March 2020 Traineeship

I wouldn't lose hope about the one you applied for. I still haven't received an answer, so I wrote an e-mail today and they replied that the process of selection is still on-going. It seems we just have to be patient

In the meantime I received another phone call and two e-mails from other DGs :O and one of them told me that they were contacting me since DGT had not reserved me. I didn't even know that not selected translation traineeship candidates could be picked for an administrative one instead! Anyway the ones who called me said they still were in the process of interviewing candidates, so I haven't received any official offer yet, but I wanted to tell you not to lose hope because they could still contact you

Does someone receive an offer from DG Comm ? Good Luck to everyone !

Hello Guys!

Congrats to all of you! Do you have any tips regarding finding a decent housing? If yes please share! Thank you!!!

anaiunker wrote:Hello Guys!

Congrats to all of you! Do you have any tips regarding finding a decent housing? If yes please share! Thank you!!!

Try searching for the group “Bruxelles a louer” on Facebook

anaiunker wrote:Hello Guys!

Congrats to all of you! Do you have any tips regarding finding a decent housing? If yes please share! Thank you!!!

Finding a decent room or studio can seem impossible at the beginning, but even considering the huge amount of people looking for a place to live, I think the market in Brussels has a lot to offer, especially if you are patient and don't take the first thing you see. My advise is to take a look in St josse ten noode, Ixelles or St Gilles if your Unit is located where most of the Units are (around schuman, place luxembourg, rue de la loi, etc) and if you want to be close to work. Also the area of La Chasse in Ixelles is supposed to be a little cheaper since is the university area.
Of course these are my personal views. I have been living here for almost two years now and I wouldn't even consider paying more than 550 € for a room in a shared apartment, you can find a good deal if you take your time. And believe me, a lot of people pay MUCH MORE than that just because they got anxious about finding a place asap. Just take your time and make as many visits as you need.

Hey everybody!

I have applied for the October 2020 traineeship and although its already June, we still havent received answers regarding the eligibility check. There are some rumours circulating that the previous traineeship session (i.e. yours; March 2020) was stopped prematurely (due to COVID) and you were all offered to carry on with the traineeship from October 2020 (i.e. our session). Could any of you guys confirm whether those rumours are based on truth? I also wonder how your traineeships actually looked like, considering your starting date was 1 March, i.e. the very beggining of the epidemy in Europe.

Thanks for any replies and stay safe!

Anntony wrote:Hey everybody!

I have applied for the October 2020 traineeship and although its already June, we still havent received answers regarding the eligibility check. There are some rumours circulating that the previous traineeship session (i.e. yours; March 2020) was stopped prematurely (due to COVID) and you were all offered to carry on with the traineeship from October 2020 (i.e. our session). Could any of you guys confirm whether those rumours are based on truth? I also wonder how your traineeships actually looked like, considering your starting date was 1 March, i.e. the very beggining of the epidemy in Europe.

Thanks for any replies and stay safe!

Hey, our session (march 2020) was not stopped but yes, all of the current trainees have been offered to restart again in october for the new period.

Hey Anlag,

Thanks for the update! So does that mean you all have been working from home and may choose to extend in order to work in Brussels? Did they mention if this may take away spots from future cohorts?

anlag wrote:

Anntony wrote:Hey everybody!

I have applied for the October 2020 traineeship and although its already June, we still havent received answers regarding the eligibility check. There are some rumours circulating that the previous traineeship session (i.e. yours; March 2020) was stopped prematurely (due to COVID) and you were all offered to carry on with the traineeship from October 2020 (i.e. our session). Could any of you guys confirm whether those rumours are based on truth? I also wonder how your traineeships actually looked like, considering your starting date was 1 March, i.e. the very beggining of the epidemy in Europe.

Thanks for any replies and stay safe!

Hey, our session (march 2020) was not stopped but yes, all of the current trainees have been offered to restart again in october for the new period.

Yes, we have been working from home obviously. They gave us the option of starting the traineeship again in October in the hope the situation will be okay by then and we can actually do it under normal circumnstances.
Tbh I have no idea how the Traineeship Office is dealing with this, but most of the trainees from March are staying and that will mean very few available posts.
Also, as far as I know, the Committee of the Regions has offered the same for its trainees.

Am I the only one thinks it seems kind of unfair for the EC and EP to have extended the traineeship period for the March-July trainees? I get that that cohort was dealt a bad hand, but the whole world had to work from home too. Why take the opportunity away from the October-February applicants? Now it seems like only very few of us will be selected, and we obviously weren't told about this when we spent hours perfecting our applications. So what's going to happen to the next groups of applicants now? This is all a mess.

DGTapplicant wrote:Am I the only one thinks it seems kind of unfair for the EC and EP to have extended the traineeship period for the March-July trainees? I get that that cohort was dealt a bad hand, but the whole world had to work from home too. Why take the opportunity away from the October-February applicants? Now it seems like only very few of us will be selected, and we obviously weren't told about this when we spent hours perfecting our applications. So what's going to happen to the next groups of applicants now? This is all a mess.

No you're not! It is very unfair. And while I understand that this cohort may not have had the most ideal EC experience, at least they have had one. In solidarity, March-July trainees should leave the October spaces to those of us that applied and will be accepted to the October session.

anlag wrote:Yes, we have been working from home obviously. They gave us the option of starting the traineeship again in October in the hope the situation will be okay by then and we can actually do it under normal circumnstances.
Tbh I have no idea how the Traineeship Office is dealing with this, but most of the trainees from March are staying and that will mean very few available posts.
Also, as far as I know, the Committee of the Regions has offered the same for its trainees.

This was honestly the best decision! Giving you guys the opportunity to do another 5 months, because the whole point of doing an EC traineeship is not to sit at home and do the work through a computer, but to network, meet people, learn from interactions and doing!  It would have been 100% unfair from the EC to not let them stay more time! Because I mean it would be different it they would have missed 2-3 weeks doing their work from home! But to do it the whole 5 months..!  

The people who have been preselected for the next O20 (including myself haha) will just have to work harder on the lobby or wait until August to apply again for M21. I mean most non-EU trainees who were selected to start on M20 couldn’t even enter the country and since they had been selected for the M20 they didn’t apply for the O20 (in January 2020) and missed those two chances all together.