Starting a Career at The United Nations: The How

Source: Wikipedia

Is it just me, or has anyone else ever wondered how to start a career at the UN agencies? Because at the beginning of my professional career, working at the UN in Indonesia  has always been my dream career - probably because I studied a lot about it, and it has inspired me to pursue a career as a UN staff who helps making the world a better place. 

I have probably submitted hundreds (if not thousands) resumes to various positions at UN agencies, from UNDP, UNICEF, and I even submitted an application for a position at the ICJ! (Which was quite impossible at that time due to my lack of experience, but hey, I am a dreamer. No judging here 😀)

Well, after various attempts, I finally started my first career as a consultant at the WHO Indonesia a couple of years ago. It was a very precious professional journey which I believe has given me a lot of skills and experiences even though the project I was working on was a short-term project. 

Apparently, starting a career at the UN does not really have to be that one door opportunity, where you can only apply through the organization's website. Well, it is one of the ways, but it is not the only way! 😊 

There are several ways of how you can start your professional journey as a UN worker. These tips that I am about to tell you are the tips that I have experienced myself personally.

1. Apply as a consultant - usually through the e-mail at a job vacancy post. Working as a consultant is quite different than working as regular UN staff or service contract holders, in terms of entitlement and salary arrangement. Usually, you will be hired under the lump sum contract or the daily fee based contract (I'm not really familiar with this one). The financial proposal usually will specify a total lump sum amount, and the payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments are made in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. (source: UNDP's procurement notice). For example, you are hired to be a consultant on a specific project for a certain period of time, you will be paid for USD 6000 for a 6 months project. This does not mean that they will pay you $1000/month. They might pay you 25% of the total value of your contract upon the signing, and then another 65% after you submit your progress report, and then another 10% upon the completion of your final report. They might also pay you monthly based on your monthly report. It varies.
2. UN Volunteer Platform - Although it says volunteer, it is not volunteer per se, as the volunteers at the UN are usually paid decently - but they are very specific on calling it a monthly stipend, not salary. Nevertheless the amount is quite good (for example, the stipend for a national UNV in Jakarta is approximately IDR 8.000.000, and for an international UNV in Indonesia you will be given a stipend more than USD 2000/month), and even better than most entry level jobs in Jakarta (or in Indonesia!) as you are also entitled to various benefits which are basically the same as the benefits received by UN staff - insurance (some even covers your dependants!) and training allowances. To apply for a UN Volunteer position, you can check their website here: https://vmam.unv.org/. 
3. Apply through the recruitment system. This method is basically the same as the other organization's recruitment method. There was a time when I was being skeptical and thought that these kinds of recruitment system are basically just formalities for the actual "recruitment" (re: through the insider's recommendation). But I was wrong! Although I failed many times (like MANY), I managed to be called for several written tests and interview sessions. So I guess I just lacked of experience or was just not suitable for the position or the post advertised. So this method takes approximately 2 months in total (could be longer), from the submission deadline, first announcement, written test, and then the interview. I will discuss it on a separate post the details of this process so that you can better understand how to prepare for the recruitment process 😊 

So where can we get all the information regarding the UN recruitment?

I used to be informed by my colleagues, my former lecturers, and some other circle of friends from my previous schools. However, there are 2 websites which you can rely on when finding the perfect job if you are interested in working at the UN agencies (of course the number one source would be the official UN agencies' websites!😊), which are:

1. The UNjobs (not official UN job portal) https://unjobs.org/
2. The Impactpool https://www.impactpool.org/

Both of the platforms will usually direct you to the actual official website of the UN agency, however they have quite a good and updated database on the current open vacancies.

One thing to remember is that, applying for a job at the UN is quite tricky as not only that you will have to submit detailed documents including the required P11 Form (Personal History Form), you also have to fill the 8 or 9 steps of set of questions online. So, you really have to be careful and make sure that you don't miss a single document or detail. However, it really is worth the effort 😁