Sending of offers

Hello everyone,


I was wondering if anyone knows if units in DG's "book" us in the VBB so no other unit is able to offer us a traineeship. I was told by a unit last Friday that I am their 1st choice however, I had another interview later the same day for a different unit , but they told me that I would hear about their decision through the traineeship office. Is it possible to get two offers from the TO? All this is very confusing.

Once a unit books you, no other unit can do that - "first arrived, first served rule". From others experience I have read about on this forum, if there are two or more units that want to have you as a trainee, the TO might notify you which are those units and ask you to chose. Then, they will send you the offer for the unit you have chosen.

Congratulations! May I ask for which unit were you selected as the 1st choice?

Maria123 wrote:Hello everyone,


I was wondering if anyone knows if units in DG's "book" us in the VBB so no other unit is able to offer us a traineeship. I was told by a unit last Friday that I am their 1st choice however, I had another interview later the same day for a different unit , but they told me that I would hear about their decision through the traineeship office. Is it possible to get two offers from the TO? All this is very confusing.

CONGRATS Maria! Please, keep us updated about the communication with the DGs that have selected your profile: in this way we can understand whats our destiny.
And thanks for sharing.

I have a similar question… I also had an interview this morning and they didn't say anything whether they liked me or not.. they just said that they would send in their three preferences for trainees this afternoon…

then a couple of hours later I got the following email from a DIFFERENT unit:

Dear Ms,

Could you please give us your candidate number in the bluebook so we can forward it to the HR department in order to confirm our choice of Stagiaire for the next period. As from March 2014.

This is not an official mail, but we would like to know if you are still available for that period?

Best regards



This sounds good right? I hope they really did choose me because the second unit (the one that sent me the email) interests me the most..

I just hope that the first unit didn't "reserve" me?!

I guess we just have to wait and see what happens. My confirmation was from DG Home, Migration and Asylum. I had a 25 minute interview with the head of unit. My other interview was with DG Home, Human Trafficking.  

Fingers crossed for everyone. So confuse with all the different procedures of units even within the same DG's.

I have had 4 interviews. In two of them I was their second choice and in another one I was their first choice.

I was told by this unit that they booked/reserved me in the VBB.

Can I then assume that I will get the official offer from the Traineeship Office in January (99% sure) or it may be that even if selected by one unit you end up not getting anything??

kiar wrote:I have had 4 interviews. In two of them I was their second choice and in another one I was their first choice.

I was told by this unit that they booked/reserved me in the VBB.

Can I then assume that I will get the official offer from the Traineeship Office in January (99% sure) or it may be that even if selected by one unit you end up not getting anything??

Sounds amazing I had 2 interviews and from DG Interpretatuon, Communications Unit said that they will book me today or tomorrow (when the booking option is open to them). So, is the booking today ot tomorrow? I am also a little anxious because with this complex and messy procedure you never know what will happen in the end...

kiar wrote:I have had 4 interviews. In two of them I was their second choice and in another one I was their first choice.

I was told by this unit that they booked/reserved me in the VBB.

Can I then assume that I will get the official offer from the Traineeship Office in January (99% sure) or it may be that even if selected by one unit you end up not getting anything??

I would say your chances of getting an offer are pretty high. Which units interviewed you?

Yana wrote:

kiar wrote:I have had 4 interviews. In two of them I was their second choice and in another one I was their first choice.

I was told by this unit that they booked/reserved me in the VBB.

Can I then assume that I will get the official offer from the Traineeship Office in January (99% sure) or it may be that even if selected by one unit you end up not getting anything??

Sounds amazing :)I had 2 interviews and from DG Interpretatuon, Communications Unit said that they will book me today or tomorrow (when the booking option is open to them). So, is the booking today ot tomorrow? I am also a little anxious because with this complex and messy procedure you never know what will happen in the end...

hi Yana, may I ask which communication unit said that they would book you?

katunca wrote:

Yana wrote:

kiar wrote:I have had 4 interviews. In two of them I was their second choice and in another one I was their first choice.

I was told by this unit that they booked/reserved me in the VBB.

Can I then assume that I will get the official offer from the Traineeship Office in January (99% sure) or it may be that even if selected by one unit you end up not getting anything??

Sounds amazing :)I had 2 interviews and from DG Interpretatuon, Communications Unit said that they will book me today or tomorrow (when the booking option is open to them). So, is the booking today ot tomorrow? I am also a little anxious because with this complex and messy procedure you never know what will happen in the end...

hi Yana, may I ask which communication unit said that they would book you?

Hey, the Communications Unit at DG Interpretation. My other interview was with Executive Agency of Competitiveness and Innovation - again the Communications Unit - no definite answer there, just short-listed.

Do you think if we do not receive an offer by Friday that means we have not been selected for a traineeship in the end? Or some DGs just send the offers in January?
Most of the trainees were already selected or booked, right?

katunca wrote:I have a similar question… I also had an interview this morning and they didn't say anything whether they liked me or not.. they just said that they would send in their three preferences for trainees this afternoon…

then a couple of hours later I got the following email from a DIFFERENT unit:

Dear Ms,

Could you please give us your candidate number in the bluebook so we can forward it to the HR department in order to confirm our choice of Stagiaire for the next period. As from March 2014.

This is not an official mail, but we would like to know if you are still available for that period?

Best regards



This sounds good right? I hope they really did choose me because the second unit (the one that sent me the email) interests me the most..

I just hope that the first unit didn't "reserve" me?!

Based on my experience, I would say that you are not the first choice of the first unit.

I had a similar answer by one of them and I wasn't sure of what it meant. Today I had to make a final choice (for a unit that had picked me as its first choice) so I checked my status on the first unit. They actually said I was their second choice.

Therefore I would say that if you do the interview, it is very likely that they'll put your name forward as a candidate, but unless specifically stated, you'll not be the first choice but the second or third.

Remember that, even if you are the first choice for a unit that does not mean that you got the internship. There are national quotas to be taken in consideration among others. So, I believe that the final answer will be in january from the traineeship office.

Thank you for your comments. Is it possible that we might have been already "booked" and we do not know it? I read this has happened with someone. Or those DGs who decide to "book" us have to inform us of their decision? I received a job offer in my country but I don't know whether I should accept it or not because of the traineeship at the Commission, which I prefer rather than the job offer I have. But, of course, if I do not get a traineeship I would like to not lose this job opportunity in my country.

Vviana 90: I know what you mean. Would be good to be able to plan.

Erik12: There are no national quotas at this point, are there? I have understood that this is only at the preselection stage.

Maria123: It can happen that you are selected by one Unit as their first choice. But because there are too many Italians already selected, they will give the place to their second or third choice. I don't know the criteria, but it did happen. Even with people receiving multiple offers, they chose one and finally did not get the internship because of the national quotas.

erik12 wrote:Maria123: It can happen that you are selected by one Unit as their first choice. But because there are too many Italians already selected, they will give the place to their second or third choice. I don't know the criteria, but it did happen. Even with people receiving multiple offers, they chose one and finally did not get the internship because of the national quotas.

What????   This procedure is so vague...There is no way to plan life.

I don't think they make use of fixed national quotas (i.e. whose depending of the size of the country) in the selection procedure. If you look at the past March session statistics,(https://ec.europa.eu/stages/online/cv/application_statistics.cfm?session=79), it appears that the more applicants there are from a given country, the more trainees they select. Of course Italy is an outlier, but its intake ratio is not dissimilar from other large groups (Spain, non-EU for instance).

As I said, I'm not sure about the criteria, but it is related to nationality. I just pointed out that being the first choice for one unit does not mean an internship. There are other factors involved. And I am speaking from my previous experience.

GMazz wrote:I don't think they make use of fixed national quotas (i.e. whose depending of the size of the country) in the selection procedure. If you look at the past March session statistics,(https://ec.europa.eu/stages/online/cv/application_statistics.cfm?session=79), it appears that the more applicants there are from a given country, the more trainees they select. Of course Italy is an outlier, but its intake ratio is not dissimilar from other large groups (Spain, non-EU for instance).

Thats exactly what they do. Depending on the size and the number of applicants they have already prepared a certain number of slots for Italians, Polish, Spanish and so forth...it goes without saying that italians have to face a furious competition!

Indeed. So slots are in fact decided after the pre-selection (al least partly). Regarding competition, well that is for sure!

I'm really confused whether there are really some slots decided or not and it's all at the 'mercy' of the Units .. Looking at the number of applicants and selected trainees for March 2013 and October 2013 from my own country, I can see that in March far less people applied but more got selected than in October when more applied but much less got selected ..

If they would decide based on the size of the country and number of applicants, than the nr should at least stay the same, if not increase... Correct me if I'm wrong. 

Yra88 wrote:I'm really confused whether there are really some slots decided or not and it's all at the 'mercy' of the Units .. Looking at the number of applicants and selected trainees for March 2013 and October 2013 from my own country, I can see that in March far less people applied but more got selected than in October when more applied but much less got selected ..

If they would decide based on the size of the country and number of applicants, than the nr should at least stay the same, if not increase... Correct me if I'm wrong. 

They try to maintain an equilibrium between "size", "n° of applicants" and "historical records for the old rounds". As always happen with the EU, the quota is the golden rule for everything, and the internship is not an exception.

Well, ok.. but the difference in percentage of selected trainees from my own country between one round and another was around 30%. So I'm not sure what are the mathematical algorithms that they use, the sheer difference seems huge to me.

Yra88 wrote:Well, ok.. but the difference in percentage of selected trainees from my own country between one round and another was around 30%. So I'm not sure what are the mathematical algorithms that they use, the sheer difference seems huge to me.

Of course there is not a mathematical algorithm, I hope so!
I am just sharing what I know about what they try to do.

kiar wrote:

katunca wrote:I have a similar question… I also had an interview this morning and they didn't say anything whether they liked me or not.. they just said that they would send in their three preferences for trainees this afternoon…

then a couple of hours later I got the following email from a DIFFERENT unit:

Dear Ms,

Could you please give us your candidate number in the bluebook so we can forward it to the HR department in order to confirm our choice of Stagiaire for the next period. As from March 2014.

This is not an official mail, but we would like to know if you are still available for that period?

Best regards



This sounds good right? I hope they really did choose me because the second unit (the one that sent me the email) interests me the most..

I just hope that the first unit didn't "reserve" me?!

Based on my experience, I would say that you are not the first choice of the first unit.

I had a similar answer by one of them and I wasn't sure of what it meant. Today I had to make a final choice (for a unit that had picked me as its first choice) so I checked my status on the first unit. They actually said I was their second choice.

Therefore I would say that if you do the interview, it is very likely that they'll put your name forward as a candidate, but unless specifically stated, you'll not be the first choice but the second or third.

Sorry if I bother you. I also received a call from a DG. How can I check my status on a specific unit? The DG I am talking about is CNECT.
Thank you for any answer you can deliver ... and good luck to everyone.

critone wrote:

kiar wrote:

katunca wrote:I have a similar question… I also had an interview this morning and they didn't say anything whether they liked me or not.. they just said that they would send in their three preferences for trainees this afternoon…

then a couple of hours later I got the following email from a DIFFERENT unit:

Dear Ms,

Could you please give us your candidate number in the bluebook so we can forward it to the HR department in order to confirm our choice of Stagiaire for the next period. As from March 2014.

This is not an official mail, but we would like to know if you are still available for that period?

Best regards



This sounds good right? I hope they really did choose me because the second unit (the one that sent me the email) interests me the most..

I just hope that the first unit didn't "reserve" me?!

Based on my experience, I would say that you are not the first choice of the first unit.

I had a similar answer by one of them and I wasn't sure of what it meant. Today I had to make a final choice (for a unit that had picked me as its first choice) so I checked my status on the first unit. They actually said I was their second choice.

Therefore I would say that if you do the interview, it is very likely that they'll put your name forward as a candidate, but unless specifically stated, you'll not be the first choice but the second or third.

Sorry if I bother you. I also received a call from a DG. How can I check my status on a specific unit? The DG I am talking about is CNECT.
Thank you for any answer you can deliver ... and good luck to everyone.

I directly called them. I said that I had received an offer (informally or unofficially, as everything at this stage) and that I would like to know whether I was their first choice or not.

In this case the guy said I was their second choice and therefore I accepted the proposal of the Unit that had picked me as its first choice.

My personal experience tells me that if they do not specify anything to you, it is likely that you won't be the first choice, but I can't confirm that is a rule.

Hey guys,
voilà my experience:
After a phone call last week from a unit of DG MOVE (no interview just to check my interest and availability) I got an email which said I was short-listed by that unit. Than, this week, another unit of Move called me to ask if I was interested in their unit more than in the other one, which apparently has listed me as their first choice. He said that within the DG of MOVE (and maybe it's the same for others) a candidate can only be one unit's first choice. So, the units within the DG have to agree on this and apparently wednesday morning they gave all the shortlists to the TO. The representativ didn't say anything about reservations in the bluebook, he said, that it is possible, that units from other DG have picked me as first choice too (I don't think it is my case, but it would be possible).

Hmmmm, now I'm wondering if I should be more persistant and also call some Units (now it's probably too late).
I just received one call form one Unit saying they are intersted but that they will call other candidates and then just one email from other Unit saying that they are very interested in my profile and would like to offer me a traineeship, if I am available. I don't know what that means, should I contact both Units and check how it all turned out? I was feeling very positive about the email, but I guess they could have sent it to several candidates.
I have to say I'm getting tired of this process, nothing is for sure and there are tons of different stories, I am also considering some jobs here at home, but of course I am hoping for Brussels... I know there are a lot of you in my position. Tough, huh?

I guess you have responded to that unit which asked your availability? To me it sounds like you're their first choice, I don't see their interest sending the same emails to others.

As for me, I also apply for other jobs to have a plan b, but the one job offer I received for now didn't really interest me, so I haven't been in the difficult situation to refuse an interesting job offer yet. I would only like to know the outcome by simple courisity of how my life will be in the next month .