Maybe have the exams tiered.
Those passing the the exam in the 2nd and 3rd tier stil get hired but can only rise to a certain rank, leaving more smart guys to fill in the upper echelons.
We never called the British Empire the Britse Keizerrijk.
IOW, unless there's an actual emperor (keizer), the Dutch word keizerrijk is an incorrect translation of the English word empire.
It should just be Rijk.
Same is true for German, BTW.
Roman Empire -> Römisches Reich.