What is EPSO?
EPSO, or European Personnel Selection Office, is an institution dealing with the process of personnel recruitment for the European Union. This is different from traditional recruitment, because it follows a special procedure, the so-called competition procedure.
What are EPSO tasks?
EPSO is responsible for selecting candidates for work in all EU institutions and agencies. EPSO is also an entity that tracks labour market trends and continuously improves hiring methods, in order to enable the EU to focus more on the candidates’ overall skills and personality traits rather than the knowledge they have. Also, EPSO processes on average 50,000 applications annually, with tests provided in 24 languages. EPSO tasks also include disseminating information on employment opportunities in the EU institutions. The European Union Career Ambassador programme has been set up to provide a link between the EU (as represented by EPSO) and universities operating in the EU Member States.
Why is the option of working for the EU worth considering?
Mainly because you can take on interesting and challenging tasks related to current affairs that you read about in the newspapers. Working in the EU is also about working in an international environment where both diversity and equality prevail. When hiring, the only thing that counts is the candidate’s skills, and there is no discrimination on the grounds of gender, race, ethnic origin, disability or religion. In a word, the European Union gives everyone equal opportunities in the recruitment process, and working there is called a job in the European Eldorado.
EU Student Career Ambassador – what are the responsibilities?
Like actual ambassadors on a diplomatic mission, the EU Career Ambassadors are responsible for promoting jobs in EU institutions. The activity of the Ambassadors consists mainly of organizing presentations for students, as well as participating in job fairs. Ambassadors actively maintain social media accounts by sharing content from EPSO, as well as staying in touch with students and answering their questions.
During presentations or job fairs, ambassadors are responsible for presenting the advantages of working in the EU, as well as explaining the requirements and recruitment procedures for candidates. In addition, they provide valuable advice on what to focus on to improve your chances of being hired.
All upcoming meetings with the EU Career Ambassador can be looked up in the schedule of events.
Check the official Facebook profile of EU Careers Cracow.
Jakub Moraczyński is the current European Union Career Ambassador at the Jagiellonian University in the academic year 2021/2022.