #9: Your goal

This takes me to the next part of my presentation, which consists of very practical tips and case studies

of what makes a good CV but also of typical errors that I would caution you against and plead that you

avoid. Ultimately, your goal is to stand out and as easy as it sounds, the execution is always the hardest

part. So, how can you make sure that you are different from all the other candidates? I certainly do not

think that sending in an email with a blue background or a blue letter -if it is a physical mail- would

qualify as standing out because there are many other ways of lookingunique and relevant.

First of all is the packaging in terms of the overall look and feel of your application, your CVand the

content that you share, certain extra elements that you can add to boost your CV and last but not the

least; luck, however random it may seem.

I recently screened 196 CVs originally not with the idea of turning this into this kind of presentation but I

certainly find it very useful to sharewith you my insights.

Tip #10: The packaging

Packaging is about what makes a good cover letter and a good CV and on the other hand it is about what

totally ruins it.

Number one is when you apply for an EU affairs job mainly in Brussels, make sure that you convey the

message that you are available for relocation or that you are already living here. Because many

employers, however bad it sounds, may not even invite you for an interview if you are out of town. They

will say, ‘Well, I am not sure I am going to hire this person because I cannot commit to whether he/she

would make it all the way and fly here.’However motivated you are, they would say, ‘I would rather not

invitethis person’. They would not bother having a Skype call or anything else. Therefore, provide an

indication that says, ‘Yes, I am flexible or I am actually living in Belgium’.

Number twois to use the right style. Recently, I prepared a little questionnaire when I advertisedthe

position for an assistant and some people wrote quite interesting things there. In particular, I asked the

question: ‘Do you have a thorough knowledge of the EU institutions and procedures?’andone answer

started with ‘Yeah’. If somebody can blow an application with a single word, I think this is a good

example of that. It is quite strange to see “Yeah” written in a professional setting.

A very important point is attention to details and many people claim that they have a very high

attention to details and are very thorough in their work. At the same time, I look at their CVs and

applications, and I seethings such as ‘political activists’, which is notsupposed to be in plural or ‘I

managed to get to know the EU institutions in details’, which should be ‘in detail’ or‘representing it’s

members’, written with an apostrophe. These aresome of the mistakes I really find irritating because no

matter how tiny they are, they are sometimes enough for your application to be rejected. If you have

almost 200 candidates to choose from,one little apostrophe or one small mistake might disqualify you.

However bad it sounds, this is reality.

Next one in line isspelling errors and again attention to details. For instance,“I know that there seven

institution in the European Union”. This is a small mistake that reflects though very bad on this

candidate. One of the most entertaining mistakes I have ever encountered is:‘The European

Commission, the governing body concerned mainly with draughtinglegislation’, with ‘draughting’ spelled

in a way that you draught beer. Incidentally, it was an Irish candidate who wrote that and thus, I was

wandering whether that had any bearing on the spelling. In any case, the fact that he was a native

speaker made this mistake even more painful. Another mistake I encountered was ‘Leonardo di Vinci’,

which would render many Italian listeners and even non Italians very uncomfortable.

Another important point is your email address. It tells a message just like any communication you have,

it reflects on you and it gives an impression to potential employers about who you are andabout

whether youare professional and serious. ‘1wr1t32u@gmail.com’: this is an innocent Gmail address that

I had hard time reading,let alone having to havea phone call with this candidate and asking that person

to spell me his or her email. I would have a very hard time even writing it down.

One of the key points, if not the most important of all, is to show that you care about the potential

employer’s organisation. A question that says, ‘What is your main motivation to work in this

job?’essentially means ‘what is in it for me?’One candidate replied to me, ‘I will give you three reasons.

First, I definitely think that I can benefit from the extensive experience of the Director by working next to

him. Second, I feel myself suitable to work in small teams, surely my dimension. Last but not least, I still

have a lot to learn about EU regulations and therefore I consider this as the chance for a quick learning

by doing’. It is great that this person is so motivated and I do appreciate his kind words but how do all of

these add value to my organization? That person could have turned the second point for example, into,

‘I am very efficient when working in small teams and I think this efficiency will benefit your organisation’.

Thus, immediately turning a sentence from what it is in for me into what it is in for you. If I would have

to highlight a single point, I would encourage you to not only talk about yourself in your application but

to relate itto the needs of the employer and to the needs of the organisation.

The next point is more of an administrative nature especially when it comes to working in EU affairs in

Brussels or in Luxembourg and relates to whether you have citizenship or work permit issues

becausesome candidates are coming from non-EU member states. This is certainly not a problem in

itself but it can make potential employers think,‘Am I going to have certain administrative issues with

this person?’, ‘Is it going to be a headache for me to file certain documents and get certain papers

approved?’Prevent that. Make sure you emphasize in your application that you can take care of these

administrative issues or that you already have a long term residence permit. Do not make them think or

have doubts about whether this would be a problem because it might lead to an immediate rejection of

your application. Not because you are not a relevant candidate but due toa pure administrative

formalistic issue.

The other question is whether youshould you apply or not if you are overqualified. Today’s job market is

extremely competitive; there is no doubt about that. Therefore, if you are over qualified, it is alright. But

explain to the employer why it is okay, emphasising that you will not have an issue when doing things,

which may be inferior to your qualifications. Show that you do not mind thatin order for the potential

employer not to have doubts about whetheryou might end up being very frustrated in the job because

you happen to have two masters’ degrees or a PhD, when the job is actually an internship. Make sure

that you preempt this doubt and already answer it in your cover letter or in your CV.

This was the packaging, a few horizontal or cross-cutting ideas in your application. We willnow look at

the CV more specifically; how it should look and which are the certain issues and problems that you can

avoid, to optimize it.

Tip #11: Your CV’s layout and content

First and foremost, is your CV updated? However simple and blunt it may sound, make sure that your CV

is updated. The applications for the assistant positionI advertised, were sent in December 2012, whereas

some candidates wrote that their diploma was expected in November 2012, meaning that at least for

one month, they did not bother to update their CV, especially not before sending it to me. The other

example is in education and training with a candidate referring to a graduation in July 2012, which

means that for more than half a year this candidate had not updated his or her CV or that thIS candidate

may have failed his/her exams, which is not necessarily a good sign.

Establishing relevance in your CV, you should feel free to cut and/or prioritize certain parts of it. If you

apply to be an assistant to a Member of the European Parliament, you should highlight the fact that you

spent three months as a trainee in the European Parliament. If you are applying to be a consultant in a

public affairs firm, highlight the specific EU experience you may have because that is what they are

looking for. The fact that you went to study Spanish in Chile for six months is great for your linguistic

knowledge but is less relevant for the kind of profile they are seeking. Do not just send out your CV as a

mass mailing. Make sure that it is as relevant and as tailor made as possible.

The next point to make is that a small formatting goes a long way. A quite extravagantformatting of a

candidate’s CV, might be a little too much in a relatively conservative EU environment but then again it

depends on the type of job you are applying for. If you are applying for anything related to

communication, acreative way of presenting your knowledge or languages or knowledge of different

computer tools, can be highly appreciated by the hiring manager. If it is for a relatively conservative and

analytical type of job, like the one of a researcher, this may not be the right format. This is only to point

out that a small unique formatting can go a long away.

Iwould also like to mention something that I am sure many of you are asking and is on your minds:

‘Should I use the Europass CV format?’ Here, I have to make a confession with no offense to anyone. I

personally hate the Europass CV format for the simple reason that it is extremely long and it does not go

directly to the point. It obliges you to go on and on for three or more pages, whereas it can get pretty

complicated when filling out your language knowledge. Thus, unless the employer specifically asks for

the Europass CV format, I would very much encourage you not to use it and use instead something more

unique, more personal and -I dare to say- more creative.

In terms of the CV, does it tell a consistent story?For example, one candidate had a degree in Advanced

Master in European Studies, a diploma in a language immersion course, a master in Business

Communication and aWorld Education Program certificate in the US as an exchange student. I do not

really know how to grasp this student. Where do I put this candidate? Is he/she more of a

communication person? Is he/she more of a journalist or a linguist type? Potential employers love to put

you in boxes and however bad or good that is, they certainly do it. They want to have an idea of whether

you are for example more a manager type or of an EU energy policy expert. They want to know what

your main line is in your profile and what the threadis on which they can put theseelements.Thus, your

CV needs to tell a story. Each element needs to reinforcethe kind of profile that you want to pass and

the one you can convey.

The other point I would like to make is more of a formalistic nature but very important in terms of

content. It has to do with an all-caps overkill. In particular, a candidate wrote every single word in all

caps, which totally decreased the value of the words that he/she wanted to pass. There were just too

many items. It is a complete overload of information and I simple cannot believe that this person is an

expert in Financial Mathematics, Business Administration, Marketing, Banking etc. I understand that

these were probably the subjects that had to be covered in the school he/she was attending but there

needs to be some focus, some choice of the main subjects or main interests of that person.

Equally important is putting concrete achievements into your CV. If you have certain numbers or figures,

these are always welcome in your CV. In American CVs and resumes, this approach is extremely popular

and if exercised in the right proportion, it can be just as good in classic EU affairs jobs. To give you an

example, a candidate mentioned that meeting with the Food and Drug Administration resulted in a 77

day reduction in lead-time in product to market. The fact of mentioning the number 77 somehow makes

it sound much more concrete. This person has achieved something, has reached a certain objective and

that was very positive for the organisation. Therefore, if you have this sort of credible achievement, itis

better to mention that ‘I organised a conference on the EU Data Privacy Law with 200 attendees’ instead

of only saying,‘I am a good organiser’.

The next point when it comes to EU affairs jobs is to make sure that you highlight anypractical or inside

knowledge of how EU institutions work. Having talked to a number of people in and around EU

institutions, I know that potential employers always look for candidates who have a good understanding

of the procedures, the decision making, the policies and the rest. If you have such an experience, make

sure you highlight it. One of the candidates who applied to the position I announced, spent over a year

in the European Parliament. But this was hidden in the middle of her CV, which was a very silly thing to

do because this was one of the biggest selling pointsof her CV. Thus, if you have any kind of practical EU-

related knowledge, highlight it since it constitutes a huge selling point when it comes to finding

employment in EU affairs.

Nextpoint: think with the reader’s head. In particular, one candidate wrote that he wasan ‘Aspen

Institute Intern in the Leadership Department’. This may sound impressive but I have no clue

whatsoever what is the Aspen Institute. It is importanthere to think with the reader’s headand mention

what kind of establishment is the Aspen Institute and where it is located first of all. Probably in the US

but I am not 100% sure. Do not make the potential employers think that they are not going to google

Aspen institute in order to find out just an item in your CV.

Formalistic things such as the file size of your CV are equallyimportant. These days, we are almost

exclusively sending CVs through e-mails. Make sure that you do not send files that clutter the mail

systems because if the potential employer sees this kind of attachment on their phone, you do not want

them to pay an extra fee for the data charges only to download your CV. So make it relatively small,

easily accessible and turn it into a PDF because having Word or all sorts of formats will be displayed in

totally different ways on totally different systems. I recently started using a Mac and as Mac users know

very well, you cannot easily open a Word file unless you have the Word for Mac. Make sure that the CV

is sent in a PDF format, which is compatible with every computer system. In terms of the chronology of

your CV, I am very much in favour of candidates starting with their experience and not with their

education because in most cases, experience is much more important than education itself.

Next point: should you add a photo or not? I do not have a preference on this but if you decide to add

one, make sure you look at the camera and you make a professional image that it is not taken in an

informal setting. Party background, summer holiday cut outs or anything else is strictly prohibited. If you

decide to add a photo, make sure it looks professional. Obviously, this might lead to certain prejudices

from potential employers. Ideally, that should not happen but in reality it does so it is up to you to

decide whether or not toadd a photo.

Regarding the length of your CV, it should not be more than two pages. Make sure that it is to the point.

Do not enclose five pages of publications list and keep it focused so you can cut it down;add certain

items in bold; and have the reader’s eyes look at things, which are really important. Thus, formatting is

not just a pure presentation issue. It can make or break your application because future employers may

not have 200 CVs to go through, but several hundreds. Thus, the time they spent on any single CV is

extremely limited. Sometimes, it only takes them seven or eight seconds to go over a CV, occasionally

more. Therefore, it is really the overall impression that counts. So, once you have that CV, show it to a

few friends, colleagues and even your family, asking them what is the first thing that you see, and the

general impression that you get in roughly 10, 20 or 30 seconds.

Tip #12: Extra elements

Depending on the type of job you are applying for it may or may not be appropriate to add any extra

elements. One element for instanceis to say in your cover letter what you would do in that

organisationon Day 1. Many employers like this. It is a very proactive approach to say ‘Well, this is what I

would do on Day 1’and ‘this is how I can contribute to your goals and your objectives.’That can be an EU

agency in Copenhagen all the way to a potential consultancy in Luxembourg or in Brussels. Thus, this

could be a valuable part to add. You could also add some ideas about the employer and the

organisation, in terms of what you perceive or what you see. You only need to make sure that you are

politically correct and you are not critical in any way.

Mostly for communication purposes or, in a broader sense, for public affairs or public relations types of

jobs, you may create a video introduction. This is quitea creative thing and that is why I am emphasising

that not every job would welcome this but some potential employers may be responsive to such an idea.

You could for example put in the cover letter or in the CV itself a link to your Linkedin profile. Make sure

that your Linkedin profile is consistent with your CV because the potential employers would want to find

out more about you and have a kind of reinforcement of the impressions that they got based on your CV

and cover letter.

Another extremely important point that many candidates overlook is to put a link to any kind of online

resource to a book, study or intellectual input that they have created and are proud to share. The

potential employers may want to see the thesis that you wrote at university. If you have created any

kind of Powerpoint presentation, put it onSlideshare because all of these prove what you are claiming. If

you claim that you have good English writing skills, there should be evidenceso thatwhen potential

employersclick on it and see it, they will say, ‘Yes, this is not just an empty claim.It is actually true.’ In

addition,it is of crucial importance to showcase that the thesis or any kind of scientific or other paper

you have written is related to EU affairs. These extra elements are for your consideration because they

can reinforce your application and provide it with a lot of uniqueness over other candidates.

Tip #13: The importance of luck

This is something that you always need to consider. However, you do not have much influence on it.

Luck, as the classic definition goes, is when preparation meets opportunity. Thus, you need to be

prepared for the job interview in case you get that phone call and not to decline it because you have not

read enough about the company. Moreover, when a new position opens up, you need to be already

prepared with your CV and with other forms of application sowhen the opportunity knocks on your

door, you do not refuse it and you do not skip it.

Tip #14: Minimise your risk

This is a very legal expression that means due diligence on what resonates with the potential employer.

What I mean by this is to look at their website. If you happen to know the individual hiring manager or if

it is a small company, the top manager will possibly be very much involved. In that case, look up their

profile and see what they do. In an online world, this is certainly possible. In this way, you can make your

application very relevant for that person or in professional terms, for the organisation. If you have a

better understanding of the organization and you integrate it in your CV and cover letter as well asin the

interview at a later stage, this will significantly improve your chances to eventually get hired.

I cross my fingers for all of you who are seeking jobs or a career change and wish you lots of luck in your

career paths.

If you have further questions or if there is any point I have not covered, I encourage you to send us an

email or post it on our Facebook page, which is www.facebook.com/eutraining, and either me or one of

my colleagues will be very happy to answerit whether it concerns CV writing, EU agency jobs or in a

broader sense, EPSO competitions.

Thank you very much for your attention. This was Andràs Baneth live from Brussels.