EA - EAs interested in EU policy: Consider applying for the European Commission’s Blue Book Traineeship by EU Policy Careers

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: EAs interested in EU policy: Consider applying for the European Commission’s Blue Book Traineeship, published by EU Policy Careers on January 6, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.Inspired by a series of recent forum posts highlighting early career opportunities in US policy, this post summarises why and how to apply to the Blue Book Traineeship. This paid, five-month internship programme with the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, is one of the main pathways into an EU policy career. The last section of this post also outlines some other options to get started in EU policy.There are two Blue Book sessions each year, with applications opening in January for the session starting in October and in August for a start in March of the following year. Application deadlines can be found here. Applications for the October 2023 session are open now and close on January 31.As the programme is suitable for people in different stages of their career and from various backgrounds (see below) and EU policy is arguably still neglected within the EA community, an application could be a good option for many EAs. The initial application is fairly low-cost, as you only need to upload your CV and documents without writing a motivation letter.The programme is not only relevant to students or recent graduates, as many trainees have some years of previous work experience (around 30% of all trainees are 30+ and only 5% younger than 25, see full statistics here). Work experience can even be a significant advantage for finding full-time positions after the traineeship, and it can be a strategic decision to only start the traineeship after gaining some work experience to increase the chances of being able to stay on.[1]Epistemic status: This post is mostly based on my experience completing the traineeship last year and now working full time at the Commission, including conversations with around 20 people before and during the traineeship about both the application process and getting full-time employment afterwards. The post was greatly improved by the contributions of four other EAs with expertise on EU policy.EligibilityThe programme is mostly directed towards EU citizens.[2] The minimum educational requirement is a completed undergraduate degree. However, a master’s degree is sometimes necessary to pass through the first stage of the selection process (especially for ‘competitive’ nationalities below) and increases employment opportunities after the traineeship.The programme is open to graduates of all disciplines, not just people holding policy-related degrees—even rewarding applicants from ‘rare fields of study’ in the selection process. Most degrees outside of policy, law and economics should fall into this, as the majority of trainees (around 70%) hold degrees in one of these fields. It is therefore a good opportunity for EAs with no previous policy experience interested in testing their fit and learning more about impact in the sector.All eligibility requirements are detailed here, including the requirement to prove very good knowledge (B2 level) of two official EU languages (English plus one other is sufficient).Background on the European CommissionThe Commission is the executive body of the EU. It draws up initial legislative proposals (which are then amended and adopted jointly by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, the other two main EU institutions) and implements EU policies (e.g., deciding how to allocate funds, outlining the technical details of legislation, monitoring the implementation at member state level). It employs around 30,000 people mostly based in Brussels. The Commission’s main departments according to policy areas, the Directorate Generals (DGs), are comparable to government ministries at the national level. A Blue Book Tr...