The ins and outs of working at a European news outlet - interview with Max Griera, Journalist at Euractiv

(Source: Max Griera)

By Aari Helmelaid, 16 minutes

ECA holds a wide network of alumni studying or working in different cities and in a variety of public and private sector companies and institutions. Many reside in Brussels, one of whom is former ECA President Max Griera. Blue&yellow writer Aari recently had the opportunity to interview him for our career Insights section. In this article, Max shares his memories of ECA, his journey on becoming a journalist, insights into working in the Brussels bubble, and valuable tips to help you land a job after your studies. 

Hello Max, could you start by introducing yourself?

I'm Max Griera. I'm from Barcelona, Spain. I studied in Maastricht, at UCM, where I studied a combination of EU law, policy and sociology. I have been involved in ECA since the beginning. In the year that it was founded (2020), I was the head of administration. Later on I founded the blue&yellow blog, and then the year after that I became the president of ECA. Now, also in part thanks to ECA, I am working in Brussels. I work in Euractiv, which is a European online news media. I started working in HR (Human Resources), but now I have transitioned to Editorial. Now I'm a journalist working for The Capitals, which is our daily morning newsletter in which we include news from all over Europe.

Why did you originally join ECA?

I saw an opportunity to be part of something, to help build something related to the EU. Of course, ECA was newly founded, so everything had to be done still. First, I joined as a member. That's what made me want to become involved to be able to again, build ECA with other students. When the council positions opened, I applied and they took me.

As you mentioned, you started the blue&yellow blog for which I write now. How did you come up with this idea? What led you to initiate it?

We wanted to build the structure of this new association and consolidate it. We were looking for new ideas. One of my obsessions during my academic years, and actually still now, because it's directly related to what I'm doing, is to bridge citizens with institutions and bridge the capitals with the institutions. I realized that there was not a lot of information for students available. Of course, you can go to mainstream media, but there was nothing from students to students. I thought that creating the blue&yellow would first, be good for the EU, because we could provide information. Second, it would be good for our members and students because they would get more informed. Our members would be able to write stories, which is a way to build a nice CV for aspiring journalists. It would also be good for the association because it would bring more stability. It would create a whole new department and bring new members into the association.

 Could you point out your top three most memorable moments with ECA?

First of all, the European Youth Event (2021) that we went to. We went all the way to Strasbourg for three-four days. We saw the parliament; we organised our own activities. It was truly a great experience. Another memorable moment was when we organised the event on EU Media in which we had a correspondent from Rai, which is the Italian television broadcaster. We had a local reporter from RTV Maastricht - the local Maastricht news broadcaster, and we also had Vlada - the HR director of Euractiv. I'll never forget about this event because it's what kickstarted my career in this company. I had chats with Vlada. We went for dinner the next day. I showed her Maastricht. That linked me to this company at a deeper level too. The third memorable moment is the end of the year party of my term, so when I stopped being president. It was a moment in which I could look at everything we had built, everything that we have done. I could be proud of it, I could be proud of the new generation coming and I could look into the future. So that's definitely a memorable moment.

You now work for Euractiv. How did you get to your position? What kind of a process did you have to go through?

As I was saying, I met Vlada, who is the HR director during the journalism event. I was already very interested in Euractiv. I read it a lot and I like their mission. I started applying and Vlada helped me with my CV. Then I saw that there was a position available. I asked her for tips to apply, which she did, but she also mentioned that a position for HR would be becoming available and asked if I wanted to meet, to talk about it. Of course, I said yes. At that moment, all students must be a bit confused about what to do with their future, right? We see a lot of different vacancies, a lot of different paths to go. So, I was open to anything. I met with Vlada, we talked about the position, it seemed perfect, and I said that I would love to do it. To my surprise, she offered it to me directly, I thought that I would've had to go through the normal selection process. She said, if you want it, it's yours. You just need to have an interview with the CEO. David (Euractiv CEO) approved me after our interview. So that’s how I got it. ECA was very important to my professional development, and this serves as an example of how ECA is a platform for you to network to get into the EU bubble and different companies.

What tasks are you responsible for in your position?

Regarding my tasks, right now it's changing. At the start I was HR and Office Assistant. There’s a lot of different responsibilities to this position. The most obvious one is recruitment. I coordinate the recruitment of interns and of senior positions. This means that I do the pre-screening and then for interns, I send the candidates that I like directly to the hiring manager. When they approve, I set an interview, and I go to the interview with the hiring manager. 

For the selected interns, I arrange the contract and other administrative steps. When the contract is signed I organise the onboarding journey. This means coordinating with IT, coordinating with the new staff, so that they come at the right time. The first couple of hours I meet with them to explain how Euractiv works, who we are, technical matters - Just a big wrap-up. I give them a tour, present them to everyone in the office. After the onboarding, there's the department onboarding. This is when the new staff meets with their hiring manager. From here, they're out of my sight, let's say.

I also do data analysis. Of course, there’s a lot of data in HR about people that leave the company, people that join the company, reasons for their departure. All kinds of data. Euractiv has grown a lot in the last four years, and it has changed a lot. We want to analyse this growth. The data is presented to management, from which they will make their own conclusions. I've automated the process - every time that someone comes or leaves, we update the database.

Then there's also organising community events. There's the winter and summer party. This is my favourite part of my HR job. They give me a big budget and I need to organise a party for 150-200 people. This involves contacting venues...that is similar to what I was doing in ECA.

So it's like transferring skills?

Exactly. Actually, thanks to my experience at ECA, I was able to organise the party in a museum with catering, DJ, everything. It was such a success. 

Then there's also team building so that different teams can bond and get to know each other better. There’s events in the office. This is simpler. For example, for Christmas we do a secret Santa in the office. 

It's about keeping the company alive and social. Euractiv is quite young and we're proud of that. We're all more or less friends with each other. So, it’s an essential part.

Then there's office management, which is the less sexy part of this job, but it's still cool. This means ordering supplies, pens, paper, merch, and new furniture. It means ordering food, snacks, coffee, anything that is needed, or sending flowers to our employees that had a baby, et cetera, quite ad hoc. Then I deal with administrative matters. I help with the payroll. We enter the receipts in the database. Also sick leaves, maternity leaves, all of that.

I manage the Euractiv JobSite, specifically the Euractiv part of it. I update it with new vacancies. 

Then the last part, overreaching everything, is just being the face of the company. When employees want something from the company, who do they go to? They go to HR. If they have a complaint, or if they want a new person in their team, anything, they'll come to you. At the beginning I was new so people wouldn't come to me with their issues. But with time, when they start trusting you, they ask you for advice and solutions. It's about being there for everyone, being their support. Lastly, we meet weekly with the administration team. So, it's me, the HR director, the head of finance, the accountant, and the CEO. For one hour we talk about what's happening in the company, things that have to change and just update each other pretty much.

It seems like a very long list of tasks. 

It is! That's the cool part also about Euractiv. That it's not like the (EU) institutions. Now that I live here in Brussels, I've heard from people doing the Schuman traineeship that they work 14 hours a week because they don't really have work to do. In Euractiv, and in private sector companies you really work all the time. You really learn a lot. They throw you in the deep end of the pool. That’s the best way to learn In the end. This position has a lot of different nuances. But I think that's what has made it super dynamic and very fun in the end. 

(Source: Max Griera)

Now that you're shifting into this new position as a journalist, what responsibilities will you take on?

From the 27th of February I will officially be a journalist. My new role is in The Capitals. It's our morning newsletter. It goes out every morning at eight and we have one article from every capital in Europe - the EU and neighbouring countries. So, Madrid, Rome, Amsterdam, Belgrade, etc. I'm going to be the regional coordinator for the Iberian Peninsula, which means I'll liaise with our journalists in Spain and Portugal to make sure that they're writing stories that are relevant for the newsletter. I call them during the day, ask them what stories they want to cover. Then we have a daily editorial meeting here with the other regional coordinators where we talk about what's hot, what's not, and what we want to write about. Then we get back to our journalists and we tell them the angle we want. Apart from coordination, I will also be an Editor. The contributions from the journalists are sent to me and my colleagues for editing. Often the contributions that we receive are not from native speakers or writers like us, who have studied in English. Sometimes we need to edit or change the perspective to fit the Euractiv style. On top of that, I will be writing original content myself on Spain and Portugal. Right here we have the Commission, the Council, and the Parliament. So we are the ones going to the Institutions to talk to Spanish MEPs, Portuguese officials, etc. We organise the ‘interview of the week’ and we help each other. So that is pretty much what I'm going to do. 

Are there any tips you can provide students on landing a job after graduating? 

I have so much to say about it. Honestly, one of the best things of having worked in HR is that now I'm pretty good at knowing what to do in the selection processes.

First of all, always make sure to write the name of the company correctly because many times we receive our name misspelt and that's automatically gone, it just shows lack of attention.

In your motivation letter, show a motivation for the place you’re applying to: why Euractiv? Why the Commission? Why political intelligence? Why Politico? Adapt your CV. When our recruiters look at curriculums, we're looking for keywords. Add keywords, link what you've done to the position. If I don't see any keywords even at the beginning, I will discard.

Get some student experience. We like people that are motivated and are working on something during their student years. That shows already what they want to do. Especially in journalism. There's a lot of people that want to be a journalist, but there's few that actually have proven interest. So, from an early stage, it's very important to write free articles for websites like blue&yellow. Take courses online on journalism, show that you're really interested. Same applies for business, policy consultancies, lobbying, even HR.

Don't be impatient. Recruitment processes take very long. Sometimes people send us 2, 3, 4 emails reminding us, and we really don't like that. It takes a toll on the candidate sometimes.

When it comes to recruitment, don’t be nervous for interviews at all. It's just a way to get to know each other. Don’t try to pretend that you are someone that you're not. Because in the end, working in a company is gonna be your life. You're gonna work nine to five. You must be comfortable and happy at the place you work. If you pretend to be someone that you're not during an interview and then you get in, you won’t fit. Interviews are, especially for interns, a way to see if there's a connection, a way to see if the person fits the environment. One thing that I like to say is that we don't hire workers, we hire people. We like to see personality. We like to see someone that is natural and that can take a joke. Cause we are quite informal and horizontal. Just be yourself.

Don't be afraid to contact the person that will interview you beforehand, but don't be too pushy. It's nice to send a LinkedIn message, but that's it. 

Investigate the company before the interview before writing the motivation letter. Make sure you know what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. This is pretty standard, but you would be surprised at the amount of people that don't do it. And then of course it's automatically discarded. 

Another tip for people that want to enter the bubble: Don't get discouraged. It's super competitive. We have a lot of applications, around a hundred or more for each position that we publish. You will receive a lot of rejections. In fact, before I was offered this job at Euractiv, I applied to 25-30 positions and no one replied. I didn't even have one interview. So don't be discouraged.

From my perspective, if you're interested in data, learn about it! Learn how to code, learn how to analyse data. Right now this is a very hot position. Everyone's looking for data visualizers, data analysts, and business analysts. For example, students in the department of knowledge engineering and business engineering, they're gonna have a job very quick and well paid. So if you’re not sure what path to take, and you could be interested in data, I recommend it. 

Another thing I really recommend is having some experience before doing a master’s. From a selection point of view, we value experience more than having two masters. Don't prolong your study years for too much. Try to get hands-on very quickly. If you have experience before the master's that’s even better because then you'll get to see what you like. For example, I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life and I was thinking of maybe doing a policy master’s. Now, because I've worked in a media company in the EU bubble, I know what it means to study policy, I know the career opportunities that are out there, and I don't want to do it anymore. This experience has shown me the way I want to go. I hope, and I'm pretty convinced that I will get a full-time position at the end of my internship here. So I'm planning on staying, and when I feel ready for the masters, I'll do it. But for the moment I don't have the need.

How would you describe the work environment in the Brussels EU bubble? A lot of students want to go into Brussels right after they graduate.

After seeing how the institutions work and how the private sector works, I think I want to stay in the private sector. I don't think I would want to work at the institutions. There's a lot of people that have this dream of working at the institutions and it's great to do a Schuman, a Bluebook, or be a parliamentary assistant for a while. But the working environment for what I've been told in the institutions, is quite hierarchical. To do some task, you need to email 10 different people to get approval. You don't really have that much work to do as an intern. It's a huge place, so it doesn't feel like your work has a true impact. Whereas working in a small, medium sized company, gives you more agency, gives you more the sense that you can make a change. Especially in companies that allow their interns to grow, which is the majority of the private sector. At Euractiv, this work environment is great. We're all quite young and it's super horizontal. Literally, I have the CEO in front of me and editors behind me and the director of communications next to me. If you have a question, you can always reach anyone. We almost always have drinks after work. I cannot talk about other places because of course I haven't worked in them. I don’t know about consultancies or lobbying firms. I know that it's different. It’s more formal and hierarchical. But that depends on the place.

That’s exactly what we want to show in ECA, that our members do not work only for the institutions, but pursue a variety of careers in the public and private sectors.

That's the thing, to work in EU affairs, you don't have to work in an EU institution. There's so much around it. From our data we can say that in Brussels there's around a hundred thousand people working for stakeholders. Many people are working in EU institutions, but there's a lot to do around it. There's culture foundations, media companies, consultancies, trade associations, NGOs, delegations. So don’t be narrow minded, look at everything that’s there. 

Last question, do you have anything more to add for our readers or any open positions at Euractiv that they should be aware of? 

Right now we have an open communications assistant position for German speakers. That one is difficult to find. So if they apply, they have high chances. Also, I would put in a good word for them. We have a new business assistant position, maybe suitable for SBE people - working with EU stakeholders and the commercial team. We have a marketing data assistant position. This is a data analyst internship to work with our new product and Euractiv Intelligence. We have a politics reporter, we have a digital tech journalist in Paris, and a news editor in Germany. I invite everyone to check them out. Lastly, a shout-out to everyone that reads this article. If you want to visit Euractiv, just send me a message: max.griera@euractiv.com. I'll be happy to welcome you to the office, show you around. We’re always happy to have guests and if anyone has any questions about HR, recruitment, Euractiv, journalism, anything, feel free to reach me.

You can read Max’s articles here.