DGT Blue Book or Schuman Traineeship?
Hi everyone!
I’m a translator and have applied (and passed pre-selection) for a Blue Book Traineeship at the DGT, but am also applying for a Schuman Traineeship in case I ultimately don’t receive a Blue Book placement offer.
Given I’ve passed pre-selection for Blue Book, how likely is it that I will pass the pre-selection for Schuman as well? From what I understand, Blue Book applicants tend to have better profiles compared to Schuman applicants, so I’m guessing my chances are pretty good, but I also know Schuman gets more applicants overall. I guess that evens out the playing field a bit, right?
Also, which one should I ultimately be gunning for if I’m interested in a career in the EU institutions? I’ve read up a lot on both, and Blue Book seems to be the preferred pipeline for a translation career in the EU institutions, while Schuman is often considered to be the “weakest” of the traineeships. Is this true in practice, i.e. are Blue Book trainees more likely to be considered for future vacancies/freelance work than Schuman trainees? I guess it would make sense, since I’ve also read that Schuman entails a lot less “hands-on” translation work than Blue Book, but I’m not really sure how much truth there is to that.
Thank you for any answers and advice! (Sorry if this has already been asked; I’ve searched the subreddit for comparisons, but couldn’t find any threads comparing Blue Book and Schuman specifically for translation).