Olga can you please send me the link of the official page saying that? Thanks

Thu Oct 16, 2014 5:41 pm

Olga wrote:From the official page:

"Congratulations to those who have received the confirmation on 15th of October 2014 that they passed the first stage of the selection.

MESSAGE TO CANDIDATES WHO HAVE NOT RECEIVED ANY COMMUNICATION: Thank you for your interest in the Traineeships Programme. Application period for the traineeships session October 2015 will start soon. Best of luck!"

So no hope anymore

Thu Oct 16, 2014 7:02 pm

At this moment I am a little bit confused Shocked

Thus, I have just received an e-mail from The Traineeships Unit within is written that all candidates need to be patient and not to lobby DGs as long as they are only "pre-identified pre-selected" because "everyone still needs to pass successfully the second phase of the Eligibility and only then notifications will be sent by the Traineeships Unit on the final results of all applications for a traineeship within the European Commission".

However I have a question whether this e-mail was sent to everybody who applied for Traineeship Program or only to those who are "pre-identifiked pre-selected", because I did not receive any e-mail according the "pre-identification procedure" so I am confused of receiving the Traineeships Unit warning e-mail even I am not pre-identified jet?

Hmmmmmm, what is going on?

R.

Thu Oct 16, 2014 7:08 pm

I am IN ;-) I have just been informed that I am pre-identified ;-)

Very Happy

Thu Oct 16, 2014 7:12 pm

You got an email today?

Thu Oct 16, 2014 7:24 pm

Since they mentioned that all the rest of applicants who didn't receive message yesterday are not qualified to apply, how come you received an email today ??!! I'm so confused...

Thu Oct 16, 2014 7:40 pm

I received the first positive e-mail at 07:04 PM within I was asked to check my ECAS account and after 20 minutes I received the another e-mail where I am officially informed that I am pre-identified to be included in the Blue Book for the March 2015 session with the obligation to upload all necessary documents... Cool

Thu Oct 16, 2014 10:08 pm

I also received the positive email at 07:04 Smile

Good luck to everyone!

Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:29 pm

Congrats to all that got pre-pre-selected, I am happy to be one of them. Smile

Does anyone know if we have to send the documents per post as well? I know that it was the usual procedure, but maybe they have changed it. I mean, the only info I got was to submit the docs online.

And in this case, would the copies be okay?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 2:10 pm

congrats to those that were preselected!!!

I also applied but I didn't get any email so I guess I have to apply again next year. It was the first time I applied but I have to say I was very dissapointed that I didn't pass the FIRST selection because my background is really good (or that is what i thought): I have a Bachelor in Economics, a Bachelor in Law, a master's degree in European Policies, I work as a trainee lawyer in a big law firm and i was an Erasmus student.

Saying this, I just want to ask those that were selected about their experience/academic background/language skills, so that I know what I can do better next time. Do you have a P.hd?

is there a specific profile they are looking for? (Eg. Min 3 foreign laguages at c1 level?)

Congrats again and I am waiting for your answer!

R.

Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:10 pm

VesnaJo, I dont think any printed document is needed. They abolished the practice since last year. For the October 2014 session no printed version was needed.

Justrux, I am sorry to see you were not selected. I was selected and I don't believe my background is better than yours (or more suitable). I also have two BA and an MSc and speak two EU languages, apart from my native non-EU language. From my experience in last session (where I got in the Blue Book but not selected for a place at the end) and if you scroll through this forum for previous session you will notice that the selection process is a bit obscure, no one knows details. The lobbying process and what follows after the Blue Book is also very very obscure and candidates are sometimes frustrated and confused by the different signals they get.

I saw many people asking the same questions as you and some were PhD students. I don't think there is a specific answer on what to do better. I would be curios to find out how they even process more than 15.500 applications. I hope there is no random selection going on Very Happy

Good luck if you decide to apply next time Smile

Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:50 pm

Hi justrux!

I think there are a couple of reasons for that:

Nationality quotas (maybe a lot of people with great CV's applied from your country)

They weren't convinced by your motivation and suitability statements

A lot of people with the same degrees as you applied

I think the last bullet point is quite important. The EC is a huge institution and they need people from all areas on their traineeships. For example, I think I got pre-selected because there aren't a lot of people from my area of interest (tourism studies) and of course, they need people with this kind of education background for the two units that are directly related with tourism. I believe that the same happens with other areas such as agriculture, transport, etc.

Most people who apply for the traineeship have Economics, Law or European Studies/International Relations degrees and so, they end up having similar profiles, leaving people from the niches (such as tourism) with better chances of getting in.

Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:10 pm

I totally agree with the Sasha's and Andre87's explanations according the (pre)selection procedure and also about many doubts which concern candidates and which are not remedied even they exist such a long period.

Justrux, I find your educational and professional background very interesting and sufficient for your nomination to be included in the BB so I am also a little bit confused why you are not pre-identified.

In my case, I am 29 years old, PhD student of administrative law - third year (with the highest grades at every level of studies) with passed bar examination, 7 years of working experience in law area at the position of Manager of Department for legal, personal and general affairs in one of the biggest public communal companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina etc.

I hope I helped you...

R.

Fri Oct 17, 2014 7:06 pm

Thank you for the replies! Good luck to all of you Smile

Fri Oct 17, 2014 8:34 pm

By the way, does anyone know if this stage of the application that just happened is the stage where in the previous years applicants got an e-mail telling them how many points were they short of reaching the quota?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 8:57 pm

I am fairly sure that this "pre-identification phase" we have just passed through is the same one like the stage that happened in, for example, November 2013 for the March 2014 session.

What I find very interesting is the fact that "pre-identification" procedure in March 2015 session happened much earlier than it was in November last year (18.11.2013), the year before etc. Therefore, in my opinion, we could receive pre-selection confirmation at the beginning of November which will give us much more time for lobbying DGs and discussing every topic according to following procedure steps that comes to our mind.

Fri Oct 17, 2014 9:48 pm

jovichr wrote:I am fairly sure that this "pre-identification phase" we have just passed through is the same one like the stage that happened in, for example, November 2013 for the March 2014 session.

What I find very interesting is the fact that "pre-identification" procedure in March 2015 session happened much earlier than it was in November last year (18.11.2013), the year before etc. Therefore, in my opinion, we could receive pre-selection confirmation at the beginning of November which will give us much more time for lobbying DGs and discussing every topic according to following procedure steps that comes to our mind.

You may be indeed right, because the e-mail I received said we would get the eligibility results at the start of December, while the message on my ECAS account says "During November you will receive the official confirmation of whether or not you have successfully passed the eligibility check and, therefore, been preselected for the Blue Book."

It's a wait and see game. However, I'll start collecting information about the units that I'm the most interested in working and collect information for potential lobbying and interviews.

By the way, the only way you don't pass the eligibility phase is if you don't send one of more documents that they've asked you in order to prove what you said in the application, right?

Sat Oct 18, 2014 6:10 am

People who had problems with uploading, please help me.

I can't find any mechanism at all for uploading my documents on my ECAS page. I have notified the Commission but 2 days later, although they are working on it, it remains unresolved and extremely frustrating.

Please would someone indicate to me where this magic upload button exists on the ECAS page? Thanks a lot.

Sat Oct 18, 2014 11:35 am

Yes Andre87. There is no chance of failing the eligibility phase in a case you timely submit all necessary documents listed in the "pre-identification" mail. Of course, submitted documents must be appropriate for proving all states mentioned in your application Wink

R.

Sat Oct 18, 2014 1:55 pm

goldeneye wrote:People who had problems with uploading, please help me.

I can't find any mechanism at all for uploading my documents on my ECAS page. I have notified the Commission but 2 days later, although they are working on it, it remains unresolved and extremely frustrating.

Please would someone indicate to me where this magic upload button exists on the ECAS page? Thanks a lot.

Did you open the second message entitled ''Important message regarding the preselection procedure'' in the ''My Account'' page? It is there

Sat Oct 18, 2014 3:27 pm

jovichr wrote:Yes Andre87. There is no chance of failing the eligibility phase in a case you timely submit all necessary documents listed in the "pre-identification" mail. Of course, submitted documents must be appropriate for proving all states mentioned in your application

R.

Thanks. Already did that and rechecked that I sent all documents that I needed to prove everything I wrote on the application! Very Happy

Sun Oct 19, 2014 6:51 pm

Shall we start thinking about founding the facebook group "March 2015 Stage European Commission" or is it too early at this moment? Question

I find using facebook much more widespread, faster and easier then using the forum so I suggest we should create the group in a near future Wink

Sun Oct 19, 2014 9:39 pm

I also got my email three days ago. Since this is my first time applying, I have a question.

In my application I putted Brazilian as my nationality, but this month I finally got my Portuguese ID and passport (my dad is portuguese), so the question is: when I upload the documents, do I put my Brazilian documents only or should I put the Portuguese docs there as well? (I did mention in the application that I was in the middle of the process of getting my dual citizenship).

Do I have more chances as Brazilian or a Portuguese? Does It make any actual difference?

Thanks

Mon Oct 20, 2014 11:02 am

Hello Glauber_Nicolau,

Maybe you could consider writing these questions to your EAC STAGE Desk (mine is Desk 8 for example). The same desk you got the reply for the pre-pre-selection. Usually, they are very helpful with these kind of questions.

Looking at the statistics, I think you get a kind of answer on which nationality to choose (although I think you should apply with both, and send documents for both). I believe you have better chances to get a place when applying as an EU national. Statistics -- March 2014: 776 Portuguese applicants, 18 chosen (2.3%); 2105 Non-EU applicants, 22 chosen (1%)--October 2014: 899 Portuguese applicants, 18 chosen (2%); 2168 Non-EU applicants, 37 chosen (1,7%). This session of March 2015, you will be competing with 726 Portuguese nationals against 2495 Non-EU for relatively similar amount of places (although we cannot predict this Smile

) So slightly better chances to apply as a Portuguese compared to Non-EU, although the trend is not so clear if looking at October 2013 statistics as the number of Portuguese nationals was very high.

In summary, in my opinion, write to them, and apply with both (send both documents). If you need to choose, apply with Portuguese nationality Smile

. I hope it helps a little.

Best,
S.

Mon Oct 20, 2014 6:36 pm

hi guys. when do you think we will get confirmation after we upload the documents? is it like the quicker the better or does it not matter if I upload them tomorrow or on 28/10? and how exactly does this lobbying work, what are we supposed to do? which dgs are you considering?

Mon Oct 20, 2014 8:34 pm

Hello,

I want to know if somebody asked the Traineeship Office if the documents that are not in one of the official EU languages, could be translated by us.

Actually, one of my work contracts I need to upload has to be translated, but I am not sure if my personal translation would count. Does anyone have any information on this regard?

Thanks!

Mon Oct 20, 2014 8:48 pm

Hello nas.

There are a lot of very useful information on the official Traineeships office website, especially in the section "FAQ" such as:

"My diplomas are not written in an official language of the European Union (e.g. Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew).Should I attach a translation?
- Yes. For all documents that are not written in an official language of the European Union, you have to attach a translation in English, French or German. An certified translation is not required."

and

" Should I provide certified translations?
- No. Certified translations are not required."

I hope these information will help you. In my case, I do have some documents that are written in Croatian language so I will only submit them without translation in English/German/French but for those document that are written in Bosnian or Serbian language I will translate them on my own Wink

R.

Mon Oct 20, 2014 9:23 pm

Thanks jovichr!

I hope this to be the case. I asked just to know the experience from previous trainees and make sure the simple translation (done personally) will be enough at this stage... because you never know.

Best,
N

Mon Oct 20, 2014 11:31 pm

Sasha89 wrote:

In summary, in my opinion, write to them, and apply with both (send both documents). If you need to choose, apply with Portuguese nationality . I hope it helps a little.

Best,
S.

Thanks Sasha, very helpful.

Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:45 am

Glauber_Nicolau wrote:I also got my email three days ago. Since this is my first time applying, I have a question.

In my application I putted Brazilian as my nationality, but this month I finally got my Portuguese ID and passport (my dad is portuguese), so the question is: when I upload the documents, do I put my Brazilian documents only or should I put the Portuguese docs there as well? (I did mention in the application that I was in the middle of the process of getting my dual citizenship).

Do I have more chances as Brazilian or a Portuguese? Does It make any actual difference?

Thanks

I would like to share my experience.

Last time I applied as a non-EU citizen, and I was preselected (so I was included in the Blue Book). Unfortunately I was not selected for the internship.
This time I have applied again, as a EU-citizen (I got my second, EU-citizenship in August 2014). In last months I have improved my language skills in Italian (from A1 to A2) and got another abroad experience. Unfortunately this time I was not even pre-preselected...

So, I was thinking the same: being an EU-citizen, you have more chances to get this internship (statistically it is for sure the case)... But in reality, for me, it did not work at all.

You see, it's up to you how to proceed.

Tue Oct 21, 2014 2:32 pm

has anyone had an interview yet?

Pre- pre-selection

Olga can you please send me the link of the official page saying that? Thanks

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