Lobbying if preselected

There's one name I can't work out the e-mail address for, Mr Ioannis Kalogirou (EEAS). I have tried firstname.lastname@ec.europa.eu and firstname.lastname@eeas.europa.eu, but both don't work. Any suggestions? :/

schatten wrote:And? Does it provide the email? No This directory helps you to find out the name of HoU .. But to get email out of the name is not always straightforward.

Hahahah, just realized the same thing

Hey, do you know what would be the e-mail address if I would like to write to someone in External Action Service?

I have never heard of lobbying until I came on this forum, didn't even realise this was something we should do! To think that there are around 3000 people preselected, and we all start contacting departments ourselves. I would think it's annoying to be the HoUs? But then on the other hand if everyone is doing it, I find myself thinking I should be doing it too! But then I have 3 exams this week and don't have the time to start finding names, and working out email addresses etc. This has just made me even more stressed than I already was!

The same here Mona88, I would never think of bothering those people (unless you really have personal connections there) and then BOOM - people start sending those emails immediately. Some people even had prepared draft emails sent immediately after the confirmation of pre-selection!

And this was also the moment to question myself if all those movements, unions, organisations are really working for a better world and change and blah if all the people working/training there are such individualists working only on their own career, personality, CV etc.

Mona88

They say that even without lobbying you can get an offer, so maybe it's ok if you don't do it =)

But I think that lobbying is a good way to show your interest... Think about 2500 people in the blue book and that units have to choose the trainees by looking up all these profiles... Isn't it more convenient for them just to look at those profiles who have already written them? If the trainees have written them it means that somehow they have relevant education/work experience and interest! So it actually makes the job of HR easier =))

I have sent 6 letters and will do 2 more. Not so many, but me too I don't have time to write everyone.. only the most important and interesting ones )))

Well, I heard of lobbying myself just yesterday and I share your point of view, but if everyone else is doing it, why shouldn't we?
Actually I think I will send e-mails just to three people, because my interests are very specific and rather narrow. Anyway, I am afraid of sending them tonight, cause some people earlier wrote about being contacted very quickly after lobbying e-mails and I do not feel prepared for the phone interview at all :/

What a vicious cycle , first I can't focus because of the result of preselection and now I can't focus because I'm waiting for that phone-call that might or may not come. This selection process is not good for my studies

In the unit where I worked they only considered people who applied directly with the unit. Why? Because we had experiences from other recruitment procedures - my colleague was responsible for calling a number of candidates from the reserve list to invite them for an interview. Out of 15 selected people I think 1 or 2 were still available and interested. So all the effert gone into selecting 15 people out of the list was useless, this is why afterwards the ones responsible for recruitment started only contacting candidates who were 100% interested in the unit.

Aneena what was the unit you worked for? Sorry I don't remember!

wwy wrote:Hey, do you know what would be the e-mail address if I would like to write to someone in External Action Service?

I tried on firstname.surname@eeas.europa.eu and it have worked ....

Just of curiosity, about how many e-mails do you think is okay to send? I have sent about 8 but have only received automatic responses back so I'm getting nervous and wondering if I should send more. Of course I know that flooding the inboxes of many units probably isn't the best idea. Maybe I should just be patient a little longer?

KS2012 wrote:Just of curiosity, about how many e-mails do you think is okay to send? I have sent about 8 but have only received automatic responses back so I'm getting nervous and wondering if I should send more. Of course I know that flooding the inboxes of many units probably isn't the best idea. Maybe I should just be patient a little longer?

I sent around 5 (but haven't gotten any reply of any kind yet). Personally, I don't have infinite amounts of units I'm interested in. I lobbied for the ones I can say I have this honest interest for and for which I have some experience and knowledge to show. I suppose patience is all we can have now...

I think I sent around 40. I don't have a specific degree, so there are a lot of units that fit my experience/degree/interest.
I have received some answers, but only standard "Dear Candidate" ones.

Has anyone received any calls today? I have sent like 30 e-mails, but have only received like 3 general "thank you for your interest, we'll be in touch when we start the selection process" e-mails.

Elanor wrote:Has anyone received any calls today?

nothing so far.

Thanks. It seemed to go a lot faster last time (for the March 2013 traineeship). People were writing they received 2-3 calls the day after they received their preselection e-mail and the day after that. Or maybe less people are writing here now, no idea.

at86 wrote:

KS2012 wrote:Just of curiosity, about how many e-mails do you think is okay to send? I have sent about 8 but have only received automatic responses back so I'm getting nervous and wondering if I should send more. Of course I know that flooding the inboxes of many units probably isn't the best idea. Maybe I should just be patient a little longer?

I sent around 5 (but haven't gotten any reply of any kind yet). Personally, I don't have infinite amounts of units I'm interested in. I lobbied for the ones I can say I have this honest interest for and for which I have some experience and knowledge to show. I suppose patience is all we can have now...

I think the same! Also sent about 5 emails, maybe will send few more but I cannot imagine anybody who could by interested in statistics, health, transport and trade at the same time... It seems to me like a too large area of interest...

Elanor wrote:It seemed to go a lot faster last time (for the March 2013 traineeship). People were writing they received 2-3 calls the day after they received their preselection e-mail and the day after that. Or maybe less people are writing here now, no idea.

For one I'm sure the number of people in this forum might not exactly reflect what is really happening, but also, I think they might have their hands full handling all these mails that came up over the long weekend. Other years it seems they mailed out the results on a weekday.

That's true! I guess all we can do is wait and see. But I'm being very unproductive at work!

Elanor wrote:That's true! I guess all we can do is wait and see. But I'm being very unproductive at work!

tell me about it , not good for my studies AT ALL right now

Hey everyone!
I have looked at this forum for a while but have not posted anything yet but I guess, I will post something as well now:

I am also one of the lucky ones preselected and was not expecting to be preselected at all due to the high number of applicants for this session and because I also belong to a relatively numerous and competitive group (Germany). Was a very big surprise to be preselected so I try to be happy about that already and not worry too much about being selected or not. Easier said than done though.. I am very unproductive right now and I really need to focus on my dissertation!!!

I now sent e-mails to several divisions within EEAS (mostly related to Africa and the MENA region) and DG ECHO. So far, I have only received three e-mails back, one saying they could not get any interns (the division of Alison Weston), two saying they did not know if they could have interns yet or not (all from the EEAS). I am guessing it will take a while in the EEAS and from past post I did not even see anyone having been interviewed from the EEAS at all.

I messaged a former lecturer of mine who is head of division within the EEAS and he told me the heads of divisions/units are choosing their own interns (in case there was still some confusion about whether the lobby e-mails should be sent to the deputy heads, heads of divisions or whoever else)...
Hope, we will hear something soon! Fingers crossed! And now back to work everyone ;-)

Dear Blues !
Firstly, congrats to all pre-selected candidates.

I have also been reading blogs and discussions on whether one should lobby or not..and how to do it. I guess there are no rules or advice that could be generally applied to guarantee a traineeship (in any DG). I can see both pros and cons of bombarding DGs with emails... yet, I have sent some myself anyways
I got 3 replies so far- 2 of "Dear potential trainee, thank you for the interest..." and one short and 'personal' saying that it is too early to make a decision and (s)he will make the choice in June.
I hope to get some good news, of course. Fingers crossed for all of you who really wish to get a spot..and maybe.. See you in October;)

Hello,

Congrats to the selected ones!! I received the emails with general response "Thank you for your interest in our DG and Unit. The selection process for the Blue book trainees is on-going" from DG Justice and the email saying that they won´t host the trainees this year from DG TAXAUD - Unit C3 and DG MARKT - Unit C2. So, no success so far...

Fingers crossed!!

I got one general reply from DG Connect that they are selecting and I will be notified... And one reply from B1 Unit of DG Informatics - they don't have trainee this session.

I have never met anyone on this forum applying for DG Informatics Do these people even exist? Is it a good or a bad sign ...

I did get replies on my emails, but both replies were from people I met before during a study visit to DG ENV and ENLARG. Anyway, they both sent me personal emails saying they will forward my email to this and that person.

Anyway, I guess this will work the same way we were informed about being preselected. It will happen to everyone at once. Perhaps :/

This is the second time I get preselected. Last time I lobbied a lot to the units I was interested in, but none of them called me for an interview. End of the story: not selected. Now, this time, I lobbied again to the units I would like to work with. I've got more experience to add this time, but this time no illusions for me at all. I really want this traineeship BUT the selection process is very obscure at the end cause we basically don't know who hires and how do they do that. And for MY personal experience from the last year general emails and/or No calls= you are out.

Fingers crossed and good luck to everyone!

does anyone have an idea of what information the vbb holds on you? in particular, i was wondering if it records all the module results that i sent in by post - got a few not-so-great grades in my masters

congrats to everyone pre-selected, keep at it for those who didn't make it this time, and good luck to everybody

The VBB is the online form you filled in. If they had to scan all the documents of 2500 people and put them in this database the selection process would take 5 years not a couple of months

@ Aneena:
Do you know if we receive an email or phonecall from the unit which chose us or do we have to wait for the traineeship office to send us the official offer to know if we got selected by any unit? Or maybe it depends on the DGs/units?