Lobbying - answers from the DGs

Well lobbying in Place Lux would be probably by asking which units have vacancies. I know some but I will not share it here, since it's insider information. So yes, it could be a good idea for you to go to Place Lux and ask around

I feel more and more that they should make this process more transparent and just generally forbid lobbying..

I totally agree but then everything will depend on luck...

come on...that's so sad. do you actually think they don't even look at our profiles? what should we do then? I don't want to send emails blindly because I'm afraid they'll take it badly but I do want to draw their attention...any advice??

[quote]

elister wrote:hi everyone, got reply from EuroAid that at this moment they are reviewing the candidates (for all Units) and coming weeks they will contact some.

Hi, thank you for the information:) Could you please tell to which email adress you sent your mail? I have two seperate email adresses, one for Development and one for EuropeAid (the general adresses, not the heads of unit or sth like that) and dont know whether I should contact with one of these. Thanks

elister wrote:hi everyone, got reply from EuroAid that at this moment they are reviewing the candidates (for all Units) and coming weeks they will contact some.

Another answer got me really disappointed:
"Thank you very much for your interest in doing your traineeship in our unit, but unfortunately there is no vacancy for stagiaires in our unit for the October session." (Devco A/1)

No news from ECHO.

I got some of the "no vacancy" responses too.

And here's the generic EAC one:


"Dear preselected candidate,

I thank you for the interest that you have shown in the Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC).

It is not necessary to send your cv again to DG EAC since all the relevant information you mentioned in your application form figures in the "Virtual Blue Book" and is available to the people responsible for the trainee's selection (except all personal details).

The Directorate-General takes into account your motivation and is in favor of candidates who choose Education and Culture as their first preference.

In agreement with the Traineeships Office's policy and in order to respect equal treatment of candidates, the Directorate-General endeavours not to invite you to Brussels and prefers to carry out any interviews by telephone. Please note that those interviews are not compulsory which means that you might be contacted or not.

Final selection will be closed on Wednesday 29 June 2011 and at this stage, no traineeship may be guaranteed. If you are selected by the Directorate-General for Education and Culture, the Traineeships Office will inform you by e-mail and then send you a trainee placement offer as from Thursday 30 June 2011.

Should your first application be unsuccessful, you can still apply for a subsequent exercise, provided you are still eligible. You must, however, make a fresh application. This should be done on-line following the guidelines on the Traineeships Office website at http://ec.europa.eu/comm/stages.

Yours faithfully,"

So, in short, we should be expecting final answers after Thursday, June 30th!

But I must admit, this generic response was "nicer" than others you all have posted... I'm not sure if they encourage or discourage lobbying...

DG AGRI, directorate H has quota for only one trainee. I don't know which unit got the quota but not at least H4. But finally I got an answer from somewhere! I already thought that there was something wrong with my e-mail account or something...

Hi, for those who have sent lobbying emails, could u please tell me if you sent a very specific email stating your motivation/profile or just a generic email to draw their attention and express your interest? I don't know which strategy is better...

The problem is that many units don't have a trainee at all and it is not officially known which ones do and which don't. That is the only problem if you decide to contact them, but the system is not that unfair - units do go through CVs in the database. It's just there are 2000 CVs there so there's a chance nobody will have a look at yours, if you send them one the chances are already better. I don't know which strategy is the best. I got my job by contacting one unit I knew a lot about and studied their work, even wrote a Master thesis on that topic. But I also know many people that got contacted by the Commission, and also people who were lobbying a lot but didn't get a job. It's partly a matter of luck I guess.

[quote="sezenu"]

elister wrote:hi everyone, got reply from EuroAid that at this moment they are reviewing the candidates (for all Units) and coming weeks they will contact some.

Hi, thank you for the information:) Could you please tell to which email adress you sent your mail? I have two seperate email adresses, one for Development and one for EuropeAid (the general adresses, not the heads of unit or sth like that) and dont know whether I should contact with one of these. Thanks

hi Sezenu, I have contacted heads of units, so the answer I got was from them.

hi guys, got a call this afternoon from ECHO. They will send e-mails to those they finally select July-August. Useful to know: I have different contact numbers in my application CV and the CV I sent with the lobbying mail. They contacted me through the lobbying one!

Hi, I got a reply from the HoU DG EMPL - ESF and he said that there is no place at his unit
He replied to my email very fast like after 2 minutes! I was surprised! Is there anybody that has other news from the DG EMPL

Hi
@kiromoto Do you mean the two directorates (E and F) that deal with Social Market Economy in Member States: ESF or just Unit E/1?
I haven't lobbied in this exact Unit E/1, I've received a mail from F/5:
"Dear...
Thank you for your interest.
We will keep you in mind in case we decide to use a stagiare for the new traineeship period.
Best regards,
...
Team Leader
Unit F5"

It seems to me as Aneena said

The problem is that many units don't have a trainee at all and it is not officially known which ones do and which don't.

Hi Borynka!
So I wrote to the Unit E/1. Sorry if it wasn't clear I havent been applying to the F/5. But I see that maybe DG EMPL is waiting for us to lobby? What do you think?
I agree with Aneena after getting a reply form the HoU and reading other posts.
Well we have to wait.

borynka wrote: Hi
@kiromoto Do you mean the two directorates (E and F) that deal with Social Market Economy in Member States: ESF or just Unit E/1?
I haven't lobbied in this exact Unit E/1, I've received a mail from F/5:
"Dear...
Thank you for your interest.
We will keep you in mind in case we decide to use a stagiare for the new traineeship period.
Best regards,
...
Team Leader
Unit F5"

It seems to me as Aneena said

The problem is that many units don't have a trainee at all and it is not officially known which ones do and which don't.

Hey guys!!

Thanks for posting all this information here, it is really useful

Is anyone lobbying DG Justice or Legal Service? Any response yet?

Good luck to everyone!!

Hi, I just received a phone call from a private number when I was out of the room (for like only 3 minutes)...I checked with all my friends and they didn't call me, I'm thinking whether it was a phone call from one of the DGs and unfortunately I couldn't answer... did it happen to anyone of you to be called by a DG without being able to see the number?

yes.. I've got two phone calls both from an unknown number...

But stay positive! It means someone is interested!

They will call again

Hi everybody!

nice to meet you all

I'd have a question about the selection procedure. I would be extremely happy to be chosen, yet I won't say yes to absolutely anything I am offered. But... do we get a real choice? What is the "Blue Book?" If i am offered a placement in a unit, does it mean no other unit will offer me anything?

I was contacted by a unit that was not under my prefferences and to which i sincerely have not much interest in, as i am working in the total opposite field. They said they saw i had other wishes but wanted to get to me very fast. (why...what's the rush?). I talked to them and said i would consider it, as i am still in hope to receive something more suited to my background.
But: if they do offer me a placement - does that mean my name is on the "Blue Book"? And if my name is there, does it mean no DG can contact me anymore... does it mean i'm "taken"? So how can you prevent a unit from offering you a placement? In the end, if they're upset i don't want them, then can still "reserve" me and prevent me for getting anything else... and in this way pressure me to say yes to them rather than have nothing.


I would be really really grateful to anyone who could explain more about the "Blue Book", or how they structure the selection between DGs and units...


Thanks a lot and good luck to all!
AS

rmm wrote:Hi, I just received a phone call from a private number when I was out of the room (for like only 3 minutes)...I checked with all my friends and they didn't call me, I'm thinking whether it was a phone call from one of the DGs and unfortunately I couldn't answer... did it happen to anyone of you to be called by a DG without being able to see the number?

yes, the phonecall I got said 'withheld', and I read on other posts of this forum that the (in)famous calls we all wait for come without a number.

Let's hope they call you back!

Good luck!

they called me from a withheld but first they had sent an email. i did my best but they didnt say if i am selected, they say they will inform me. will we know until the end of this month you believe? guys did anyone of you had more than one calls? im lobbying one of the most popular dgs (MARE) but i didnt have any news from them. had you had anything from MARE?

*I mean one of the less popular

asabo wrote:Hi everybody!

nice to meet you all

I'd have a question about the selection procedure. I would be extremely happy to be chosen, yet I won't say yes to absolutely anything I am offered. But... do we get a real choice? What is the "Blue Book?" If i am offered a placement in a unit, does it mean no other unit will offer me anything?

The Blue Book is basically the online list of all pre-selected candidates.

I was contacted by a unit that was not under my prefferences and to which i sincerely have not much interest in, as i am working in the total opposite field. They said they saw i had other wishes but wanted to get to me very fast. (why...what's the rush?). I talked to them and said i would consider it, as i am still in hope to receive something more suited to my background.

I think they were rushing because once a unit/dg likes you they reserve your name in the Blue Book. This apparently stops others from seeing your profile or registering an interest in you. So if they really want someone they will want a reply quickly in case another unit tries to get you. It seems to be done on a first-come first-served basis.

But: if they do offer me a placement - does that mean my name is on the "Blue Book"? And if my name is there, does it mean no DG can contact me anymore... does it mean i'm "taken"? So how can you prevent a unit from offering you a placement? In the end, if they're upset i don't want them, then can still "reserve" me and prevent me for getting anything else... and in this way pressure me to say yes to them rather than have nothing.

I think it depends on the individual unit. Some will reserve you when they offer you the place, others will wait until you've accepted it. I think I read a story on here from someone about turning down an offer and then losing an offer from a unit they did want because they'd been reserved in the Blue Book.

Hope that helps.

Hi guys,

I am the new one here. Got to know that I was preselected only on Tuesday this week since the email was stuck in my junkbox
I lobbied only one DG - energy and got this answer:

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. I wish you success in your search

This is in other words - please dont bother us.

I was contacted by DG EAC C2 - will have the call on Monday, but I am not happy with this DG at all!! I know that I should not be picky but still...

Today got another hidden call, but I did not manage to pick it up and they never called again

Frankly i dont know what to expect.

Hi, again
Well, I do not really know what to do, but wait...
I think that it is late for more lobbying e-mails, I guess, they looked over the first they received. Who knows...? :S
I hope that next week we'll "interact" more with this DG... any other DG is also welcome

kiromoto wrote:
Hi Borynka!
So I wrote to the Unit E/1. Sorry if it wasn't clear I havent been applying to the F/5. But I see that maybe DG EMPL is waiting for us to lobby? What do you think?
I agree with Aneena after getting a reply form the HoU and reading other posts.
Well we have to wait.

Hi Everyone

So glad to find this group- the whole process is so opaque!

Here is some information I have that might help-
I got a call from DG EcFin this morning, to say they were 'preparing a shortlist'. I asked when offers would be sent out for certain, and was told that the deadline for submitting their shortlists is June 24th (i.e. this Friday). Selected candidates will then be informed within a few weeks after that, the person said (they did not know the specific notification date).

I am not sure if this deadline of June 24th applies just to DGEcFin, but I got the impression it applies to all departments... So I imagine all phone calls to check availability will take place this week.

Now here is a question I have- please help me if you can!
Now that I have heard from one DG, can they reserve me and so stop other DGs from getting in contact? It would seem a shame if they can, first because getting a call doesn't guarantee a place (only shortlisting), and second because many people in this forum seem to have received calls from DGs that are not their first (or even top-three) choices. Does anyone know how this part works (indeed, did anyone receive calls from more than one DG, which would suggest they cannot 'reserve' you yet)?

Thanks!

I had the same question. I got one call so far. I was told that they reserve you only when they offer you the position. Can someone confirm this? Because I haven't received other calls and I am worried.

Well, I got no calls, no emails...Should I worry about this?It's true my application is very targeted and I'd say it narrows the possibilities of being chosen....I'm a MEDIA programme "fan" and my experience and background refer mostly to audiovisual/cinema and less to other sectors or DG EAC...any advice on my situation?
Many thanks and lots of luck to everyone.
Anna

fank wrote:I had the same question. I got one call so far. I was told that they reserve you only when they offer you the position. Can someone confirm this? Because I haven't received other calls and I am worried.

Rachel wrote:Hi Everyone

So glad to find this group- the whole process is so opaque!

Here is some information I have that might help-
I got a call from DG EcFin this morning, to say they were 'preparing a shortlist'. I asked when offers would be sent out for certain, and was told that the deadline for submitting their shortlists is June 24th (i.e. this Friday). Selected candidates will then be informed within a few weeks after that, the person said (they did not know the specific notification date).

I am not sure if this deadline of June 24th applies just to DGEcFin, but I got the impression it applies to all departments... So I imagine all phone calls to check availability will take place this week.

Now here is a question I have- please help me if you can!
Now that I have heard from one DG, can they reserve me and so stop other DGs from getting in contact? It would seem a shame if they can, first because getting a call doesn't guarantee a place (only shortlisting), and second because many people in this forum seem to have received calls from DGs that are not their first (or even top-three) choices. Does anyone know how this part works (indeed, did anyone receive calls from more than one DG, which would suggest they cannot 'reserve' you yet)?

Thanks!

Rachel, don´t worry: being shortlisted does not mean you are officially reserved on the BlueBook. So if other units want to call you, they still can. The shortlist is just a small list of potential candidates they make for their own private use, and from which they chose one or a few candidates to become the next trainees. Meaning, you are at the "final", but not officially the "winner" yet

Hi guys,
I have a short question on whether anyone has been contacted by TAXUD (DG Taxation and Customs Unions)? I have not received any emails or calls so far and start wondering whether I should give up...

Thanks Karla, that's really helpful.

Did anyone hear from DG DevCo (Europeaid) yet?

And DG EcFin?