second phase: documents and lobbying

Hello there,

congratulations to all the pre-selected!!

I was wondering whether we should start lobbying now or after are documents are recognized. What do you think? What do former trainees say?

Thanks everybody!

S.

I personally think it's better to wait until your documents are verified. We're not even in the Blue Book yet. What are you going to refer them to? I've also read quite a few comments online of people discouraging others to lobby. Some say that considering the fact that most directorates get quite a few 'lobbying' emails, they get quite annoyed by them. Imagine hundreds of eager trainees sending you emails, all thinking that their email is so special, whilst most of them are nothing but a recapitulation of the information in the Blue Book. Then again, others say that they have been offered traineeships solely because of their lobbying efforts. This has become quite a dilemma for me now.

It seems like we should definitely wait for our documents to be confirmed before starting to lobby. For now, the DGs cannot verify that the person sending them an email is officially in the Bluebook.

Like @Alchemist said, it seems that several DGs strongly discourage lobbying or disregard lobbying emails, choosing their trainees directly from the Bluebook. For example, this is a response received from the DG Energy for the October 2015 traineeship.

Dear Blue Book traineeship candidate,     Thank you for your e-mail and for your interest in our DG. Please note that our Directorates choose their candidates directly in the Blue Book, according to their needs. When our choice of candidates is made, we send our list of requested candidates to the Traineeship office who will then send the official training offer to the finally selected candidates.    As mentioned in the mail that the Traineeship Office has sent you, their offer is the only official and valid offer. We wish you success in obtaining a traineeship,     Best regards,     MOVE-ENER SRD.2

On the other hand, I've also heard that some DGs do not pay much attention to the Bluebook and select candidates from lobbying emails. Someone on this forum compiled a spreadsheet of the different DGs and their responses to lobbying emails for the October 2015 traineeship. You all may find this useful. Here's a link to the thread it's in but since I'm a new user I'm not allowed to post a direct link to the external Google document: https://ec-traineeship.forumotion.com/t902-lobbying-interviews-selection (it's the 4th post down)

Best of luck,
Alexandra

Actually, I've heard that some officials find the amount of lobbying so disruptive they would prefer to avoid the notification of pre-identified candidates.(Technically, that would be possible if all applicants were required to submit their certificates and further documentation without knowing if they were pre-identified)
Given that 2800 candidates are shortlisted, I am doubtful whether officials enjoy the flood of mails they get twice per year.

I had a question about lobbying: to whom exactly should we send lobbying emails? To the head of the unit themselves or should we try and find an email address for a secretary or someone else?

Thanks in advance,
Alexandra

I bad been preselected once, and did not lobby at all. And I did not get any proposal from DGs, or did not have any interview.

So this time I have decided to lobby.

I was reading different point of view on this, but now I want to try another strategy, as I had used before

And I agree with those who think, that it makes sense to start lobbying after you are officially included in the Blue Book.

Hey everyone!

I just had a quick question: what would you roughly include in your lobbying email? Just an updated CV and a broad/standard email or a detailed email (in the form of a cover letter) with the stuff not included previously in your application (eg: since my application I've been admitted to the Bar and started an internship)?

Thanks in advance,

Cécile

Yes definitely updated info if it's pertinent. Also your experience/jobs/coursework directly relevant to the DG/unit you're lobbying. Also contact info where you can be reached for an interview.

Great. thank you for your answer!

hey everyone,

I have anoter question about lobbying.

There are a lot of Directorates/Units within the DGs... Do you plan to write to each Unit? Or only to the Directorate's Head?

As for example, there is "Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs"
Here is their "Organisational chart": http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/economy_finance/organisation/ecfin_org_chart_en.pdf

In this case, do I need to write to DIR A in general, or to A.1., A.2. or A.5.?

What do you think?

Cheers,
Olga

Hi guys!
I'm a new-entry here! I've been "pre-pre-selectioned" and I am preparing all the documents to forward by Thursday 19th.

I have a question for you. During the application, I could only insert 3 professional experiences but I have a few more. Should I only include the experiences mentioned in the online form or can I add other certificates to the file to upload?

Also, some dates do not match (for few days). Do you thing this could be a big problem?

Thank you!

Hi @OM91,

I would only include certificates for the professional experiences that you were able to include in your application. I'm pretty sure that these certificates will only be used to double check your application and maybe weed out anyone who lied or otherwise padded their application with false info. I don't think these certificates will be included in the Blue Book, aka available to the DGs. Including extra certificates would only confuse or annoy whatever service is responsible for making this check.

That said, by all means include extra experiences in your lobbying emails, especially if it is relevant to the DG/Unit you are lobbying.

As far as the dates not matching by a few days, I'm sure that won't be a huge problem. I think it would only be a problem if they didn't match up by months (for example you said you did a year-long internship but it was only 2 weeks...).

I hope this helps. If anyone else would like to verify or add to my comments, feel free because I am by no means an expert.

Thank you very much alex-marseille! Precious advices!

I have one more question. You may think I am crazy but.. I completed the application at a time when I was writing my final dissertatio so I was not completely aware of myself ahaha This just to say that I've just realized that I chose the Administrative Trainsheep in the Area of Interest: Information, Communication and Pubblications.

So, what would you suggest? To lobby just DG Communication or also the Historical archives and the specific units devoted to Communication in each DG?

Thank you

Hi @OM91,

You're very welcome!

Absolutely not a crazy question! It depends on you but to heighten your chances of being selected, it would be best to lobby the communication units in each DG that you would be interested in working in. Otherwise you might get unlucky and, using a hypothetical case, the DG Communication might not be taking trainees this session. That would mean that you would have no chance getting in anywhere (assuming that lobbying is very important for being chosen)!

I've read that some DGs give first preference to candidates that selected their area in their application, however, you are not pooled into a strict camp. Meaning, you are able to lobby DGs and UNITs you didn't inititally indicate and you may still be selected.

Hope this helps.

You're so enlightening!!!
I think my final dissertation had a bad influence on me.. It seems I made the worst choice!
Anyway, fingers crossed!!!

Hey guys,

Could someone who has applied before answer this question?

If is a standard practice that the EC contacts your employers? I sent a contract, and I had them right a certificate, however, they do not speak english.

Does anyone know from experience whether the EC tends to contact the employers for info about you/background check on you?

Thank you!

I honestly don't think they pay much attention to lobbying e-mails. They simply choose from the Blue Book according to their needs, thus respecting the principle of equal opportunities for all. E-mails can become annoying. Imagine dozens, if not hundreds of e-mails saying basically the same thing only using different words. I personally have no intention of lobbying. If they want me, I'll be thrilled, if they don't...it will be their loss. Anyways...good luck to everyone. I've already sent my documents. You've got two more days.

Hey,

has anyone got a reply from the eligibility (documents) check yet?

Many thanks

Guys, should we send the documents in our mother language or English? I have both versions and am not sure...

Natascha wrote:Guys, should we send the documents in our mother language or English? I have both versions and am not sure...

Hey, actually for administrative traineeship we should have already sent it. But just in case, on the website this is what is said regarding the documents

"All of the above mentioned documents can be provided in any of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Should these only be available in other languages, we ask you to provide a simple translation."

So if on of those 24 languages is your mother tongue, no need to translate, I guess. Hope it helps

That was a general question. Thank you!