Lobbying - how to do it?

Hi everyone,

Since the application phase is over, I guess the next thing we can do is lobby once the results for pre-selection have been published. There are some good discussions from previous sessions regarding this topic and I'm sure they are a good source of information for this session as well. However, I have one question now I'm hoping someone could give some insight on. If I'm sending a lobbying e-mail to a head of unit whom I know has the same mother tongue (non-English) than I do, would it be better to approach them in this language or is it safes to use English? I could imagine that since these people are very busy, they might have someone else reading and answering these messages for them. For this reason it would be safer to use English. However, I'm wondering if there could be some advantage in expressing directly that you come from their home country and share the same mother tongue. I have heard that this has been an advantage in some cases but I'm not sure whether a lobbying letter is the best channel for expressing this matter.

Hello everybody. I was thinking to write some lobby messages, to get myself ready for the pre-selection results and I was surprised to see I FIND NO MORE E-MAILS. Last session I had no problem; I was googling their names and adding @ec.europa.eu, but now I can only find their phone number. Did anyone encounter this problem, as well? I have tried only for the Secretary General so far, but the perspectives are not nice.

Any help? Ideas?

Hey,
I'm applying first time this year so I don't know anything about contacts of heads of units, but I guess you should just go for their name.surname and add @ec.europa.eu. This is what I will do (I just have to write the letters first ).
My question is: how many letters will you send?
And another problem of mine: in my application I was explaining my areas of interest etc. (not stating exactly which unit I would prefer to work in) but since August I kind of change my mind a little bit (not completely) and I would lobby in units that don't exactly correspond with things I wrote in the application (but I still think that my education and past experiences would suit my new preferred units as well).
What are your thoughts on that? Should I lobby in my new areas of interest or stick to the things I wrote in the application? Thanks guys & good luck!

I believe you should lobby to whatever units your prefer and write a convincing cover letter explaining them why you believe you are a suitable candidate for that particular dg,unit. As for the amount of the lobby e-mails, I would not know which is the optimal number. Last session I saw people sending out around 60 (!!!) e-mails and most of them got the traineeship, but I have no idea how many I will send.

Anyhow, keep in mind that by 19 November they will announce the pre-selected candidates, which means you should be ready with your lobby e-mails by then and with your copy of the documents by 26 November. No pressure.

I wonder whether we will be able to start lobbying on the 26 November (I think they will wait a few more days after the dl to make sure all that all the post get in + the time it takes to process 2600 filesx 10 pages of documentation minimum). Technically, you can lobby when you are already in the Blue Book- aka you have a Registration no in the blue book that helps the Unit flag you.

Hello everybody,

I am pre-selected so i am planing my next moves. I have a question to make maybe a bit stupid but i havent find the answer yet. For what i read when i finally get selected officialy i have to start lobbying and send emils to the units that i am intrested in. So how can i find those units?
I have enter to this page page and consecuently to every DG. But then for example in eurostat that i am intrested i cant find the units.
Do you have any idea??

Hi all,
I was wondering if any of the persons pre-identified has started lobbying?
Arguments pro and against?

Former trainees, maybe you could shed some light on the issue?

Best
A.

I have just started updating my CV and drafting some letters of motivation.
However, there is no Blue Book yet => no way to be selected by the units, which need an Blue Book number to reserve us => no point to lobby at this point, not until we receive the message that we have passed the eligibility check.

Hi guys...
lucia_roman this is my first time so I don't understand what you mean by Blue Book number...shouldn't we consider our applicant number as reference for the lobbying? I never heard of a BB number. Did the EC give it to you in past selections?
Thank you for clarifying that and good luck to all of you!!

Gladly! You have a reference number of you application, which is given to you so that you will have a proof of the fact you submitted your application. You can use it to contact the Traineeship Office (TO) when you have particular issues - like when you want to update your contact info (phone no, email adress, or you simply cannot retrieve your account, or they say they do not have you in their records, etc. etc.).
After you pass you eligibility and you are included in the Blue Book, you receive another number, a BLUE BOOK number, which is used by the units and dg to look up and flag (or reserve) a person.
Why two different numbers: I guess it is easier for their records, and also avoids confusion between submission of files and actually being selected. Another practical reason for a blue book number that I can think of is this one: imagine that there are five persons that bear the same name - JOHN SMITH lets say - all of them applying with the same nationality. Thus the number is necessary in order to avoid confusion and not get the wrong John Smith.

Without any blue book number the lobbying may be useless.
Now, just hope about the good outcome of the pre-selection process.

Good evening all!

I have this problem figuring out e-mail addresses of HoUs. I know the general rule of firstname.surname@ec.europa.eu however this does not seem to work in cases such as DG Competition (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/competition/directory/organi_en.pdf), where all the names are like J. LUEBKING and S. ALVES..

Is there any easy way to find out the first names of these people all I have to suffer the long way..?  

Hey there??When do you think we will have the results?

Hello everyone,
I was wondering if we have to wait for the Blue Book number before starting to lobby aand..how do we get the number,are they sending it to us by email? thank you and good luck to all

Angelique123 wrote:Hello everyone,
I was wondering if we have to wait for the Blue Book number before starting to lobby aand..how do we get the number,are they sending it to us by email? thank you and good luck to all

Yes to both questions. You could have simply taken a look at the other posts above, imagine if all the people asked the same questions over and over  

Hello!
I have looked the DG I am most interested on this page: http://ec.europa.eu/staffdir/plsql/gsys_page.display_index?pLang=EN
And I saw that every DG has a lot of Units A, B, C, D etc. My questions are:
1) It is recommended to write to the Head of Unit (HoU) from all the subunits, A1, A2 etc?
2) Also who should be the person to whom I address the mail, the HoU or the deputy HoU?
3) When I research the activities of the DG, it is recommended to know exactly what each unit does or is it ok to know the main activities of the DG?

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if the trainsheep includes also directories like JRC. I know that those DGs offer also scientific trainsheeps but do we can still apply?

Hey guys,

yesterday I talked to a friend who is doing her traineeship in the EC at the moment. I asked her about the lobbying process and she said that the other day she had a conversation with some people in her office about it. Apparently in the past years it has become really overwhelming with the lobbying emails and thats why the EC sort of thought about how they could stop this…
Maybe thats the reason why they put the email address off the homepage and why they wait such a long time before sending out the emails with the blue book numbers.

anyways, I just wanted to give you this information.. I am still debated whether to lobby at all.. or maybe I will just send out some emails… anyways… have a nice day all of you!

Hi there,

I personally agree with this opinion but I am nos sure what I should do. I think that they will send us email with all the information and directionos about lobbying. Good luck to everyone maybe today is a big day.

katunca wrote:Hey guys,

yesterday I talked to a friend who is doing her traineeship in the EC at the moment. I asked her about the lobbying process and she said that the other day she had a conversation with some people in her office about it. Apparently in the past years it has become really overwhelming with the lobbying emails and thats why the EC sort of thought about how they could stop this…
Maybe thats the reason why they put the email address off the homepage and why they wait such a long time before sending out the emails with the blue book numbers.

anyways, I just wanted to give you this information.. I am still debated whether to lobby at all.. or maybe I will just send out some emails… anyways… have a nice day all of you!

Katunca, what would be the difference between "lobbying" and "sending out some emails"??

I believe that sending emails to the units it's pretty much what "lobbying" is about at this level, am I wrong? (just curious).

kiar wrote:

katunca wrote:Hey guys,

yesterday I talked to a friend who is doing her traineeship in the EC at the moment. I asked her about the lobbying process and she said that the other day she had a conversation with some people in her office about it. Apparently in the past years it has become really overwhelming with the lobbying emails and thats why the EC sort of thought about how they could stop this…
Maybe thats the reason why they put the email address off the homepage and why they wait such a long time before sending out the emails with the blue book numbers.

anyways, I just wanted to give you this information.. I am still debated whether to lobby at all.. or maybe I will just send out some emails… anyways… have a nice day all of you!

Katunca, what would be the difference between "lobbying" and "sending out some emails"??

I believe that sending emails to the units it's pretty much what "lobbying" is about at this level, am I wrong? (just curious).

hahaha yes you are completely right! its basically the same. I am just a bit confused after the conversation with my friend.. Her boss apparently said that she hates lobbying emails and always only goes to the blue book to look at the candidates she wants..

anyways… hopefully they will give us some details in the email they will send to us (hopefully) soon!

just a quick question, are you going to lobby only to the unit you have selected on the application form or to some other units as well?

The document that somebody has published on this forum is quite clear on that topic: lobbying is something that the head of unit consider useless and bothersome!

katunca could you please tell us who is your friend's boss or Unit so we avoid lobbying them????   

@travisfull: what document is that? Don't think I've come across it..

angelapia wrote:katunca could you please tell us who is your friend's boss or Unit so we avoid lobbying them????   

sure! She is in the communication department.. however, this is not the unit I applied for, thats why I am unsure if other heads would think similarly! anyways, lets just wait and see what they write us in their email

Thank you katunca!!!!
Unfortunately this is not the unit I have applied for... so "to lobby or not to lobby? This is the problem!!!"
 

to Lobby - not to Lobby, this question's gonna kill me (( I do not want to be annoying to them, but also I want to somehow promote my application...

I truly believe that as grown ups, each of us should decide on what we think will be in the best of our interests.

To lobby or not to lobby? Since it is not explicitly forbidden we can go ahead and do it.

I guess each Unit works in its own way, so there is not a magic recipe for success. Some units may get annoyed with the lobbying and just delete all the lobbying emails (as a rule), while others won't bother to look into the BB if they already have 50 applications directly addressed to them.

But we don't know and we won't know, as it'll probably work on a case by case basis.

I called the traineeship office a few days ago and asked if it is "the right time for us to start contacting the units in which we are interested". The woman on the phone was quite annoyed and said: "By all means no. You are only pre-identified to be included in the BB, you are not in the BB yet. So just wait till you get a final confirmation. There is no use in sending any email at this point". So according to the traineeship office I guess we should not lobby at this point, but on the other hand i think what kiar said above is true. Each unit has its own approach on lobbying.