General Discussion

MarianaPT wrote:

dulitul wrote:

Hey guys,

I sent my application in the end of August but by the time I hadnt completed my master. This happened on the 25th of September (officially). I just sent them a confirmation from my uni where the 25th of September is stated as expected date of gruaduation. Now its 03 of December so the 25th of September is long over. Do you think that I still qualify as having a master? Since in case they ask me now for graduation confirmation I can send it to them?

Thanks

I don't think they will consider your recently acquired Master degree, because I have recently became a lawyer and completed my admission to the Bar Association and wrote to the Traineeship Office asking if such could still be included in my application (as I had stated I was a trainee lawyer, which I am not anymore) and they replied saying they could not change the data from my file.

I think that we talk about different case-scenarios though. I have stated in my application the date of graduation which is just a month after the application deadline (I ve also provided a document about it as well). By the time I had taken all my exams apart from the dissertation part. However, in your case you did not mention anything implying pending qualification. Its just an add-on to your application. In other words completely new info. In my view if you ve got pending diploma and they like your application I guess they would rather ask you to provide the official document about it confirming your achievement. At the end of day what matters is that your profile matches the DG and professional field you ve applied for.

Best regards

dulitul wrote:
I think that we talk about different case-scenarios though. I have stated in my application the date of graduation which is just a month after the application deadline (I ve also provided a document about it as well). By the time I had taken all my exams apart from the dissertation part. However, in your case you did not mention anything implying pending qualification. Its just an add-on to your application. In other words completely new info. In my view if you ve got pending diploma and they like your application I guess they would rather ask you to provide the official document about it confirming your achievement. At the end of day what matters is that your profile matches the DG and professional field you ve applied for.

Best regards

Actually I did mention in my application I was a trainee lawyer who was in the process of completing my admission to the Bar Association (I could not indicate a date, though, because I did not know when they would schedule me the final exam). I understand what you say and if they allow you to indicate a future date of when a qualification is to be completed and such future date is still before the beggining of the traineeship, you should be able to indicate if the pending qualification was indeed obtained or not... but I also think that, if such, my change of professional qualification should also be considered. I think that to apply a general rule to everyone they only consider the qualifications/professional experience we have at the time of application and the documents we provide at that time. Of course that if you get in the Blue Book and someone reaches your profile, they will see that you were in the process of finishing your Master degree and that by the date you indicated you probably have it completed by now, so they may consider it and ask you about it in a phone interview, maybe. I just think that in either cases, in order to rank us with the other nationals from our countries in order to select who will be in the Blue Book or not, you will not be considered as having a completed Masters degree - even though you have it by now - and I will not be considered as being a lawyer - even though I am one already.

I agree completely with MarianaPT! Just imagine if they start updating data for everyone who graduated, finished work, did internship, get a language certificate during the selection process... It would be never-ending process! So they just make a cut up to some date, it is harsh but fair...

Guys, I just received the pre-selection e-mail (I'm in). So they started to send information to all of us, which means that you should expect your e-mail very soon.

Good luck to everyone. Tonight I will try my shot with lobbying.

Congrats bocho! I am in too!

i also received this e-mail but hmm I guess it's still a long way ahead to start celebrating being picked for the traineeship. they mention this in the e-mail anyway.

I agree... it's 1:4 chances!

Yes, well, a fact that you've been pre-selected means only that there is only a possibility for you to get this internship in the future. ;-) Now it is all about the units and their decisions, which may be impacted by lobbying (as some say). Yet, the discussion as regards the selection process has been many times present in the forum, so you may look for it in older posts.

are you guys going to send any e-mails to DGs?

I am going too... does anyone know how to find specific email of some employee if only the first capital letter of first name is on the website?
Example: http://ec.europa.eu/staffdir/plsql/gsys_fonct.properties?pLang=EN&pSernum=772558&pUnite=42851

Usually, these names are available on organigrams of DGs, or on DGs' websites in general. If you can't find there, what's left is to google a bit...

Hi everyone,

I receive my good news email! So just be patient and wait for yours to arrive!
Good luck to everyone!

wondering if there is many people who received a negative answer...? cos it looks like only good news so far

Yeeeah, but people from this forum are like such a small % of total number of applicants. So would not judge by this forum.

I was pre-selected too good luck to everyone!

Hello trainee world!

I just signed up to forum as I was preselected. I will go over lobbying discussions in previous forums.

This is simply a practical question: does lobbying mean sending out CV/motivation letters as attachments or simple to the point emails to HoU?

Excited and happy, but also aware of the long road ahead!

I am part of the lucky 25% too. However, I was wondering about something about lobbying.

Are you going to lobby to the e-mails they have provided us with, to the HoUs or both? I was thinking that as they do provide us with e-mails it's probably where they'd want us to write at the same time maybe the some of the heads of unit will make a decision partly based on who contacted them. I just don't want to go overboard and send too many e-mails (probably won't look too great if it turns out I've e-mailed half the HoUs of DEVCO for example...)

Yeah, that is my problem too vuoksi. I a afraid if I am emailing too many people they will consider me as a SPAM

I also got preselected!! I count myself bloody lucky to be even preselected as I have no masters;) maybe to get through to the next stage, lobby? Anybody thought about when to do it?

hey guys! about the lobby do you consider to send cv to the e-mail addresses attached at the preselection email received? or to others one?
Thank you

Hey guys, I decided to register to this forum as I was preselected 2 days before.
So, I've already done the crucial job of lobbying and I'm waiting now... I sent 15 e-mails: 5 to the general addresses they supported us in their acceptance message and 10 personal ones for the HoU. Results for today: 2 auto-replies like this one:
"Dear Sir/ Madam, Thank you for your e-mail and for your interest for a Blue Book stage in our Directorate General. The selection procedure has begun today and the Head of Units will be choosing the most suitable candidates according to their needs and the number of places available. If you are selected, you will receive personally a letter with all the necessary information about the recruitment process. In the meantime, unfortunately, it is not possible to give you any other information. I wish you good luck for the selection".
And one answer from the HoU in DG ENV (that's great that he even took 2 minutes to check my profile and CV!) that he looks for a polish stagiaire this year... (I'm lithuanian).
Let's hope that the things will get better lately. Good luck to everyone!!

Hey guys
I've got the exact same automatic response as the above cited from libellule from DG EMPL (I lobbied to a HoU directly but got the answer from another person - the e-mail was the one provided in the pre-selection e-mail).
I also have a response from a HoU from DG HR, who is just saying that they won't have a trainee "at the moment".
So that's for now. I am wondering if there are some people here that have lobbied to HR or EMPL and if they could share some info. I couldn't find almost anything for these DGs from previous years either so now i'm starting to think that there are not so many people interested in these DGs, which by reverse logic leads me to the thought there are not many positions for trainees either.

Yes, I got this automatic reply from DG EMPL And actually I lobbied one HoU in this DG, but still no response..

My guess is you'll get the same again But of course it depends on the person...

Has anyone heard from EEAS, Devco, Trade or EuropeAid yet?

Hi everybody As libellule, I've just decided to register to this extremely useful forum..

@pb: I've get an automatic response from DG EMPL, but just because the HoU was out of office!!
I haven't got any response yet from others DG which I lobbied to (including HR).. I'm a little bit worried...

davinya wrote:Hi everybody As libellule, I've just decided to register to this extremely useful forum..

@pb: I've get an automatic response from DG EMPL, but just because the HoU was out of office!!
I haven't got any response yet from others DG which I lobbied to (including HR).. I'm a little bit worried...

As to calm you down, I may tell you that it is my second round of applying, and at the first time everyone was saying, including guys who were eventually offered with the traineeship, that it is rather rare to receive a "normal" (human) response through e-mail at this point of recruitment. This may be understandable, since the HoUs receive tens of e-mails with CVs and likewise stuff every half a year, and it would be rather too much time consuming to response to each single message. :-P

As I analyze this forum, I see that usually positive e-mails are being sent in subsequence to a phone call (inteview). Of course, this rule not always applies, as there were cases that people were offered with the placement through e-mail without any prior interview.

It seems that we just need a little more patience and if we are lucky, we gonna get it. :-)

Thanks bocho

so, all I can do is "going back" to Wednesday morning, when I still didn't know the status of my application ..and keep fingers crossed, of course!

oh well, the chance to be offered a placement is 4:1, so we need to face the fact that SOME (most) of us will not be accepted. i have a feeling that those of us whose profiles were good enough to get thru the 1st stage of selection but not remarkably good to stand out from the rest, will not be picked...

also i think it's important which area of employment we chose cos i think in my case when i chose something about youth and culture, they won't need many trainees in this section, so my chances are even more diminished

anyway, i need to finally lobby i guess. still haven't done it.

Billy_Joe wrote:oh well, the chance to be offered a placement is 4:1, so we need to face the fact that SOME (most) of us will not be accepted. i have a feeling that those of us whose profiles were good enough to get thru the 1st stage of selection but not remarkably good to stand out from the rest, will not be picked...

also i think it's important which area of employment we chose cos i think in my case when i chose something about youth and culture, they won't need many trainees in this section, so my chances are even more diminished

anyway, i need to finally lobby i guess. still haven't done it.

Well, I think you are completely right. Last time I was very nervous about the selection, I checked this forum every 10 minutes, sent tons of lobby messages and was so iritated about all these autmatic responses I was receiving.

This session my approach is much more balanced. I include in my CV only facts that can really work out and sent lobby messages to DGs whose field of activites really overlaps with my qualifications.

I remember how shocked I was when finally I received a refusal e-mail. After some time, however, I realize that even if I'm a good player in my country (I'm a Polish lawyer), I don't necessarily have to be similarly recognized at EU level. I cannot ignore a simple fact that a competition is quite stronger. :-)

Yet, I don't loose my hope and keep my fingers crossed for myself and for all of you as well.