How we recruit ?

General Conditions

- Permanent staff are recruited by competitive examination only.

- Two types of competitive examinations exist:
a. general competitions limited to the nationals of one or more under-represented member States;
b. specific competitions open to nationals of all member States or to one or several under-represented states.

- Competitions are advertised on our recruitment website in official Vacancy notices. Please do not submit any unsolicited applications.

- The selection procedure consists of three stages: a preliminary selection, a written examination and an interview (for more details see recruitment procedures).

- Only those candidates who meet the required standard at each stage will be invited to proceed.

- All applicants receive a written reply (by e-mail or letter), either positive or negative, after each stage of the selection procedure.

The three stage process makes the selection process relatively long, taking on average six months to complete.

Recruitment procedures

· Official Vacancy notice

The Official Vacancy notice includes a job description and lists the requirements which candidates wishing to participate in the competition must meet.

· Preliminary selection

The Appointments Board makes a preliminary selection of candidates on the basis of their qualifications and professional experience. Candidates who meet all the requirements are invited to sit a written examination.

· Written examination

The written examination is usually held in Strasbourg and in the capitals of the countries concerned. Expenses incurred in participating in these examinations cannot be paid by the Council of Europe.

The written examination includes different papers which must be drafted in English or French and aims at testing the candidates' knowledge, ideas and their capacity to analyse and draft documents.

· Interview

The candidates having obtained the best results in the written papers are invited to Strasbourg (expenses paid by the Council) for an interview with the Appointments Board and, for some competitions, additional tests. The interview lasts approximately 30 minutes and is conducted in English and French. The Appointments Board assesses candidates' merits on the basis of their results in the written papers, their competencies and professional experience and their interview performance. The Appointments Board formulates a recommendation to the Secretary General specifying which candidates are considered suitable for the vacant post(s).

· Employment

The Secretary General decides, after considering the recommendations made by the Appointments Board, which candidates may be offered a fixed-term contract (CDD) or a contract of indefinite duration (CDI) after a probationary period of one year. Candidates not offered immediate employment may be placed on a reserve list valid for 2 years. Reserve lists are taken into consideration whenever a vacant post is to be filled by an external candidate. However, attention is drawn to the fact that being placed on a reserve list does not create any entitlement to an offer of employment.