Career News: Christian Bondeson-Eggert

Alumnus Christian Bondeson-Eggert dispels the myths about working in the EU-administration

Christian Bondeson-Eggert is passionate about getting more young people interested in a career within the EU. He has worked at almost all of the EU institutions since 2005 and is currently working at the European Commission in Brussels. In recent years he has worked as an internal communicator and team leader in the Department of research and innovation, and now he has started a new position in Knowledge Management. Christian has a background within the Humanities and has studied Literature and Art history at Lund University.

What makes the EU such an exciting workplace?
– The Commission, the Council, the European Parliament, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and the EU-delegations outside of Europe. EU is present all over the world! Once you get into the organisation, you can work within many different areas. You can change between jobs relatively easily among the different institutions and you bring the same working conditions with you.

Christian deems that there is great potential for basically all types of specialisations and job categories. He himself has a background as a humanist and librarian.
– Everyone’s needed. For example, the other day I noticed that there are job ads searching for laboratory technicians, event technicians for sound and light and youth workers.

"Everyone is talking about the difficult way in. But I want to talk about the easier way.”

– Everyone is talking about the difficult way in. But I want to talk about the easier way. Many of the trainees manage to stay after their internship and get a contract employment. After a few years, they go through the competition and recruitment process and qualify for a permanent employment.

The intercultural work environment
– Cultural competence is useful no matter what you do in life. Here it’s so natural and becomes part of our everyday life. The manager is Italian and the colleague from Finland and I’m Swedish. How can we work together the best way? The organisational culture also differs depending on where in the Commission you work. But that's what makes the job so exciting. I usually give the advice "Be prepared, be here, be surprised!" – it doesn’t always turn out as planned, but it tends to turn out very good anyway.

Three myths about working in the EU-administration

French is a requirement
– That is not true. Today you come a long way with English (however, if your native language is one of our working languages, you must speak another language as well). It’s of course good to know French as it is one of our official working languages, and as an employee you are encouraged to learn French over time. You are offered courses that you can study during working hours, and it will make life easier for you. But not knowing French shouldn’t be a reason not to apply for a job or an internship.

The EU is a hierarchical and traditional workplace
– The workplace has become less hierarchical. Today we have a much more informal workplace culture – it has changed a lot only since the time I started working here. It’s also more flexible, and you can work from home. The EU is an innovative employer that also follows what employees want.

"You're in it for life."
– Working for the EU does not have to be a lifelong job! Come here and work for a few years and go back, the experience will give you great qualifications that you take with you to the next step in your career.