My Experience of Brussels

I recently saw on social media that internships are currently available to qualified translators to spend a nine-month period in institutions in the EU on point 1 of the salary scale. 

You will certainly have a unique opportunity to experience what an EU career means, to improve your professional skills and to make personal growth. 

It reminded me of the time I became interested in a job as a translator in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Translation. I had just graduated with an MA degree in translation. I applied for a job and was invited to take a written test in Dublin with a short interview afterwards. 

I successfully completed it and within six months I was invited to travel to Brussels for a medical examination. All travel and accommodation costs were covered and I received the costs back in due course. I was looking forward to the trip and to discovering Brussels. 

I spent the morning undergoing the intensive medical examinations and afterwards I did the tourist trail of the Brussels highlights such as Parc du Cinquantenaire and the Grand Place in the city centre. I met a friend who is still working in the institutions at Kitty O’Shea bar to grab a bite to eat before I got the plane back to Dublin. 

While I passed all the exams, the recruitment process was so lengthy that it took eight months before the offer came through. In the meantime, I lost interest in working abroad and another job came up near me and life continued after that. I got married and have had two children since then. We are now settled and happy to work at my ease in Dréimire – Language Services. 

I now understand that the recruitment process in the European institutions has improved considerably and that delays are not as slow as they were at that time, and I would encourage young people to consider the great opportunities that Brussels and indeed Luxembourg has to offer as well. 
 
If you need an accurate, reliable and high-quality translation of any subject between English and Irish, you can send the text to a skilled, professional translation service like Dréimire - Language Services on dreimire.ie