Preselection phase

elina, wow, I love the idea that a DG will base its decision purely on the Blue Book. That's a very fair approach. Makes me wish I had a legal background!

Notturna, I have only contacted the three DGs which are on my application. But, in future, I may contact more if my current DGs aren't interested in me

joja, don't worry about not receiving an immediate answer from a Head of Unit. That seems normal (in my experience anyway!)

In fact, has anyone received a response from a Head of Unit asking for an interview or showing interest in a candidate?

joja wrote:thank u for sharing ur answer elina.

i also sent an email, to one of the heads of unit in Enlarg. No answer whatsoever..

i also sent an email to one of the geads ofi unit in enlarg and she answered very quickly that she is loooking the cvs and will contact me if she needs more information..and that was actually the only answer i got from all the heads of units i contacted since thursday...i am starting to be nervous again...but we more should i do? i hate the idea of calling them..!

notturna, apart from the dgs in my application, i also contacted the unit of data protection in dg justice since i will be writing my thesis about data protection..so i would perfectly fit in that unit (which unfortunately i hadn't listed in my application...)
i haven't received any answer from them though..

:-)

Notturna, the head of unit I contacted was not at all in my application.


Btw, I have impression that last year at this time they already started to call people no?

Soooo who is gonna be the lucky first one?
Let us know so we can raise our degree of anxiety to a higher level

elina wrote:

joja wrote:thank u for sharing ur answer elina.

i also sent an email, to one of the heads of unit in Enlarg. No answer whatsoever..

i also sent an email to one of the geads ofi unit in enlarg and she answered very quickly that she is loooking the cvs and will contact me if she needs more information..and that was actually the only answer i got from all the heads of units i contacted since thursday...i am starting to be nervous again...but we more should i do? i hate the idea of calling them..!

No way I will call them! My lobbying stops with cheesy emails! even that's to much for me.
I guess I m just not a lobbying type!

For those who are curious how many lobby and how it is received by the DGs, you should check out this link: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/evalreports/civilsociety/2008/stageannex_en.pdf

Do a search for the word lobby, you'll find it in about 5 or 6 sections. The jury is out entirely on if it is effective and received well, but certainly MOST people who land a traineeship do some form of lobbying. What is still unknown is if this simply reflects the fact that MOST people in general do some form of lobbying.

Also, there's a recommendation somewhere in there suggesting that VBB is released to the DGs a few weeks before pre-selection is announced so they can make their initial selections and reservations before we pounce on them like a kitten on catnip.

And just kidding about not knowing how many lobby; there is a paragraph in the whole report (below) that states: About the half of pre-selected candidates carry out self-promotional activities (calls to different units of their preferred DGs) to propose their hiring. These lobbying activities are considered as ineffective by Advisers. Lobbying is the only issue which has not reached a positive assessment of satisfaction in absolute terms.

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/evalreports/civilsociety/2008/stagereport_en.pdf

After reading the previous March Traineeship forum (https://ec-traineeship.forumotion.com/t132p60-general-topic) it appears that many candidates were only informed about selection on the selection deadline (January 14th in their case, January 15th in our case). In some cases, they were selected by Units they had lobbied, even though the Unit had not responded to their emails!

The Commission will be closed between the Friday 23rd & Friday 30th of this month (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2009:230:0010:0010:EN:PDF). Perhaps we can expect a lot of stress for the next 2 1/2 weeks, enjoy a Christmas break and then become stressed again in the new year. Yipee!

Where did you see January 15th as our deadline?? I haven't seen that date yet. Thanks for sharing your analysis of last years boards, very helpful!

hipersons wrote:Where did you see January 15th as our deadline?? I haven't seen that date yet. Thanks for sharing your analysis of last years boards, very helpful!

Hi hipersons, I assume it's the 15th since the Traineeship Office's website says 'Before mid-January'. Although, interestingly, the preselection email says 'Placement offers will be sent out from 5 January.'

It's all very mysterious!

Ah, yes, nothing like using reason to try to figure out this crazy opaque process.

I do recall the January 5th date. I also got an auto reply from the generic DG traineeship email (SG) saying "If you are selected for a traineeship in one of our services, you will receive an official offer from the Traineeships Office by the end of December 2011." So conflicting messages, though I'm inclined to believe the January 5th estimation as being more accurate.

In 2011 the 14th of Jan was on a Friday, in 2010 the 15th was on a Friday. Since in 2012 the 15th of Jan is on a Sunday, I wonder if the real cut-off date would end up actually being Friday the 13th.

Hello again guys!!!

Thank you so much for your fast reply in my question. That was really helpful!!

As for myself, i haven't either received any e-mails from any Unit that i tried to approach. But i am still hoping...

I do believe that we should consider the mid January date as the official selection date, because from a quick search that i made, i found that there was a lot of confusion last year. Lots of candidates received phonecalls from Units that seemed to be very positive about offering them a Traineeship but in the end, they were not officially selected....

Does anybody know how can we get information if we are already reserved in the blue book?
i remember reading about this in the forum of the previous years, but i m too lazy to search for it again.

the thing is i have another job interview end of December and i'd like to know before, if possible, where i stand. Batavia is right, I read it also on the forum that last year they chose some candidats bfr but didn't let them know until the last day in January. I don't think I ll be able to wait so long with the other offer.. arrrrgh

I was wondering if it is smart to contact units that are related, for example unit C.1 and unit C.2. Maybe it is not so good to lobby for both since they can have contacts and then you will seem as somebody that is lobbying everywhere without a genuine interest in the unit.

Concerning the deadline, I guess it depends on the unit. A unit that I contacted stated that they will know their trainees by the 22nd of December, which means they want to have it over with before their Christmas holiday.

I sent email to some of the units I was interested - now let's wait and see...

From what I know from previous trainees, almost everybody is chosen by mid-December even if sometimes this is not immediately communicated to the candidates.

Good luck everyone!

I applied for Justice, Home Affairs and EuropeAid

Hi Guys,

I am trying to contact the head of units at Energy DG but from the organisation chart I can only find their surnames and first name initial. I was wondering how can someone contact them. Do I use name.surname@ec.europa.eu but instead of name I just put their initial.

Thanks in advance and good luck everyone.

Try the whoiswho

http://europa.eu/whoiswho/public/index.cfm?fuseaction=idea.hierarchy&nodeID=253334&lang=en

Thanks a lot hipersons!

Hi,
First of all sorry for writing here, but seems to be the only active topic, and I really need some advice.
I applied for the EC , EP and COR traineeships. I have passed the preselection for the commision and for the European Parliament I have received today the email. I was selected for the European Parliament traineeship, in Bruxelles. I am very happy but...I don't think I could do the intership because of my 2nd master studies that ongoing at the moment...long story...I do believe though that if I have been selected now, there are chances of being selected next year too, because I will improve my CV and I think my profile will be better. But...I wonder, if I refuse now the internship, will they take this into account next year?
I know that this opportunity does not comes twice ... and that's why is so hard to decide, and that's why I want to know if there is anyone who refused once and then got accepted in next sessios?
good luck to all.

At least in the EC, past candidacy is not considered when scoring your eligibility for pre-selection, but the number and quality of other candidates could negatively effect your chances. I assume both statements would hold true for the EP. That said, your application could be better next year, making you a stronger candidate (especially if you finish a degree, or snag a part-time internship while studying), so it is not unreasonable to say that you're likely to make it through to pre-selection a second time around.
Either way, you have some hard decisions to make in the next weeks: do you wanna interrupt your studies to get practical EU experience, or do you want to continue and get it done before you get practical EU experience. Good luck, and if it comes to it, remember to do the institution and your fellow applicants a favor by letting the personnel offices know you are no longer available sooner rather than later.

hipersons wrote:At least in the EC, past candidacy is not considered when scoring your eligibility for pre-selection, but the number and quality of other candidates could negatively effect your chances. I assume both statements would hold true for the EP. That said, your application could be better next year, making you a stronger candidate (especially if you finish a degree, or snag a part-time internship while studying), so it is not unreasonable to say that you're likely to make it through to pre-selection a second time around.
Either way, you have some hard decisions to make in the next weeks: do you wanna interrupt your studies to get practical EU experience, or do you want to continue and get it done before you get practical EU experience. Good luck, and if it comes to it, remember to do the institution and your fellow applicants a favor by letting the personnel offices know you are no longer available sooner rather than later.

Thank you for your advice.

I will send a email to my future supervisor to ask for information related to the tasks that I will receive there. I will also talk with my master coordinator, and probably with the coordinator of the internship that I already accepted in a French company from the automobile industry. I have to do an internship in order to validate my year, but I'm sure that the one within the EP could not help me with that. Furthermore, I will work as Financial Analyst intern, and that's what I want to do in the future. I'm sure that an experience within the EU institutions could help me in my career but the timing is not the best now...and I did not knew that when I applied, and I didn't even think I will be selected form the first try...

I will try to make a decision by the end of this week and let them know.

Thanks again for your answer, and good luck

Hi, guys! May I ask you some questions about your cover letter? How long should it be? I`m afraid mine is too long and it is not appropriate for such a format. I shortly told about my previous studying and experiences and express my interest to become a trainee and mention about attached cv. Is there anything unnecessary? And do you use a simple form "Dear Sir/Madam" or write a concrete name? It would be ok to use concrete name, but we cannot be sure who exactly will be reading our letters. It can be secreteries or assistants. I`m not sure that all letters are always read by the heads of the units.
What do you think about it, guys?
Hope your share your pieces of advice!

1. You're sending the email to a person's email address, so address it that person. The director has the final say (if he or she wants to have it) anyway. Even if their assistants read it, they are reading it on behalf of the director.
2. On length, normal cover letters are 3-4 paragraphs. This size works well here, but don't be afraid to be shorter if you said all you need to say. For example, I would have had one fewer paragraph had I not had something to tell them about what I have done since applying that is applicable to the specific unity. You can mix it up with bullet points and such to make it shorter and more concise. As long as what you cover is relevant, concise, and explains precisely why you are applying and why you are a good fit, you're good.

hipersons wrote:1. You're sending the email to a person's email address, so address it that person. The director has the final say (if he or she wants to have it) anyway. Even if their assistants read it, they are reading it on behalf of the director.

I have sent my email to the email-adress of the GD, which was provided in the preselection email. Should it been better to write directly to heads of unit, even if a special email-adress for traineeship exists for a GD?

It is always a good idea to be as targeted as possible, and many people on this board and beyond are doing exactly that by emailing the directors of the units they are interested in. Research (see links a few messages back) shows that the perceived effectiveness of such efforts is hit or miss: some managers like it, some dont; some past trainees think it made a difference in getting their traineeship, others don't. What convinced me that I should email the directors of the unit was a total of three people from a range of responsibilities, from desk officers to director's assistants, encouraging me to do so for the best chance of getting noticed.

hipersons wrote:It is always a good idea to be as targeted as possible, and many people on this board and beyond are doing exactly that by emailing the directors of the units they are interested in. Research (see links a few messages back) shows that the perceived effectiveness of such efforts is hit or miss: some managers like it, some dont; some past trainees think it made a difference in getting their traineeship, others don't. What convinced me that I should email the directors of the unit was a total of three people from a range of responsibilities, from desk officers to director's assistants, encouraging me to do so for the best chance of getting noticed.

Thanks for your opinion. I have the problem that I already wrote 2 mails to 2 preferred GD to their traineeship email-adress provided in the preselection mail.

Should I write another mail to some Heads of units additionally?

Then I would have another problem: I am interested in the departments, the concrete units (for example C1 or C2) isn´t very important for me. What should I do?

I am a little(????) panic mood because I just sent the lobby mails today to the traineeship adress instead to the heads of units / heads of departments. Haven´t received any response yet.
Unfortunately I cannot find any experience of my preferred GD´s behaviour (GD SANCO, GD ENVI and EAHC).

I think overall you would benefit from reading the rest of this thread, other threads in this year, and other threads in past years to get an idea of what to do and how response/no-response tends to not mean anything at all in terms of your chances. Good luck.

hipersons wrote:I think overall you would benefit from reading the rest of this thread, other threads in this year, and other threads in past years to get an idea of what to do and how response/no-response tends to not mean anything at all in terms of your chances. Good luck.

I have read them already and thought I shouldn´t have done it after reading Haven´t seen anybody appling for SANCO or ENVI and who could say something about their lobby interest.

What do you think about writing an email to heads of units additionaly to my other mail? I fear that it could be confusing...

@gt80, you are right, the units and DGs mostly choose their candidates well in advance, but do not necessarily contact the candidates in any way. Some interview, some don't, some inform you they have chosen you, some don't.

That's exactly what happened with me, one of the few units I sent a short lobby e-mail (three in my DG no 1, one in my DG 2 and one in a DG I had not indicated at all) chose me without getting back to me during the selection phase. I ended up just getting the final offer without any contacts at all (I did my traineeship in March 2011 session in DG Home).

Besides, even if a unit contacts you and tells you that they have chosen you, it might happen that you end up getting the final official offer from another unit or even DG. This can be the case when they inform you BEFORE reserving you in the VBB, as the reservation works on first-come-first-serve basis... I guess this does not happen that often, but I know someone who had this experience.

@Lulu: good luck with any decision you make! I decided to take the double workload, as it was my third application, and I also know some people who refused an offer once and next time were not selected anymore, although their profile was improved.

Although it was of course tough, I managed to finish my second master degree without delay, despite working as a trainee at the same time. But I had the luck to write my thesis on a topic related to my work as a trainee, so I gained tremendously in that way.

And to all of you: take a deep breath and stay calm! No need to panic, after all it is just a traineeship!

Ok, I know it's kind of easy to say that after doing the traineeship, but it is true. So far it has not changed the course of my life, I am still applying for jobs like everybody else and not finding any (ok, I do have a job, but not one I really want!)...

myrskypilvi wrote:@gt80, you are right, the units and DGs mostly choose their candidates well in advance, but do not necessarily contact the candidates in any way. Some interview, some don't, some inform you they have chosen you, some don't.

That's exactly what happened with me, one of the few units I sent a short lobby e-mail (three in my DG no 1, one in my DG 2 and one in a DG I had not indicated at all) chose me without getting back to me during the selection phase. I ended up just getting the final offer without any contacts at all (I did my traineeship in March 2011 session in DG Home).

Besides, even if a unit contacts you and tells you that they have chosen you, it might happen that you end up getting the final official offer from another unit or even DG. This can be the case when they inform you BEFORE reserving you in the VBB, as the reservation works on first-come-first-serve basis... I guess this does not happen that often, but I know someone who had this experience.

@Lulu: good luck with any decision you make! I decided to take the double workload, as it was my third application, and I also know some people who refused an offer once and next time were not selected anymore, although their profile was improved.

Although it was of course tough, I managed to finish my second master degree without delay, despite working as a trainee at the same time. But I had the luck to write my thesis on a topic related to my work as a trainee, so I gained tremendously in that way.

And to all of you: take a deep breath and stay calm! No need to panic, after all it is just a traineeship!

Ok, I know it's kind of easy to say that after doing the traineeship, but it is true. So far it has not changed the course of my life, I am still applying for jobs like everybody else and not finding any (ok, I do have a job, but not one I really want!)...

thank you for your advice,

on one hand I understand that there is very possible not to get the traineeship next year, I was already thinking of that especially because in october the competition is stronger. That's one of the reasons why I would like to accept the traineeship now...when is mine . But then you say that you are still looking for a job and even though for me a traineeship at EU institution is something big, I am not sure how others see it. I am Romanian, but for the last two years I have been studying in France. As I do not want to go back in my country to work there I cannot afford living in Brussels or in France without a job... In my country I'm sure that this traineeship would impress, but in France, I'm not really sure what would help more. Regarding my studies, my second semester consist in a 6month internship. I can't validate my year without that, the traineeship at the EP is only for 5 month and moreover I do not believe that the EP would sign my papers. So I think I will have to do after burssels another internship , and I'm not sure how companies will see the fact that I interrupted my studies... there are a lot of things to think about, maybe the traineeship at ep would help, maybe they would think I don't now what I want