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Leila Moussaoui, administrative employee in The Hague
Leila Moussaoui says working at the EPO has given her career opportunities she would not have had elsewhere. Hailing from the southern Finnish town of Turku, she is now a deputy manager in a support unit in The Hague.
The 41-year-old originally trained as a technician for the clothing industry at the Vocational School of Aninkainen and then completed secretarial training at the Adult College Centre of Raisio. However, the job situation in Finland at the time led her to a job in a support centre in the east of the Netherlands and then to the EPO.
All patent applications are processed through the organisation's specialised computer system, and Leila started in front-end international administration, where application data is received and entered into this system. She then moved up to becoming a formalities officer in searching administration (Fosa) in the audio, video and media unit.
A Fosa's role is to be a point of contact or link between the examiner, the other formalities officers and the client in order to get all the correspondence and/or problems known in an application. She is now an administrative deputy manager and receiving training in checking the formalities of the application files are complete and correct, in addition to general managerial duties.
"It is a job that requires a great eye for detail," she says. And having worked in personnel in the past, it was a career path that appealed to her. "I was always keen and willing to learn and curious to know more - not just coming to work, staying eight hours and then going home." To develop her career skills, Leila has had on-the-job training in the intricacies of EPO procedure and also attended managerial and language classes.
She very much enjoys working in an international environment, but adds that it is important to integrate into the local community. Her 13-year-old daughter attends a local school and speaks fluent Dutch.
When she left Finland, Leila and her husband decided to give it go and that they always had the option to return should things not work out. Six years later, she is still here.