After a seven-year hiatus, the EU has finally announced a new AD5 Generalist Competition – the golden gateway to a dream job for life in the institutions. Here's how to ensure your best chances of passing, from people who have done it themselves.
The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO), which selects candidates for recruitment by the EU institutions, announced on 19 January that the Administrators (AD) competition for graduates in any field of study would open on 5 February with a deadline of 10 March, at midday, Brussels time.
The only criteria needed to apply, according to EPSO's website, are EU citizenship, solid knowledge of two EU languages, and candidates must have completed university studies of at least three years, attested by a diploma awarded no later than 30 September 2026. Interestingly, no professional experience is required.
This is the first time since 2019 that the EU has held such a competition, or concours in French. Before that, they had been held on almost a yearly basis since EPSO was established in 2002. But then Covid-19 came along, and the 2020 edition was cancelled. EPSO then needed to rethink the whole system, as they had all been in-person up until that point.
Credit: EU
Stephen Sadler, 59, who passed the AD generalist competition in 2011 and currently works on enlargement at DG ENEST, remembers the process well.
"Everything was paper-based when I did it. I sat in a room at a desk with pen and paper," he tells The Brussels Times. For another auditors' competition, he recalls being in a room with thousands of other people.
After passing the initial EU knowledge and reasoning tests – which, he says, only had a 1-2% success rate – he was invited to an assessment centre, which involved a presentation, written test, meeting scenario and interview. Of the 12 people who did the assessment centre on the same day as him, he was the only one to make it through.
After the pandemic, however, everything changed, and the upcoming competition is set to be a very different experience from Sadler's.
What to expect
No part of the upcoming competition will be in person: there is no assessment centre or interview. When successful candidates are placed on the reserve list, they will have an in-person interview before the institutions can recruit them.
The new system is now entirely online and in all 24 EU official languages. Importantly, candidates are not obliged to undertake the competition in the EU's three main procedural languages (English, French, and German) as before: they can choose any two languages of their choice, such as Latvian and Portuguese, for example.
Some elements of this AD5 competition will remain almost identical to past editions, but others are entirely new. There are four sections, set out in the Notice of Competition (NOC):
- Verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning tests
- An EU knowledge test
- A digital skills test
- A written test (EUFTE)
The reasoning tests and EU knowledge are standard components which will be familiar to many candidates, but digital skills are brand new this year.
Each section will have multiple-choice questions, apart from the written test, which is an essay to demonstrate communication skills.
Usually, all tests will take place on the same day. However, this is subject to change depending on how many people apply. The test date has not yet been communicated, but it will likely be a few months after applications close on 10 March.
When will candidates receive their results?
EPSO competitions are notorious for their lengthy, bureaucratic processes. The 2019 competition, for instance, took over two years from start to finish: it was announced on 23 May 2019, and the reserve list of successful candidates was published on 29 July 2021.
The 2026 competition is expected to be shorter than previous editions, but the exact time frame will be communicated once EPSO knows the number of candidates.
An estimated 50,000 people are expected to apply. If this is the case, it will be over double the number in 2019, when 22,644 people applied.
However, this time the reserve list will also be longer: there are 1,490 spots up for grabs, compared to 275 in 2019. The institutions are seeking a wider and more diverse pool of people who believe in the European project, and are particularly in need of more candidates after not holding such a competition for so many years.
It should also be noted that not all successful candidates should expect to be hired: there is a further selection process when the competition ends, as the institutions then begin the recruitment process and hold interviews.
How to succeed
To ensure their best chances of passing the AD5 competition and making their way onto the reserve list, candidates should first read the NOC very carefully. It may seem like an obvious tip, but many candidates end up failing for this reason alone because they do not understand some key aspects of how the competition is structured.
Second, thorough preparation is crucial. There will be a high number of applicants, and competition will be intense. Applying without trying is, therefore, a waste of time. Practice tests have already been made available on EPSO's website, and more materials will be offered closer to the testing date.
Sadler also stresses that it's important not to give up on the first go, and that perseverance is key. Having taken his first exam in the early 2000s, he only ended up passing on his 16th attempt.
"When I first did it, it was quite a shock because I hadn't done a test for 20 years since my degree. But once you've done it a few times and been to training courses on how to do numerical and verbal reasoning, it gets easier. The more you do, the easier it gets," he says.
"This is why I'm surprised by people who do it once and give up; it strikes me as defeatist. Because if you do it four or five times, you've got a higher chance of passing."
He adds that with more practice, you have more experience with the questions and know what to expect. "Most people don't use the skills that they were taught in maths once they leave school. But with the numerical reasoning tests, you do need to know how to calculate percentages."
EP buildings of the European Parliament in Brussels. Credit: EU
So, if at first you don't succeed, try 15 more times. But was it worth it? For the job security, absolutely, Sadler says. Previously, he was rolling two-year contracts, but he is now happily settled at the European Commission and wouldn't go and work anywhere else.
"Once you've passed the concours, you can relax. I've worked in the private sector and the public sector, and all massive organisations have their issues, but it's a decent place to work," he says.
He does, however, believe it is still too difficult to get into the Commission. "There's a lot of talented people around who don't get in, and a lot of not very talented people who are in."
