Writing for (y)EU » trainees

Two tailed story: reports and adiós!

Andreea — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:22:42 +0000

Caution! Boring text ahead!

DRAFT REPORT

on the situation of trainees approaching their stage completion

(2011/2091(COMM))

Committee on Best Traineeships in Europe

Rapporteur: Andreea Corbu

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

on the situation of trainees approaching their stage completion

(20011/2091(COMM))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the WEB COMM’s Recommendations of 09 September 2011 on the active

inclusion of trainees in the daily work of the Unit (2008/867/EC)1,

–– having regard to the Treaty on the organizing of traineeships in the EP, in particular Article 19,

– having regard to the Bureau des Stages’ internal rules governing traineeships and study visits in the secretariat of the European Parliament of 1 February 2006 dealing with the impact of a traineeship on the career path of young Europeans (COM(2010)0491),

– having regard to the Charter of Continuous Learning, in particular Articles 21, 23 and 25,

– having regard to the Web COMM’s staff Conclusion of 7 September 2011 workshop on the increased demands of trainees in the unit

A. whereas in 2008, the EP received 4 099 applications for a paid traineeship and 2 245 applications for an unpaid traineeship. Only 364 applicants (paid) and 170 (unpaid) were accepted. In 2009, the EP received 9 071 applications in all. Only 368 applicants (paid) and 139 (unpaid) were accepted,

B. whereas only about 5% of applicants are accepted. In 2007, for example, the EP recruited 257 paid trainees from 42 countries and 128 unpaid trainees from 19 countries (approximately 6% and 5% respectively of each type of application),

C. whereas most trainees are based in Brussels. However, approximately 10% of trainees work in Luxembourg, and a few may occasionally be assigned to administrative units in Strasbourg,

D. whereas for the first half of 2011 DG COMM had 5 bright trainees, an Italian, a German, a Belgian, a Finn and a Romanian,

General provisions

1. Welcomes the decision to designate the summer of 2011 as one of the best of her life, and

calls for appropriate steps to keep up the momentum, particularly by changing

workplace and adopting the same spirit;

2. Calls on the DG COMM staff to ensure that all the trainees to come will receive the same treatment, thus changing traineeships stereotypes regarding inactivity and boring tasks involving copy machines;

3. Thanks the DG COMM staff for their approach in the preparation and implementation of the learning and explanatory sessions, scoring a higher mark in the general European institutional knowledge assessment;

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

If you start with this paragraph, when reading this blog, then chances are that you either are/were an EP web editor or you have experience working with the EP’s commissions. For the newcomers, the above piece of text, though it may speak about my traineeship and its final days, it follows the pattern of a committee report. This is the kind of document that you come to be very familiar with while writing the headlines for the EP’s web page.

I began my blog posts bickering about the in-house lingo editors in the EP use, and I found it only fitted to finish the same way. You know, complete the cycle and take off guns blazin’ as they say. This time I choose to address the other elephant in the room that no one cares to mention: the language and structure of the reports drafted by the committees of the EP and how it’s like to work with this kind of texts. Every editor knows them. They all use them, and, I’m pleased to say that during the last months I myself have learned to analyze, synthesize and compress them in less than 1500 signs. It was an excruciating experience, but I channeled my inner tiger (the blue one with yellow stars instead of dots) and saw the daylight in the end.

All is fine and dandy, but, in case you haven’t skipped the first part, can you see the kind of language and stiff structure the editors have to hassle with in order to write a user-friendly piece of text? Adding this perspective, they do deserve some merits.

Usually it works like this. If an EP subject about a new regulation is important enough to cover, and it is assigned to you, as an editor, you’re prone to begin your background check of the matter by searching the report drawn in the committees about it. So, let’s say that the subject of women’s representation in business leadership is gaining enough popularity and you have to cover it. The first thing you do, before beginning the first draft, is search for the report elaborated on the matter, which in this case it can be found in the committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality.

Mind you, these are heavy and not so catchy texts, but, in all honesty, they do offer interesting stats and an overall image for the subject in hand. The trick is to know where to look. Reading them entirely would be slower than an iceberg. Browse them randomly and you will end up in an utter state of confusion that would take days to go over. No, there’s no pretty way to say this. The murky reports are murky! So in this case, you need to improvise. Don’t think outside the box, tear it up! Read first the explanatory statement. Keep your eyes peeled for key words while reading that. Good! Now, use the Find function in the Adobe Reader file and see in what context they are mentioned in other places in the report. A couple of months and some ten synopses later, this whole process will come as natural to you as green peas.

And now, I will let you with the analyzed, synthesized, compressed and user-friendly version of my first ever report: the past five months have been amazing, I’ve met extraordinary people and I’ve grown considerably on a personal and professional level thanks to them. See the difference between the two versions? Don’t forget that in both cases, it’s the same idea. In the majority of cases, you only get to see the latter of them. Not so simple to write for La Une anymore, is it?

As always, a pleasure, EP geeks!

Is there life after a stage?

Evita — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:59:54 +0000

I have never been a trainee. Like many of us I “had” to do a stage when I was at university, but, as at that time I was already working, my working place also became my “stage” place. Not that it is a bad thing.. It was just that way things were. However I feel that I have never experienced the life that I see our trainees have – entering a totally different world, for most of them – in a totally different country, and enjoying it fully. Making new friends from all over the world and introducing everyone to their world.

What I wanted to know was how they saw this experience. And what were the next steps for them, what were the next adventures that they had embarked upon. That is why one day I sent out an email to all the trainees that we’ve had since I’ve worked in WebComm and received quite a few answers.

Here come their stories, all of which tell me that if you have a chance to do a stage outside your country, you should go for it. It makes you see the world from a different perspective.

Lelde

After getting married couple of months ago, she is continuing her path in private business. Her traineeship was a way of deciding whether she would like to work in a governmental institution or take the road of the private sector. She chose the latter and has not regretted that (that is not to say that she didn’t like being with us, of course… :)

For her the traineeship had the beauty of relationships: the people she had her traineeship together with and also the WebCommers, the moments shared were full of laughter, conversations, creativity and hard work. She said that even now the first thought she has in the mind when she thinks of us, is that WebComm has organized a surprise goodbye breakfast in a nearby coffee shop.

(ed. here’s a great post Lelde co-wrote about being a trainee in the Parliament published on the day she left.)

Roberta

She is Italian. She has red hair. And she can get into places when even experienced journalists could not and get that interview that nobody else got…Now she lives in Australia and is a freelance journalist. Just after the traineeship she got married (the proposal was done during her traineeship. Just like with Lelde, actually) and her husband was moving to Australia, so she moved together with him.

She wrote that: “the internship was very important to me and it allowed me to see how the EP works. In another life – without any Australian planning – I would have tried with all my efforts to stay there, maybe working for some politician as Brussels is a sort of heaven for journalists. You don’t have to move around following people or stories, because they are the ones coming to Brussels by themselves.”

Ivana

She is Slovak and gave us all (or at least some of us) nicknames (some of them are still stuck, by the way). After she left Brussels she got a job in Slovak Marketing Agency working on sports events, organizing them and taking care of VIP people such as: Anna Kournikova, Thomas Muster, Michael Stich and others and aiming to climb the career stairs in this area.

The traineeship has helped her to realize how important the social environment at work is, how important it is to have equality, respect and other crucial working values.

She is not saying that she’ll stay in Bratislava for ever. She is instead open to all kind of future possibilities.

Chiara

Half Dutch speaking Belgian, half Italian, fluent in at least 4 languages, Chiara is now living in Burundi and working for the Belgian Development Agency (BTC), as a junior assistant in Bujumbura. This was a choice made even before the traineeship in the Parliament, so the two have nothing to do to each other.

However, she said that “she has realised in what a luxury situation she was working in the WebComm. All the coordination, fluid cooperation among colleagues and leading capacities of a boss(es) are non-existant in Bujumbura. That makes working life quite difficult, and my patience sometimes exploding.

I try to cheer up myself by thinking “it’s all part of a learning process”. However, I don’t always succeed. In short, please treasure your unit and keep it dynamic and enthusiastic like I found it!”

Dan

When Dan was leaving us, our editorial coordinator Thibault was sure that we don’t have to worry about him. And he was absolutely right. Dan had got tired of being “just” a journalist – 12 years have been enough for him. So, he invented a new occupation for himself which was hiding under a name “Media Strategic Consultant” (he is full of ideas, indeed) which in practice meant that he offered fresh ideas on how to catch media attention (being a journalist helps a bit, I guess…)

He had no plans to go back to Brussels and yet one day he was offered to do so. Now Dan is back with us in WebComm (a fact that he loves) but only now his title is “social media producer”. Fancy, right? He says that the title alone in the social media world has put him on a level where he is getting invited to all kind of groups, forums and places where the conversation takes place. But above that he is happy to be a part of the WebComm again.

(ed. Interested in Dan’s back story? We loved this post he wrote during his traineeship)

Rafaela

As the first thing Rafaela mentioned that she remembered how persistent she had to be to get the traineeship- her application was not accepted twice and only the 3rd time had the lucky charm. Rafaela was in the WebComm in the period when the 2009 European Parliament’s elections took place and she feels happy that she was there when the EP started using the social media platforms as she is a strong believer in “informing the citizens about their rights and opportunities in order to increase the level of conscientious participation in civil society”.

Rafaela says that: “Translating complex EU policy jargon into a form that the “common citizen” understands brought altruistic rewards. But after this experience it was clear to me that I wanted to stay in Brussels! Portugal is nice, I know… once you “taste” this “European-multicultural-life-and-work-style-atmosphere” it is difficult to ever turn back … So, here I am… still in Brussels and working for a political communications consultancy as a Senior Consultant in Media Relations. My career is already reaping the rewards for the experience that I had.”

Lyuben

Self-Presentation Tweet: Lyubo Tyulekov, an ex WebComm trainee, last year law student.

After the end of the traineeship he went back to the academic life in the Netherlands – “back to school, back to reality”, as a friend of his likes to say. Lyuben says that “the time spent in the Parliament… gave me the chance to meet a lot of new and interesting people, work in an international environment, but most importantly – get more familiar with the decision making process at a European level from inside, something every European law student (like me) would get pleasure from.”

“In a “self-presentation” blog that I published more than a year ago I wrote that it was a matter of honour and privilege for me to be part of … the Parliament and a cool, fresh unit like Web Communication. Now, almost one and a half year later, I completely stay by my words!”

Stand up for stand-up meeting

Lady — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:54:02 +0000

Every Friday we have an editorial meeting. That is usually at 11:30 in the morning. The meeting is about to gather the unit and talk about next week schedule for la une.

The 2-3 last Fridays have been really great because almost everyone has attended the meeting. People are everywhere, some are sitting on the floor; some others on small tables, some other on the sofas and others are standing; remember this is a stand-up meeting. Most of the people are in jeans and informal on this special occasion.

The meeting usually starts with a welcome word from Thibault; our editorial coordinator. Thibault presents the next week’s schedule on what is going to be publishing on la une; when he is done comes our head of unit, Steve. Steve usually completes what Thibault has said, but sometimes he also gives some other information on the blog, -the team photo, etc.

Editorial meeting, a family gathering.

Talking about our supervisors.

Guess what? Thibault is a Frenchman, so you can imagine the prestige of a Frenchman speaking English. And as a cool French guy he sometimes uses French while speaking English. For instance: “Ze photo service” he may say. It is funny because he always uses some French words and that makes me sometimes try to realise if it is French or English that he is speaking. This is Friday and Thibault looks cool with his polo-capuchon with too different colours on. In my opinion, the best thing about Mr Thibault is that he always tries to take the best out of everyone and that is great.

Steve; the head of unit, on the other hand is always in suit and knows how to be the boss; He is gentle but for some reason you just respect him a lot. The impressive thing about Steve is his British accent. He is actually British. It is hard to say if I personally listen to what Steve is saying or if I just listen to the song given by that beautiful accent. Can you realise the position, not just he is the boss, but also he is English- by the way we use English as the communicative language at the unit. He is sometimes accompanied by David also a British singer (the accent sound as a song to me)

Everyone has a piece of paper and a pen to look professional, but they almost never quite note a thing. It is like a family gathering, everybody is happy

I do not know what really happened at the unit lately, however most of the people are there and it is cool. As I said before, people are everywhere. Evita – Steve’s assistant, usually sits on the floor with the bowler full of water that she drinks. Raffaella- the Italian editor, also sits on the floor, hands on the table while she is taking notes. Helle the Swedish editor always has her beautiful smile on and we, the trainees, usually find a place by the window or in the corner of the room to be hidden there so that no one can really see us.

Everyone has a piece of paper and a pen to look professional, but they almost never quite note a thing. It is like a family gathering, everybody is happy. It is a happy place to be and really pleasant and down-to-earth. The editorial meeting sometimes reminds me of stories I was used to hear as a little girl. These stories are about village-gatherings in the heart of the bushes in Africa where the oldest (Tibo and Steve) talk to the other family members about what will be the next move for the village. This meeting is not just for the oldest to tell the others what to do, but everyone is involved and thy have had several meetings before. This is the last one when the final decisions are made. However, thank God that the meeting is in Brussels at the EP and this is not in a village in Africa. There is no fire that we have to sit around and thanks also because even though it is cold and autumn in Brussels, we do not need to be there half naked and we do not need to dance around the fire in this beautiful and modern family gathering.

The “new” old generation

Lelde — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:00:38 +0000

Bare facts are always the best way to prove you are right. And the fact is that – since I have my internet connection - I am off the list of daily newspaper subscribers. To be precise – no subscription papers or magazines arrive in my mailbox. But I am still a subscriber of the same newspaper’s electronic version. I do own a TV set, but I do not use it. I prefer Youtube and online broadcasts. I use e-radio and read books in the web. Consequently, new media has changed my habits of media consuming. But it is nothing surprising.

Elderly people on computer

If I look to my family – I find we are all on the web, but doing different things there. We are all there for daily news, seeking for the most interesting title. OK, not all of us – the youngest one (7 years old) is not interested in news yet and the oldest one – 84 years old grandma -prefers one special TV news programme, because “the moderator is the son of my sister’s friend’s friend.” My nephew is on the web to socialize. He is one of the so called “mobile generation” and is my guide into WAP. My mother uses the web for research and goes to Youtube for classic music. She is the one who is ready to pay for good content. And she does. On the contrary, my father is on the web for everything he can get for free. He always says that this is the best thing about internet. That is the reason he tries tirelessly but unsuccessfully to teach his old mother to read her regional press printed out from the web. A pity she has a problem with her eyesight, otherwise he would try to convince my granny to sit and read these stories online. Although my dad has made some progress. My granny has been on skype for me for a few weeks already…

New media has changed my habits of media consuming. But that’s not surprising.

Myself, I am still not so advanced as to be on Twitter or to use all multimedia features possible, but I’m happy to watch Youtube documentaries, mostly those made by the BBC. Whenever I want and whenever I have some burning question. The last one I was pleased to find and watch was “Michael Jackson Story 1958-2009″, also powered by the BBC.

Youtube is always there for you – with both lots of amateurism and most important, lots of valuable information. So, no regrets that I do not have my real paper magazine in my mailbox anymore.

All bags off!

Lelde — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:09:59 +0000

I am Latvian. Latvians love to call themselves great singers. It is true, but unfortunately I am a bad singer. We have beautiful nature, it is also true. We have great minds and we are the best ice hockey fans, there is no doubt. I’ve heard Estonians say – if it is raining, then God is Latvian. Probably, but I am not quiet sure. We have a webpage www.MillionReasonsWhyLatviaIsTheBestCountryInTheWorld.com. It is sad that this page is just in Latvian, but there are also some pictures for everybody to see. This is a virtual place where we can make some fun about ourselves. We are also those people who last few years spent the money we had never earned. We lived on credit and bought the most expensive cars. I haven’t seen so many exclusive cars in Brussels till this. I really do not know if people in Brussels feel the impact of economic crisis but we do in Latvia now.

One of my mission is to take the bag off!

That is why we are leaving the country one by one. It is sad, but also true. There is a joke – the last Latvian leaving the country should switch off the lights in the airport. Last few months I’ve got so many messages from friends about their leaving as never before. They are going to study or work with no intention to return. I’ve just read in the webpage of our national news agency that this year there is the highest rate of persons leaving Latvia since the start of this century. Now they are not going to pick champignons in Ireland or strawberries in Norway for some months. Young, well educated professionals are leaving with their families.

„Nothing special” – said our ex minister of finance Atis Slakteris when the journalist of Bloomberg Television asked him – what happened, that we get to this point in Latvia? But I would like to say it is special to each individual leaving. Because it is not about percents, numbers and statistics, it is still about people.

So, I am also here in Brussels, European Parliament for next 5 months. In DG Communication, Web Communications Unit. I applied and hoped to be here, because stage in Brussels is probably the most desirable place to go for people in my age. Till this I’ve never been in Erasmus, never lived in other country longer than couple of weeks. Never studied or worked outside Latvia. I thought it is not going to be easy for me. For now it feels even too comfortable here. And I am thinking – why? I’ve always been afraid (I do not even know if it is the right word) of everything new – of unknown places, new experience, even people. It could sound weird, but I prefer staying home not going out. I prefer social networking, written communication, not real social activities. I am not good at talking to people in public. I still remember that in my first summer job in news agency I was afraid to talk on phone with unfamiliar people.

There is a joke – the last Latvian leaving the country should switch off the lights in the airport.

So, what was I thinking when choose to study communication? A shy and introverted journalist? Sounds bad. I’ve got no answer for myself. I loved my studies very much but it is still pretty hard for introverted person to be in such dynamic professional environment. In spite of this, I try to convince myself that it is possible to learn everything – even to communicate in an extroverted manner. Because by the definition you have to be extroverted to work in communication field. And I believe – personality traits can be shaped according one’s will. It is also called experience – I guess. So, I am here on my mission to learn!

As they say – impossible is nothing. Now it feels the ball is on my side of the field and I can decide what I am going to do with it!

Beware of the leaking ceiling

Helle — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:08:59 +0000

“I have got a scholarship, they call it the Schuman scholarship, and I am coming to Brussels in the beginning of October. How do I do to get an apartment?”

The question in an email from a friend’s friend made me remember my own first couple of months in Brussels and my first mistakes in this town. Because, working at WebComm Unit at EP in Brussels involves dealing with a lot of practical issues, one of them being getting somewhere to live. So I found my self writing an e-mail in return which turned out to look like a guide “This is how you do it”.

Don't forget to take an extra look at the ceiling @ Ben McLeod on Flickr

This friend’s friend is just one of many many trainees, or so called stagiaires which is the French word often used, who come every autumn and every spring to start a five months’ period of traineeship in the European Institutions. They will probably all have to go through it, the mistakes, the searching, and the walking up and down the streets with a map. (Of course they will also experience all the good stuff but that is a whole other story).

Anyway so I figure, I tell you (potential future stagiaires) what I told my friend’s friend. Don’t do what I did: I had booked an apartment in Etterbeek, close to the EU-area, which I had found over the Internet and had paid the “guaranty”, one months rent. I arrived in Brussels and went to the apartment but found out that the apartment was a disaster. So I spent a couple of days trying to convince myself that this wasn’t that bad, after all. But one morning when I had my breakfast the ceiling started to leak – the neighbour above had her shower. Well, I decided to get moving. The landlord reluctantly gave me back some of the “guaranty”, and probably quickly put the item out for rent at the Internet again, claiming that this was a “charming apartment”.

So, save your self some trouble. Get here to Brussels, book a hotel or a youth hostel or if you are lucky – stay at a friend’s place for a week or two. Get a map, look at different websites such as www.xpats.com and on the intranet of the Commission and Parliament, ask around and start visiting apartments and rooms. And – don’t forget to take an extra look at the ceiling…

What you do will come back to you

Hanneke — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:18:11 +0000

It is about time to reveal a bit more about whom we are, also to give potential trainees the opportunity to make a well-informed choice.

DNA of the team - (c) Mr Jamespeake on Flickr

The only causes worth fighting for are lost causes

At average we are 33 ¼ years young. This youthly figure is without the trainees but includes the boss! Still a large number of us were too old to be at the meeting between Hillary Clinton and young Europeans recently in the Parliament, although some of the editors managed.

If something bothers you: confront it. If it does not work: leave it

We have a gender-balanced team with seventeen women and twelve men though the boss and editorial coordinator are both men……

Always try to get better

Interestingly, six among us have previously worked for an MEP or a group, covering the political spectrum from the left to the right.

What is worth doing, is worth doing well

Since we are working for a multilingual website, we master together all official EU-languages of course, but there is more. You can also address us in Bosnian, Catalan, Croatian, Faroese, Frisian, Galician, Hebrew, Yiddish, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, even in Calabrian and Milanese dialect and of course in American English. Moreover, one of us has plans to learn Arab and we have also an editor who can imitate Swiss German on request.

Always do what your mother recommends not to do

Are we law-obeying citizens? Well, together we have had during our collective adult lives 438 parking or speeding fines. Quite a lot for such a young unit and bearing in mind that seven among us do not use a car! We see a clear distinction here since 346 of the fines are collected by people who have sun, wine and good food in common: they are all from below the garlic frontier.

Try to get the best out of everything

One of us even stopped driving because she figured out paying taxis would be cheaper than paying the fines….

When it is worth having, it is worth working for

We studied communication science, cultural studies, economy, European studies, film art, finance, history, law, public relations, journalism, marketing, photo journalism, political science, many languages and translation, sociology and international relations. Almost everybody did more than one study, the real die-hards up to five!

Don’t let money or gadgets take you hostage

Together we have ten domestic animals and eighteen domestic kids. Here we witness another frontier: the men in the unit tend to like animals, the women don’t. The men together possess 3 cats, 1 part-time dog and 4 gold-fish. One of the fish-owners, however, wants “to get rid of his two goldfish” so if you would be able to give those two a loving, caring home, please leave your contact details below.

The glass is half-full

The women together possess 2 cats. In addition, one recently caught a mouse and one has two potential rabbits.

Do not worry about something until it becomes a problem

The kiddos most likely will continue to outnumber the animals since three more are on their way …

Don’t regret the things you have done but the ones you haven’t done

Finally, what do we do when we are not at work? We like sports! So off we go: climbing, diving, horse-riding, orienteering, wind- or kite surfing, playing rugby and paragliding.

To live and let live or only you can make you happy

Some of us really relax while playing the birbynė, archiving, ship spotting, deciphering hand-writing, filling in crosswords and flying radio-controlled airplanes.

From the evil you fear or the good you expect, you will always only get half

Still want to know more: read here how we describe ourselves or post your curiosity below. As long as your questions do not involve sex, porn and Britney Spears we may be happy to answer.

I am nothing if not a nihilist

Finally, tried to make sense of the titles? They actually reflect the life-philosophy of the team members!