Episode 39 – EU career boost: EFSA is looking for you

00:00

Aeris Raymaekers

I think we all had like the big “wow, we are so privileged.” Like, how did they choose us? Like, how did we end up here? 4000 people?

[Intro]

00:20

Mariya Dokova

Welcome back to Science on the Menu. Today we're having a bit of a special episode dedicated to our trainees. Every year a group of young, dedicated professionals joins EFSA as part of our yearly traineeship program. In this episode we're going to meet some of our trainees. We are going to get to know them a bit better, but most importantly, we're going to learn more about the traineeship program at EFSA.

So, without further ado, I'm welcoming our first trainee, which is Simone. Welcome Simone. Science and scientific background, toxicology.

00:52

Simone Crisopulli

Exactly.

00:53

Mariya

What did you know about EFSA before you applied? Because, you know, science is kind of at the core of our mission, of course.

01:02

Simone

I heard about EFSA during my studies, during my master's, I have like a broader picture of what is EFSA, the regulatory framework, what it’s working on and then I found out about the trainee opportunity. I think that no one expects to be sure that they’re going to be shortlisted or selected. So, it was like a big surprise for me. I was really happy. And, I mean, I think that it's even like something to be proud of, especially because I heard a lot of people applied for it.

So, with no expectation I ended up working on the nutrition team, and so this is what I'm doing right now.

01:49

Mariya

I know this bit of trivia about you that, behind the scenes, that you were shortlisted by a few teams. So, yes, great addition to EFSA’s workforce. You mentioned a bit how you have heard about EFSA, maybe you had some idea, but not very clear. Now that you are a part of the human nutrition team, how are your tasks related or some of your tasks related to what you studied, if they are related?

02:12

What I studied for is almost exactly what EFSA does because my background is toxicology, but specifically for risk assessment.

So, right now I'm actually putting hands on the real works that I studied for. So, yeah, actually I like what I'm doing, and yeah, this is what I studied for, so in general…

02:45

Mariya

You're in the right place.

02:47

Simone

Yeah, I'm the right place. I'm exploring it, figuring out how it works. Especially right now that I'm in EFSA I found out that the EFSA is a really complex world because there are a lot of things behind, for example, just the only things that, as a trainees, there's not only scientists, but even like, legal persons or communication especially, I thought that it was just for scientists. Actually, it's not. The interesting thing about EFSA and for all the trainees that you're going to encounter, very different people with different backgrounds. This is what I’m liking here in EFSA.

03:27

Mariya

We are lucky to work alongside these brilliant scientists in EFSA, indeed, all of us non-scientific staff. So, you mentioned a bit how it was different, what surprised you, but how did the traineeship meet your expectations or how you imagined EFSA to be?

03:44

Simone

I mean, at the beginning, I was kind of, a bit, scared of coming here and that I had to throw my knowledge, my skills, but I realised that it's not like this. Especially because I think that EFSA works as sort of like a second Academy.

I thought that my studies were ended, but actually here there are a lot of possibilities to learn new things, improving skills. It's about working, but at the same time improving ourselves, and this is a thing that I am really enjoying. So, whenever there is a possibility to do something like a webinar or trainings, I'm always applying for it because I think that it's one year where you can grow a lot and I'm trying to take advantage of it as much as I can.

04:41

Mariya

Good, the right attitude. Maybe here it's also worth mentioning that there are many training opportunities for trainees within EFSA and also for every trainee that joins, there is the role of the traineeship advisor and the mentor who also supports you in this process. We try to take good care of you.

05:00

Simone

Yeah, I mean, my relationship with my advisor, I really like it. We are just peers. I mean, when he asks me something job related, he's always listening to my ideas, my opinions, and he treats me as his peer, so I really like these things.

05:19

Mariya

Great. Good to hear. Okay. Thanks Simone, thank you very much. As you mentioned, we have different profiles. So, for our next guest today, we're testing a bit of a of a different format. I'm going to invite Santiago to join us, who’ll take your seat. Thank you very much, Simone.

05:37

Simone

Thank you for the invitation and happy to share my thoughts.

05:43

Mariya

Thank you again. You are not leaving us, you're just taking a seat over there.

05:47

Santiago Llorens

Good morning, Mariya.

05:48

Mariya

Hi, Santiago. How are you?

05:50

Santiago

I'm doing great.

05:53

Mariya

Can you briefly introduce yourself and how you ended up at EFSA?

05:56

My name is Santiago Llorens, and I'm working in EFSA in tasks related to quality management, strategy planning and analysis. So it’s a good opportunity to see, like I said before, not only the science side of EFSA, but also the administrative. How things work on the background to keep the show going, right?

06:15

Mariya

Indeed. So, what is your background in, actually?

06:19

Santiago

I started my professional career as a full-time journalist because I studied communications. So yeah, it's a big shift, but I'm really happy that it happened because I wanted to look for a different experience in making things happen.

06:34

Mariya

How did you find out about even the possibility to do a traineeship at EFSA?

06:45

Well, I have to thank a lot my colleagues and friends from my past office that they shared with me the possibility to applying for this traineeship. They knew that I was looking forward to pivoting my profile a little bit further away from communications to more business roles and administration like I'm doing now.

I would have never thought that I was going to work here, if I kept that mindset, but then after giving it a try, I was lucky enough to be here.

07:31

Mariya

You said you're not European, you are from Argentina.

07:35

Santiago

I am 100% from Argentina, born and raised in Buenos Aires. So yes, it's been a long way.

07:41

Mariya

Indeed. How was the move to Europe?

07:49

Santiago

I think we found a way to explain it very well in the past few days, which is, you can divide in two terms.

08:36

Santiago

Extremely. I'm so, so happy about it.

24:13

Mariya

Yes! Don't forget to apply. Well done, the communication trainee. Thank you very much to our listeners and viewers for joining another episode of Science on the Menu.

Keep an eye on our social media, on EFSA’s website, there you would be able to find a lot more information about our traineeship opportunities and what's coming up. That's all for now. Thank you again, and I hope to see you very soon on Science on the Menu.