which DG's have you contacted? which ones have contacted you?

Tally wrote:-am I the only one thinking lobbying might not help our cases or -worse- has diminished our options?

(yes.. the paranoia of not hearing anything back has gotten me...)

I don`t think that paranoia should get you... I mean, there are three reasons why somebody wouldn`t answer the looby email:
1. they didn`t even read it, they don`t care about it - which means you have nothing to loose
2. they read it, but they don`t select you, and are too busy to let you know - so again you have nothing to loose by having sent it
3. they read, they chose you, but they won`t let you know till at the end (it does happen) - again you have nothing to loose, more to gain

so I don`t think it`s that bad

the problem is the waiting, that`s the killing point that makes us crack down

Tally, it's no use worrying about these kind of things, as we have no clue what is going on within the units themselves. It's better for us to be patient now and hope we're successful...

I know... I know...nevertheless,some more information would be nice to have.

Anyway: Someone contacted by Devco and EEAS by now?

yeah, the waiting is the hardest part. I also didn't receive any calls or promising emails. I just want to get my rejection email soon an finish with the agony

same here, same here

I think they might be annoyed, but they may also know that this is how it's always been done, and someone who did the traineeship a couple of years ago basically told me you HAVE to do this. And if they didn't want this they wouldn't tell us any email adresses at all, would they? Or tell us not to do it. I know that's how they still do it on the entry level positions once you made that list, so they've all been there and know the feeling and the uncertainty. They might be annoyed about it but I doubt they'll hold it against it.

so no news for you as well?

I got this:
"Dear Ms.Römer,

I would like to thank you for your internship application and your interest in working in the European External Action Service (EEAS).
Please be informed that the selection process has started and that Head of Divisions are now selecting the most suitable candidates according to profile requirements and the number of places available.
At this stage, it is not possible to give you any specific information. However, the Heads of Divisions may contact you during the selection process to discuss the possibility of a traineeship with you.
Should you ultimately be selected, you will receive personally a letter with all the necessary information about the recruitment process from the Traineeship Office.
I wish you good luck with the selection.
Yours sincerely,
EEAS MDR C3 TRAINEES HQ"

Got the same Exactly the same

prek wrote:yeah, the waiting is the hardest part. I also didn't receive any calls or promising emails. I just want to get my rejection email soon an finish with the agony

That's the point I reached by now. Have to start studying for my freaking exams and not bother myself with this any more
I sent something out to BEPA and HOME (international affairs) as well, no answer; and nothing from the various EEAS units (Human Rights, Middle East and Americas; except the Middle East one telling me they're in the process of chosing now)

So I'm thinking about sending something to the Turkey unit? My original profile containts nothing on Turkey, but I co-organized a study trip to TUR after the application this year meeting with think tanks, academics, the British General Consul etc - so I have a better profile on this now but it's not on my original CV, so there is no way that they would pick me from the original application.
Should I do that?

a friend of mine got a reply from HOME saying that his email was forwarded to a person in charge of the whole DG HOME trainees and the same thing: that his application will be taken into account bla bla

Got another email saying they don't have any traineeship positions....

"Thank you for your interest but sorry we have no vacant place now.


Christian Siebert
Head of Unit


European Commission
DG Enterprise & Industry
Unit International Affairs"

It's a third in a row, I guess I am choosing wrong units:D

I just got this yesterday:

"Dear Mr. [...]
Mr. Burghelle-Vernet asked me to contact you and thank you for proactively sending your CV and motivation letter to him and for expressing your interest in a traineeship in our unit.
We have discussed your application also with our HR department and I am pleased to inform you that we will propose to recruit you for a traineeship in our unit ("International Transport Affairs" in DG MOVE).
I must mention, however, that our proposal does not represent a final offer. The official contract should come from the traineeship office (around mid-July).
We hope and look forward to seeing you here in Brussels in some months from now.
If in the meantime you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us
Kind regards
[...]"

So i guess that's nice and all! But I don't really know what to do here? I lobbied 8 units in DG ENER, EEAS, CLIMA and only this one in MOVE, and 16 hours after i sent the mail to the MOVE unit I got this response. So I definitely thinks it pays off to lobby. However, my question here; are several units able to propose to recruit a person? Intuitively that sounds weird, but for what I've read here it looks like people have gotten offers from more than one unit sometimes. Thing is, it's not like i wouldnt want this unit, it's just that this is probably the one that i'm the least suitable for... hence other units had a higher ranking in my mind. Bottom line; are other units still able to propose to recruit me, or will they see in the VBB that I'm "selected" and not choose me?

I would just like to let everyone know that the DG HOME 'Fight against organised Crime' unit does not have a traineeship position this period.

@Lallarn: Congrats! I'm very jealous haha, it seems we applied for similar DGs and Units. From what I understand from the forums of the previous sessions, when they (un)officially select your, they flag your profile on the VBB so that it is 'taken'. However, I have also read elsewhere that some people have been receiving offers from multiple DGs. So it remains unclear. In my opinion, it is better to take any opportunity you can get, rather than being picky about having your preferred DG. (Who knows, you might lose your spot to someone else).

@Marcanum: Thanks! Well, no I definitely don't want to be picky. I will, if finally selected, 100% take the offer. But the question just came into my mind since I've lobbied to so many and this unit was so quick to select me. It got me thinking of the process when I started to explain to my friends; how do they select people? I've understood too that they probably will flag me, but can more units flag one person? Are the "flags" ranked as well? I assume that if they have only one spot, they most likely "flag" several persons in some kind of ranking order to not stand there on the last day and end up without any trainee! Anyway, I'm happy at least! Just sent them a reply for some closer task description. Anyone else gotten anything like that?

Can I ask when you lobbied for the MOVE unit? I don't think (but hey, this is just guessing) that they're able to put multiple flags on the VBB. If you get selected by someone, from what I understand in previous posts, they have to ask the respective DG to unflag you if they want to look at your profile. I do think they keep ranks within the DGs themselves regarding possible candidates though.

Congrats again, what profile background do you have?

Hey, congratulations Lallarn! Sounds great!
I think the lobbying doesn't do too much. Got another E-mail thanking me for my interest in working with them and that I will be informed, from the EEAS Americas unit.

"Dear Ms Roemer,

We have duly received your message and CV and are glad of the interest you show in collaborating with us.

Kindly note that we are still in the process of analysing the candidatures received and you will be informed of the results in due course (even though it might not be as quickly as you would be hoping…).

Kind regards"

@Marcanum: I sent the email Tuesday 11.57 PM and got the reply the following day at around 5 pm. And really, I'm pretty certain that they would not have picked me unless I sent them the mail. As for my background I'm finalizing my Master of Science in Political Sciences right now and I've been over at an exchange (Master of Public Affairs) in the US and done an previous internship for ~5 months in Brussels at a regional office. Done some stuff with transport but mainly energy and climate related. Hopefully I get to work with EU ETS and the aviation sector negotiations in ICAO or the likes, that would be rad!

@RebeccaR: Thank you! Well, as I said, I dont think they would've sent me the offer if I havent mailed them. So I DO think it makes a lot of difference, but it might not pay off at all times. I got another reply from EACI (Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation) thanking me for my mail but that it wasn't necessary and all that. None of the other 13 mails I've sent I've received an answer of anyway.

Btw, I also lobbied a little bit for the Americas unit. Did u eventually find an email address? i sent my mail to Tomas Dupla del Moral and to Fernando Guimaraes. I got their emails from a friend at the commission but so far no reply. From whom did u get the reply and to which addresses did u send your mail?

Sorry, i actually wanted to wrote 'doesn't do too much damage', because they seemed nice about the fact that I did lobby and not like 'oh gosh, annoooooying' or anything. Sort of a weird typo
I sent my email to Leffler himself, stressing my americas interest in it, and they sent the reply i posted above, so i suppose they must have forwarded it to the americas unit since I stressed that unit in my e-mail. I got a reply from gabrici's office (the israel/palestine) unit and from the office of the head of the middle east unit, both similarly to the ones above.
Also sent one to Arnault (Human Rights) but no answer from them.

Lallarn wrote:I just got this yesterday:

[i] are other units still able to propose to recruit me, or will they see in the VBB that I'm "selected" and not choose me?

i've had that same question before and decided to have a nice chat with the HR person of my future DG and after about 10 mins i asked - of course "just out of curiosity"
so she told me that other units could not see that you were flagged or anything. actually, you get flagged in the Blue Book if someone contacts you and this means that you cannot be contacted for 24 hours by anyone else. once the 24 h are over, you appear free again, regardless of the decision of the unit. the unit communicates its decision to the HR of the DG only, who then put you on the list of the DG. but nobody else (no other DGs) will know about this.
the only way someone interested in you may find out is if he happens to belong to the same DG and if you did not lobby that person. because then he only sees the VBB and does not have your contact details (they are not included in the VBB). thus, he has to reach out to the HR of the DG (this is the normal procedure if you havent lobbied) to ask for your phone no. and here if you've already been booked by someone at the very same DG, the HR would reject their enquiry.
hope this helps

thanks grrr_v for sharing with us...that surely clariffies a lot I mean, I remember somebody on this forum (in other session) saying that they were selected by a dg, but when the dg sent their selection to the traineeships office, they found out that he was already taken by another dg (which comes back to the rule first come,first served I guess)

raluca wrote:which comes back to the rule first come,first served I guess

Already feel like left-overs

Hi everyone,

here's my contribution to the forum's general knowledge:

OLAF's Fraud Prevention Unit (Policy Directorate) does not have a traineeship position for this period.

Best of luck to all

Just got a phone call from DG SANCO that they're gonna propose me for the selection! Not really the DG i was hoping for, but hey, it's not over yet!

@grrr_v: Thank you for that! Makes sense in one way. When I got the proposal from the unit the sender CC'd 5 other people as well; to HoU, unit personnel, DG MOVE HR and Traineeship Office personnel. So most likely the TO will make the final selection based upon information from the different units and DGs HR departments. However, this does not take into account any preference from the actual trainee, but I guess that would be too troublesome...

@RebeccaR: Don't feel like leftovers. I think the EEAS works in a totally different way, and from what I've seen when I've scanned the web, not a single person have gotten a phone call or email from them before the final selection (I might be wrong thou...). I, for example, haven't heard a thing from any DG ENER unit that I've lobbied although I know that my profile is highly suitable for them. So I guess just some units/DGs work in their own way. On a last note, I sent an email to Leffler as well and got the same reply as you Btw, did you apply for any EU delegation internship? I applied for the EU delegation to the US, haven't heard back from them yet thou.

fibica wrote:Just got a phone call from DG SANCO that they're gonna propose me for the selection! Not really the DG i was hoping for, but hey, it's not over yet!

which unit?
does anyone had interviws with DG Budget?

@RebeccaR & Lallarn => I agree with both of you - I am not too pleased about not having heard anything from anyone either but it does seem like the EEAS works differently from other DGs - we need to be patient [easier said than done :l]

Hi all,
I have just clear question. Any respons from DG ELARG, whatever Unit?? Its obvious Units A, D, E will not suposedly hire trainees..Have you got any Email, phone call?
Thanks!

@Lallarn: I didn't because I don't have the money to work in DC unpaid. A one year Master's degree put a considerable strain on my finances. I can do any job as long as it pays enough to be sustainable that's all I need *sigh*

I have lobbied 3 units within DG MOVE and got this email back yesterday from one HoU:

Emil,
Yes, we had identified you in the list. As there is a big internal competition for obtaining good candidates, we will have to see how things end up.
Best


and a reply from DG MOVE:

Dear candidate,

Thank you for your e-mail and for your interest in DG MOVE and/or DG ENER.

Please note that our Directorates/Units 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 obtaining a traineeship,

Best regards,


I suppose nothing else is to be done here. Good luck everyone!