Sending of offers

I really can't understand the criteria of selection of candidates...Please do not regard me as an arrogant motherf***er, if I tell you that I know I am certainly well-qualified for a traineeship!

Unless of course I am deluding myself, and 3 masters degrees, fluency in 4 official languages, extensive (we are talking about years) experience in specialised areas of interest to at least 2 DGs and working experience in policy-making, are NOT something noteworthy for the great majority of the candidates... Lobbied to 2 dozens of Units and haven't given not even 1 (one) interview!

I hope that those selected do hold some good qualifications or at least there will be some calls after christmas. Who knows! Maybe there is an age discrimination or something (i am a little above 30). Apologies for the rant, happy holidays.

eurolawyer, congratulations for your experience. i believe what you are is called: overqualified. a traineeship, by definition, is an intermediate step between academia and the job and is aimed for graduates. in such case, i am thinking that you were not contacted, not because you are not good enough, but maybe because they preferred to offer this chance to someone else.


good luck!

@palindrom
On one hand you are right, people with too many qualifications or years of experience may be deemed overqualified and therefore set aside. In theory that's right.
On the other, however, the reality of this traineeship looks different. The average trainee, according to wikipedia (and even accepting that wikipedia is not the most reliable source...) holds 2 Master degrees and speaks 4 languages. Of course, average age is 26, which would make what our friend says right about an alleged "discrimination".
Moreover, if you just browse through this forum, you will find A LOT of different stories, but my impression is that you need to be particularly brilliant and having something extremely (EXTREMELY) relevant for the single units which makes you stand out over the crowd. Plus there are special features depending on the position and profile that may vary (in my case, being a lawyer as well, French language is one of these and I don't have it... just an example!).
To sum up: being very good is not enough. One must suit very peculiar requests.
  

palindrom wrote:eurolawyer, congratulations for your experience. i believe what you are is called: overqualified. a traineeship, by definition, is an intermediate step between academia and the job and is aimed for graduates.

I believe what you are saying also amounts to some form of discrimination. Unless you can show me any relevant texts from the traineeships website, the rules of procedure, etc.where it is stated or even implied, for example, that "only those candidates who hold no more than x years of professional experience will be PREFERRED as trainees"...Of course, I fully satisfy all typical requirements, I have also recently (whatever that "recent" means) graduated from masters, have zero experience in european insitutions or related agencies, etc.

I received this TODAY, so maybe some Units are not on holidays yet + they are working on selecting trainees:

"I would like to thank you very much for sending us your CV and for your interest in working in our unit.
We have now completed the selection procedure and we regret not to be able to select you for the next traineeship session in 2014.

Best wishes for your professional future.

Best regards
Françoise MAY-ROBERTI
Assistant
European Commission
DG TRADE
Unit D1"

She sounds like I didn't get the traineeship anywhere, not only in their Unit! But I hope that's not the case and she just expressed that way, talking for their Unit.

It means, at this point the DG's made their choices and the communication of final results will be made public till mid January? ...because it doesn't result people had official answers

Did anyone receive a call from the Commission on Saturday or today 24th? I have missed calls from blocked number and I was wondering if it is possible that they would be working/calling also on these days. I thought not, but I became suspicious... :?

Thanks!

vivve wrote:Did anyone receive a call from the Commission on Saturday or today 24th? I have missed calls from blocked number and I was wondering if it is possible that they would be working/calling also on these days. I thought not, but I became suspicious... :?

Thanks!

Yes i had 4 missed calls of unknown number on saturday 9:30 am,,but i was asleep :/ , i thought they might be from someone other than the commission since i dont think they work on saturday but now dont know what to think:)

Angelique123 wrote:

vivve wrote:Did anyone receive a call from the Commission on Saturday or today 24th? I have missed calls from blocked number and I was wondering if it is possible that they would be working/calling also on these days. I thought not, but I became suspicious... :?

Thanks!

Yes i had 4 missed calls of unknown number on saturday 9:30 am,,but i was asleep :/ , i thought they might be from someone other than the commission since i dont think they work on saturday but now dont know what to think:)

Thanks. I got a call around noon on Saturday and today at 9.45am... I know it is a little paranoid to think about whether they called or not but on the other hand, I normally never get calls from unknown numbers, and in general it seems that no one else that would usually call me, has not tried to reach me. How frustrating!

Although, I would find it quite silly that someone calls only once and then doesn't even call again right after - knowing that person receiving the call cannot call back... I mean I have my phone with me all the time but not every minute of the day...

vivve wrote:

Angelique123 wrote:

vivve wrote:Did anyone receive a call from the Commission on Saturday or today 24th? I have missed calls from blocked number and I was wondering if it is possible that they would be working/calling also on these days. I thought not, but I became suspicious... :?

Thanks!

Yes i had 4 missed calls of unknown number on saturday 9:30 am,,but i was asleep :/ , i thought they might be from someone other than the commission since i dont think they work on saturday but now dont know what to think:)

Thanks. I got a call around noon on Saturday and today at 9.45am... I know it is a little paranoid to think about whether they called or not but on the other hand, I normally never get calls from unknown numbers, and in general it seems that no one else that would usually call me, has not tried to reach me. How frustrating!

Although, I would find it quite silly that someone calls only once and then doesn't even call again right after - knowing that person receiving the call cannot call back... I mean I have my phone with me all the time but not every minute of the day...

Well, maybe its just a coincidence,why would they be working on saturday when they could have called us during the week. good luck then and happy holidays