October 2020 Traineeship

can someone tell me, when we should start lobbying?

Laura Torres wrote:

Agatta wrote:I didn't get pre selected either. Am a non eu citizen living in an eu country. Do you think we have not been preselected due to our citizenship?

I am an non-EU and got preselected, it has nothing to do with our citizenship! I'm Colombian and this is my second time applying don't loose hope and go for it again next session!!

Laura, you wrote it is your second time. Can you tell if applying now you have changed anything in your registration? What was, you think, the reason for positive pre selection this time, in comparison to your first pre selection process?

Congrats to pre-selected
Does any of you pre-selected guys speak only 2 EU languages? I was not pre-selected and I wonder if that might be the reason. Maybe indicating only mother tong and English in pre-selection form is not enough. Does anyone know something about it?

AnnaKw wrote:Congrats to pre-selected
Does any of you pre-selected guys speak only 2 EU languages? I was not pre-selected and I wonder if that might be the reason. Maybe indicating only mother tong and English in pre-selection form is not enough. Does anyone know something about it?

I don't think that would be a reason to refuse. I "only" speak two EU languages and I was pre-selected. As long as one of the main EU languages is C1 level or higher, you are qualified.

When should you start lobbying?

It might be that you are first waiting for results and then to prepare and lobby but this is not the right approach!

Why? Because you need to start lobbying from the first hours after you receive the results as the quicker you are, the better. Also, you need some preparation before starting lobbying and it requires more days. Of course, you never know if you were pre-selected or not but it is always better to allocate some time to prepare, get ready and use your opportunity at maximum if you have a positive answer. 
So, shortly, start lobbying from the first hours after the results are out but get prepared weeks before.

As you know, we have on our site all the hints for this important phase: bluebook-traineeship.eu or our Facebook page: Blue Book Traineeship Coach.

Does anyone know how the October intake has been affected by the Coronavirus outbreak? I Heard that the Council has given February trainees the opportunity to start their internships in September. This is fair but has, of course, a significant impact on the chances for people applying for September 2020. Is the Commission doing something similar for March and October 2020 applicants?

Hi guys - it is a bit unclear to me from the website, but would I be eligible for a traineeship at the EC if I have already completed one at the European Central Bank? It does not seem to be included in the list of other 'EU institutions' on the FAQ section.

Hello all,

I have also been pre-selected the 16th march.

Does anyone know if "lobbying" is compulsory/recommended to have more chances? and does anyone know if some DG's don't like to receive this "lobby-thing"?

Thank you all,

Alea Jacta Est

No, the lobby is not compulsory if you have a great outstanding profile that will differentiate you among other well-qualified applicants. If it is not the case, then you need to make yourself visible. There are no DGs/Units that will react negatively to your email, of course, if you will not send repeated emails or you will have a wrong approach in your message. bluebook-traineeship.eu is a site that gives you all the hints (it does not represent the EU), you can find us also on our Facebook page Blue Book Traineeship Coach. There we also have the latest news, for example we have just learned informally that the current traineeship period, that was interrupted due to COVID-19, will be continued from October 2020. So, it is unclear about your period...

For those who are waiting for the eligibility-check results for the Blue Book Traineeship, October session 2020:
- the latest informal and unofficial information we have is that the current traineeship session (March-July 2020), which is now interrupted due to outbreak, might be prolonged from October. Thus, it is not clear what will happen with the October 2020 traineeship session: will be postponed, cancelled or conducted partially, as some of the current trainees might not be willing to prolong the session.

Stay tuned, we will keep you updated!

UPDATE 2! For those who are waiting for the eligibility checks results:
The latest information we know is that the eligibility check selection has been concluded and normally you should be notified soon. It only can depend on what approach is the Commission considering to take on teleworking.
However, many questions remain still unanswered: when will you do the traineeship (October or March, some of you in October, other in March, etc)? Will the competition for one place be higher due to the fact that the actual trainees will be allowed to prolonged their traineeship period, which is now interrupted?
 
P.s. Do not forget to prepare for the moment when you can start lobbying. Now we have a discount for the package of information on our site: bluebook-traineeship.eu

Hey guys,
Anyone got any news regarding the results of the eligibility check? I was kind of hoping that since last year they came up on May 22, this year it would be around the same date haha. Do you think we'll get feedback next week?

Hi everyone

For now, no news. According to the last post in the forum, we might indeed received feedback next week (I hope too haha).

Btw, are you guys planning on lobbying? If yes, do you have any tips regarding do/don't in our lobbying emails?

Good luck you'll!

Any news on eligibility check results?

Sadly still nothing.
By the way, I almost got a heart stroke when I saw a notification about your reply in my mailbox, because the title of the e-mail was "Traineeships in Brussels" and almost jumped thinking it's about the eligibility results

It's very disappointing that they did not manage to send the results before June. I was sure they would arrive today. Patience is not my strong suit and now it's becoming even more painful waiting for results

Do you think there’s any hope that the results will come up during the weekend?

arta2020 wrote:can someone tell me, when we should start lobbying?

From how I see it you can start right now! Some people will tell you that you shouldn’t do it before you get the confirmation email but I have already started! A lot of units have said that they are not having any vacancies opened. I have also received an official email from the unit GLOBAL 4 (EEAS) where they informed me that all vacancies for the EEAS are taken for the October 2020 session, but please don’t let this stop the lobby you are planning to do! Because any trainee could still change his mind and leave the place opened any time between July and September! I have still sent my emails and some HoU have said that they would keep my CV just in case! So I recommend you to do so! And to lobby to as many units you want to increase your chances!

AnnaKw wrote:

Laura Torres wrote:

Agatta wrote:I didn't get pre selected either. Am a non eu citizen living in an eu country. Do you think we have not been preselected due to our citizenship?

I am an non-EU and got preselected, it has nothing to do with our citizenship! I'm Colombian and this is my second time applying don't loose hope and go for it again next session!!

Laura, you wrote it is your second time. Can you tell if applying now you have changed anything in your registration? What was, you think, the reason for positive pre selection this time, in comparison to your first pre selection process?

I didn’t change anything from the “motivation” sections! I literally typed the exact same thing that got me preselected the first time hahah I believe they want to know exactly how your background, academic and professional experience are gonna be useful to them! And why you think you would be a good fit. I briefly mention granted scholarships, knowledge of the Latin American political context (for my origins), knowledge of the EU institutions for the master and the internships. I also mentioned competencies that I learned during some internships that would make me stand out and how I acquired them.

Hello !  Am I the only one not knowing that there is a "lobbying phase"?  Not having contacted any DG?  I feel a little silly and naive to find out now and only have followed the instructions of the commission
In any case, good luck for the eligibility check!  I hope tomorrow we will have some news!

brianstorm wrote:Do you think there’s any hope that the results will come up during the weekend?

I highly doubt this

Camille - I knew about lobbying but haven’t started doing that yet. I wanna find out first if I’m in the Blue Book so that I don’t jinx it lol. Plus I don’t cate  that much because I applied for EEAS as my first choice and since they apparently won’t recruit anyone for October, at this point I’m not in a rush.
I hope the results will be out tomorrow as well, waiting this long makes me kind of go insane

Laura Torres wrote:

arta2020 wrote:can someone tell me, when we should start lobbying?

From how I see it you can start right now! Some people will tell you that you shouldn’t do it before you get the confirmation email but I have already started! A lot of units have said that they are not having any vacancies opened. I have also received an official email from the unit GLOBAL 4 (EEAS) where they informed me that all vacancies for the EEAS are taken for the October 2020 session, but please don’t let this stop the lobby you are planning to do! Because any trainee could still change his mind and leave the place opened any time between July and September! I have still sent my emails and some HoU have said that they would keep my CV just in case! So I recommend you to do so! And to lobby to as many units you want to increase your chances!

Thanks Laura, this is some useful information for me as EEAS was my first choice! I am just wondering if in that case, as they have no places left, it would be better to focus on my 2nd and 3rd choice, hopefully the units that have no places left will be excluded from the selection priority. I'm curious whether perhaps they will make some changes to their usual mode of choosing trainees as this is a highly unusual situation.

Guys I sent an email to a Unit of DG ECHO 4 days ago. Following their reply:

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your email and your interest in a traineeship in DG ECHO.
We are still in the pre-selection process.

The Traineeship Office will inform you of the result of the selection process in the coming days.

Regards,
ECHO HRBC TEAM

Hey Maxpsc,

Thanks for sharing!

But does that mean we're not suppose to "lobby" before receiving the result on the admissibility check? I also though that they were already done with the admissibility step, but that we were just awaiting the official email.

Do you guys think we will received something this week tho?

I think it's probable we will receive the results on Friday, but then it's only a guess, to be honest I was convinced the results would be out last week.

By the way, does any of you know if/when the traineeships in Delegations will be open again? I was also hoping they would open them in June...

Momou wrote:

But does that mean we're not suppose to "lobby" before receiving the result on the admissibility check? I also though that they were already done with the admissibility step, but that we were just awaiting the official email.

Yeah I think they still can't see the Bluebook list, consequently they think the preselection isn't over (and actually it isn't, if the admissibility check results don't come out).

Got another email today from DEVCO:

"Dear Mr. Pascarella,

Thank you for your e-mail expressing your interest for a traineeship position with us.

The selection process in our Unit is unfortunately closed.

If you are selected by another Unit, you will receive personally an offer from the Traineeship Office.

Best of luck and kind regards,


Kristina MUELLER"

Maxpsc wrote:Got another email today from DEVCO:

"Dear Mr. Pascarella,

Thank you for your e-mail expressing your interest for a traineeship position with us.

The selection process in our Unit is unfortunately closed.

If you are selected by another Unit, you will receive personally an offer from the Traineeship Office.

Best of luck and kind regards,


Kristina MUELLER"

Selection process closed when it hasn't officially started, that's not suspicious at all... I hope they mean that all the March trainees have decided to stay but the wording is unfortunate.

Yes, the lobby phase is very important as there are places only for 3/5 of the candidates included in the Blue Book. Please see our site bluebook-traineeship.eu, we offer there all the hints you need during the selection process! We are also on FB. All the good luck to all.

P.S. Unfortunately, we do not know when the results will be out, they should announce it very soon bu we suppose it might be pending on the final approach of the Commission towards COVID-19.