Where did you do your internship and what was your role?
Last summer I did my internship in Brussels at the European Commission in the Directorate General for Competition, F4 Merger Unit, which is specialised in Post and Transport Services.
The European Commission is an EU institution with a power of investigation and intervention. The working languages are English, French and German. It is a big institution, counting more than 32,000 European civil servants. They are divided into departments called “Directorates-General” – DG – which are sub-divided into services – specialised in particular market sectors – which are also sub-divided into units – policy areas.
My work consisted in the treatment of companies’ merger cases. I had to draft legal documents, all following strict templates; some were internal to the European Commission, and some others were to be published to inform EU citizens and companies. I also helped to interpret outputs of market investigations that were specifically made for the cases I was working on.
How did your studies / courses at TSE help you during the internship?
The mathematical skills I gained at TSE enabled me to create a methodology to compute different market shares for many sub-segmentations of given markets.
How did you find your internship? What advice would you give to students to find a similar internship?
I heard from other TSE students that the European Commission was helping students by offering them the possibility to get an understanding of its work through some special programs. I was looking for hands-on experience in the competition sector to complement my theoretical knowledge. It was clear to me that I wanted to work for such an institution, so I applied. To students who would like to find a similar internship, I would suggest to send an e-mail as soon as possible to “comp-visitors-scheme@ec.europa.eu”. You should provide some details concerning your availability, your motivation, the service/unit you would be interested in working in, etc, with a CV and a cover letter.
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