March 2019 Traineeship

What time did you guys receive the offers? Today 22nd January in the morning? (I am on a different continent and the forum's displayed time is messing up)

I guess all pre-selected peeps are checking the web site cuz is crashed XD

Oh wow, it did crash

I really hope not all DGs & agencies sent their offers so there is hope for us who didn't receive anything yet!

imo88 wrote:congratulations guys! has anyone heard back from CNNECT and REA?

I haven't heard back from the DG CONNECT, also wondering whether someone has already received an official offer from them?

Will we also receive rejection e-mails? Or is it either offer, either forever waiting?

Lolo, I received an offer from the EEAS as well. Which department will you be at?

Salimzade, I'm a non-EU national too and I received my offer today, so I don't think non-EU nationals are receiving offers any later than EU folks.

npnb wrote:Oh wow, it did crash

I really hope not all DGs & agencies sent their offers so there is hope for us who didn't receive anything yet!

I also expect the same... Anyone has received a contract from DG ECHO or SANTE? Or maybe they start sending the offers from the DGs with the largest amount of trainees?
Anyway, congrats to everyone who has received its offer already and for the ones who hasn't, let's keep our fingers crossed!

Monster5 wrote:Will we also receive rejection e-mails? Or is it either offer, either forever waiting?

I think rejection emails are sent but just when all the selection process has been closed. And, as some people has pointed out here already, offers can be received even in April!

rosalp wrote:

Monster5 wrote:Will we also receive rejection e-mails? Or is it either offer, either forever waiting?

I think rejection emails are sent but just when all the selection process has been closed. And, as some people has pointed out here already, offers can be received even in April!

I think at some point they will send a message that all offers have been sent out now, but the ones who haven't received anything are still included in the Blue Book and might hear something later in case some people cancel.

So frustrating. When I was not so qualified they didn't select me. When I'm qualified they still don't. And I don't even know why other people get selected but not me... Although Im probably a better fit that some of those who got in. kinda lose my interest in working for this damn EU

I wouldn't worry about it. Last year I was feeling in the exact same situation especially since I had 3 friends (which background I was familiar with) who did a traineeship in the place where I was interested (as far as I know theres also a national quota in addition to educational and professional background, but you never know). This year, I did receive an offer but turned it down, since I'm also applying for a temporary position (I think that I was already approved but still not 100% sure) and there's no point for me to leave my current job/housing/friends/country for 5 months and miss my chance for receiving a 5y contract. Sometimes you need to have faith that you'll receive something better in life and try to be patient hope this helps

Anyone going to Grange??

[quote="TS.K."]I wouldn't worry about it. Last year I was feeling in the exact same situation especially since I had 3 friends (which background I was familiar with) who did a traineeship in the place where I was interested (as far as I know theres also a national quota in addition to educational and professional background, but you never know). This year, I did receive an offer but turned it down, since I'm also applying for a temporary position (I think that I was already approved but still not 100% sure) and there's no point for me to leave my current job/housing/friends/country for 5 months and miss my chance for receiving a 5y contract. Sometimes you need to have faith that you'll receive something better in life and try to be patient hope this helps [/quote


Thanks. I try to look at it this way but had the moment of venting out my frustrations after constant rejections

Any non-EU nationals that have been selected? We need to apply for visas now and it would be great if we can help each other out with the visa process.

imo88 wrote:congratulations guys! has anyone heard back from CNNECT and REA?

I also applied for those two. Anyone heard something?

For those who haven't received an email yet: I contacted TO and they asked me "to be patient for another 1 or 2 days." So I guess we should receive our emails soon!

masha wrote:

TS.K. wrote:I wouldn't worry about it. Last year I was feeling in the exact same situation especially since I had 3 friends (which background I was familiar with) who did a traineeship in the place where I was interested (as far as I know theres also a national quota in addition to educational and professional background, but you never know). This year, I did receive an offer but turned it down, since I'm also applying for a temporary position (I think that I was already approved but still not 100% sure) and there's no point for me to leave my current job/housing/friends/country for 5 months and miss my chance for receiving a 5y contract. Sometimes you need to have faith that you'll receive something better in life and try to be patient hope this helps [/quote


Thanks. I try to look at it this way but had the moment of venting out my frustrations after constant rejections

That was my 6th application
I honestly find this situation a lot funnier than I did last time.
Mainly, because during one of my interviews I was way more familiar with a certain topic than the interviewer per se Lol Lol

TS.K. wrote: That was my 6th application
I honestly find this situation a lot funnier than I did last time.
Mainly, because during one of my interviews I was way more familiar with a certain topic than the interviewer per se Lol Lol

That's the spirit
This is my second time applying, first time when I applied & wasn't selected I got very sad and frustrated, but I'm learning how to cope with it!

You should always be persistent in life about what you want and never accept NO (Next Opportunity) as an answer. If I have learned something about this Traineeship application is that the whole procedure is extremely unclear (the last 4 times my CV was absolutely the same but got only 2 in the BB)

masha wrote:So frustrating. When I was not so qualified they didn't select me. When I'm qualified they still don't. And I don't even know why other people get selected but not me... Although Im probably a better fit that some of those who got in. kinda lose my interest in working for this damn EU

It was my 5th time applying, last year I had almost exactly the same application because nothing changed in my life in a year, I stayed in the same job, doing exactly the same thing, and this year I finally passed the bar to get into the Blue Book. Once I was in, they started calling me like crazy, I received maybe 8-10 calls within 3 days from various sections and agencies I didn't even know existed, plus, emails. But now I'm thinking to turn down the offer, because I received a permanent job offer (not from the institutions, but in the private sector) and I'm thinking to take that one rather than 5 month traineeship that does not guarantee anything besides a nice addition to CV. So yeah, don't give up and it will happen.

Also asked about my status and was replied "Please be so kind as to patient for another couple of days…" .
So I guess we can only practice our patience. Great timing to start meditation

I practice meditation...and yoga...and Silva...and I'm still stressed

hahaha that comment is epic! I'm literally refusing to allocate any more mental power to thinking about this process!

Hello all! First time posting here. I am a Non-EU candidate and didn't receive any email/placement offer from the TO yesterday. Can someone pls send me the TO's phone number and/or email address so I can enquire about my application status? I'd like to know in particular whether or not there will be other offers to be sent this week. Tx

Monster5 wrote:Also asked about my status and was replied "Please be so kind as to patient for another couple of days…" .
So I guess we can only practice our patience. Great timing to start meditation

So do you think they did not send all the contracts together on tuesday? Or they are expecting people to decline these days? Because someone said they have until the 29th to accept or refuse, so I was expecting TO will not send another bunch of offers till then

Hello, I also didn’t receive anything on Tuesday, and pretty much decided to give up hope. At the end of the day there is only 1 spot per 3 blue book candidates! Glad to see others feeling my sadness and frustration and also those offering advice

Shai1 wrote:Lolo, I received an offer from the EEAS as well. Which department will you be at?

Salimzade, I'm a non-EU national too and I received my offer today, so I don't think non-EU nationals are receiving offers any later than EU folks.

Congrats! I'm super glad there's a couple of us; I heard not all sections of EEAS got interns this time. I'm in GLOBAL.6 - Multilateral relations. How about you?

I have also received this :

"Dear Candidate,

The Traineeships Office has indeed started sending the placement offers as from 22 January 2019. However, we confirm that the selection of trainees is still on-going.
We will continue sending placement offers until mid-April.

The minimum duration of a traineeship is 3 months.
Therefore you can be offered a placement offer for a traineeship starting either on 1 March, 16 March, 1 April, 16 April and finally 1 May.

Not having received a placement offer yet does not mean that you have not been selected.

Should it be the case, you will be notified in your stage online account.
We can only advise you to be patient until you receive a notification.

We hope that this clarifies the situation. "

Any more news, anyone?

I got a call this afternoon at like 2pm from the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency which was my second preference - I imagine their first preference candidate (and 2nd/3rd did not want the position) - they immediately sent me notification that they would like to recruit me from the TO's office. I don't really know what this means tbs...was really banking on the other two agencies who called last month. That's the only info I have right now. I do imagine 1st preferences have already been contacted and...depending on whether they accept or decline - 2nd and 3rd preferences will be contacted after.