Europäisches 

Patentamt 

(EPA) 

/ 

Europäische 

Patentorganisation 

(EPO)

Unternehmenskultur

Me as an examiner: You are allowed to work at your own pace and rhythm. work has to be done, but there is no daily or weekly feedback to put pressure on you. semi-annual and annual performance counts. being less efficient for one or two weeks is totally fine as long as you can compensate it by being a bit more efficient the weeks after. you can take coffee breaks whenever and as often you want. But in the end, you have to do the job. Very nice co-workers and team leaders (might depend on the team)

very good on a lower level (might depend on the team leader), worse on a higher level (even the team leaders are not well informed by the upper bosses)

very good. no real competition, however, this is slowly becoming a problem due to a change in the promotion-system which limits the number of promotions and salary raises to only a certain number of employees per team. so, basically, it is not enough do be good; you also have to outdo your colleagues in order to get a salary raise. This used to be different back in the days.

you barely have appointments which you have to attend (unless you are in a leading position). this give you the freedom to follow up private appointments as you wish and like. up to 70% home-office allowed. 30-36 vacation days (you can take them at any time of the year).

I am more than happy with my boss. Other bosses I have met seem to be very nice and competent, too. Might be different for other teams and bosses.

You have to like the job (which I really do). But even I can see that the ever-growing work-load will sooner or later take away the beauty of this job, which is very sad. The less time you have, the less it is about technology and science. On a long run you have to find a way to keep the job interesting for yourself.