European Commission reviews

Securing a job in the Commission is not an easy task: you either chose ot work as a contractual agent which means the post is secured for a maximum of 6 years after which there is NO WAY you can stay further; or then you chose to compete against 30.000 Europeans from all over Europe for +-130 posts. The process takes +- a year and there are so many different stages in it that you sometimes forget that you have even enrolled in this battle.

Decision processes are extremely slow and opaque. Working methods (IT specifically) are embarrassingly antiquated and inefficient (unfortunately because they are often decided and implemented by people who would not go very far in the private sector). It is often extremely frustrating to be reporting to individuals who have neither subject matter competence nor management skills. Professional development is pretty much left to one's personal initiative, to the effect that one runs the risk of quickly becoming unemployable elsewhere.