MEP Liudas Mažylis’ Adviser Gintarė Labotakytė-Domarkienė: Career in EU Institutions – for Those Unafraid of Responsibility

“If you want to gain experience, you must not be afraid to make decisions that will take a lot of effort at first but will eventually lead to the desired outcome”, Gintarė Labotakytė-Domarkienė, Adviser to Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Liudas Mažylis, says.

Vytautas Magnus University’s (VMU) graduate admits that she never imagined herself working at one of the most important institutions of the European Union (EU) but reveals that all of her major career choices were based on her determination to prioritize activities that she personally found interesting.

Career path was shaped by more than just studies

Gintarė says that she spent a long time thinking about studying political sciences. However, one day she noticed the description of Public Communication study program on VMU’s website and immediately realized that it was basically made for her. “I realized that I could learn anything I wanted here. The description was very appealing, because that year, more than 200 of us enrolled. The faculty even had some challenges in seating so many students”, Gintarė recalls.

The graduate, who used to get actively involved in various activities at school, remembers that during her first year at the university she spent a lot of time simply observing the environment and looking for additional things to do that would capture her attention.

“Since I really enjoyed organizing events at school, in my second year of studies, I joined the volunteers at VMU. Together with other volunteers, we did various kinds of tasks: from greeting the guests to hanging their coats in the cloakroom etc. This helped me get an inside look at event organization and university life.

At the same time, I started learning Spanish, and the teacher soon invited me to join the Spanish Language Club. There, I hoped to not just learn the language but also talk to Spanish speakers. These activities not only enriched my studies but also contributed strongly to my professional development later on”, Gintarė remembers.

While at VMU, the graduate was also very impressed by the cordial interactions between the teachers and the students. According to her, participation in diverse activities also helped in establishing warm connections. “For instance, we made friends with one teacher during admission of first-year students to VMU, when we sat together at one table and accepted the students’ documents. We also represented the university at the Study Fair together with other teachers. When I used to mention this to my classmates who had enrolled into other higher education institutions, they would say that other universities had far more rigid hierarchies”, Gintarė notes.

She also praises the university’s liberal arts model of studies (artes liberales), which provides the opportunity to attend not just the chosen speciality’s courses but also lectures of other fields as well. In Gintarė’s words, lectures of bioethics and sociology not only expanded her horizons and let her get acquainted with other study fields but also provided her with certain skills that she finds useful to this day.

“For example, during lectures of economics, I learned how to fill in the table of expenses and income every month, which I continued to do for a long time after graduating. And even though I haven’t been doing that anymore for a while, I’ve retained the habit of taking care of my financial matters”, she explains.

A career-turning connection

Gintarė reveals that, even before finishing her communication studies, she was intent on continuing to expand the scope of her professional opportunities. For this reason, she purposefully chose political sciences for her master’s studies.

“The master’s degree is important in the state sector. Also, I was more drawn to state institutions than to business. Thus, I chose the master’s degree studies of European Union’s Public Policy and Administration in part because I thought about their practical benefits. However, while studying, I realized how lucky I was because I found the EU’s policies riveting”, Gintarė points out, describing her path to master’s studies.

The VMU alum’s shift in the choice of a study field was also impacted by the work experience she had gained as an undergraduate. As a student, she spent the summers in her hometown Kretinga, where she worked at the local newspaper.

“Still, after a few summers like that, I realized that journalism was not for me and I was more drawn to public relations. Since I was the president of the Spanish Club, I soon made friends with the teachers of the Institute of Foreign Languages. That’s how I got the recommendation to teach Spanish to children, and I did so for a few years. In the beginning of my studies, I never would have dared to think that I could teach others. After finishing the first year of my MA studies, I won a scholarship for language courses in Spain. I’m glad I dared to give it a try and, after getting my master’s degree, I also completed studies of Pedagogy”, Gintarė divulges.

As an active MA student, she not only gained political knowledge but also got acquainted with someone who impacted her further career.

“The head of our study program was Professor Liudas Mažylis. He taught us many lectures. Since the course was small, he got to know the students well. I worked on a project with him after graduating; also, as I had started working at the VMU Marketing and Communication Department, I continued to keep in touch with the professor.

When I found out that the professor was participating in the European Parliament’s election, I wished him good luck and urged him to contact me if he needed any help. And there were times when I gave him some advice on certain matters. Fifteen minutes after the election results were announced, I received a call from him, along with the question: “Are we going together?”. I have to confess that this wasn’t completely unexpected, I had a feeling that this could happen. I said: “Let’s go”. So this job came to me through political trust”, Gintarė remembers her career turn.

Work in the European Parliament is not for everyone

Gintarė, who has worked in the European Parliament during Liudas Mažylis’ both first and second term, claims that life in this institution revolves around a repetitive monthly schedule.

“For one week, we work together with the MEPs in the committees of their choice. On another week, we prepare for the plenary session in Strasbourg. We call it the group week, as we work in our political groups and work groups, while the main group meeting is dedicated to the current affairs and the upcoming voting of the next week. Most of the work consists of meetings and sessions, and finally everything leads to the plenary”, Gintarė says.

The specialist, who is working at one of the main EU institutions, notes that the assistants of MEPs take care of both the political and the technical sides of the work: they help the politicians prepare for meetings, advise and consult them on various political matters, organize trips, help them answer emails or calls, distribute funds, arrange the schedule… And it’s all so that the MEPs have as much time as possible for political work.

As Gintarė describes, compared to other EU institutions, the European Parliament stands out thanks to its liberal working environment; however, she emphasises that the most important personal qualities required here are organization and communication.

“You must be capable of prioritizing well. I learned to do that at university, when I needed to prepare for multiple important exams at once. At the EP, the deadlines for tasks are very intense. You have to do everything very quickly, respond very fast. You must check email because if you don’t, hundreds of emails and requests will accumulate in one day. Everything must be done and prepared on time here”, Gintarė explains.

The ability to be communicative helps when a parliamentarian needs to welcome guests or talk to voters. “At the university, we had a lot of space for public speaking. We talked to the teachers as equals, so this trait provides me with more confidence and self-assurance now, when I talk and discuss with colleagues at the European Parliament: both other assistants as well as the politicians themselves”, Gintarė says.

Still, as she discusses life in a foreign country, Gintarė admits that working at the EP is not for everyone: often, as a result of intensive and long work hours, people who work at EU institutions feel quite lonely.

“Since, for this term, I moved to Brussels together with my family, I have no other choice but to shut down the computer when work hours are over. However, when I first came here alone, I definitely wasn’t able to always separate leisure time from work”, Gintarė reveals a not-so-romantic side to work at the European Parliament.

The studying environment is as important as the program

Talking about her choices and how some of them have led to work at one of the key EU institutions, VMU graduate says that it’s crucial to not chase trends and specific positions, but instead prioritise what one finds interesting.

“I remember one time when me and Prof. Mažylis participated in a meeting with schoolchildren. One girl said that she was considering the profession of a Member of the European Parliament. However, it’s not a profession. In order to find yourself in that position, you have to do many other activities and achieve big victories in life”, she emphasises and notes that, when choosing one’s speciality, it’s important to not just read the study program’s description but also examine the environment where you will be studying.

In Gintarė’s words, what you get alongside the studies is just as important as the studies themselves.

“It might happen that the description of the study program is appealingly presented, but the university’s culture does not match the person’s fundamental values. In such a case, even the content of the studies could pale in comparison. The environment where you spend your year of studies is crucial. Also, I’d tell schoolchildren that no one other than them knows what’s the best study field for them. And even if you find out that the program is not what you expected, it’s never too late to change your choice. Choose what you find the most interesting, and the career path will emerge naturally”, Gintarė assures.

She emphasises that, after choosing studies of public communication, she definitely did not imagine herself working either as a Spanish language teacher or, later on, at the European Parliament. “I think that it’s definitely not the final stop on my professional journey”, Gintarė concludes.