Book excerpt: This book will help you to prepare the EPSO CAST Political affairs / EU policies tests of any function group to be selected as a contract agent by the EU Institutions. It includes a guide for the whole selection procedure, support to your self-motivation, tips to improve your application and being shortlisted, strategies to increase your score in the tests, advice for your interview, and the materials that you should study to pass the competency test. All this from the personal and professional experience of a successful candidate in the EPSO CAST tests and the reasoning tests of the highly competitive EPSO Administrators (AD) cycle, being an official at the public administration in Spain and having held several positions as a Head of Unit from 2009 to the present, mostly in the areas of human resources, law enforcement, finance, programme management and general administration. He has also worked as a national expert at the European Commission, gaining additional experience on communication and political affairs at the EU level, provided training to civil servants, coached many candidates for open competitions and several EPSO CAST profiles, and written books for this purpose.