How to get a job at the United Nations

[The logos of just some of the specialised agencies of the UN. If your aim is to become an international civil servant, you should visit all of their websites, and lots more besides]

Since I started at the UN Staff Mobility Programme in April, I have been asked this question a number of times. I don't profess to know enough about networking or CV writing to write about those things, but what I certainly am familiar with from my time here is how to find vacancies in the UN System. And finding them all ain't easy.

What is colloquially known as "the UN" is more properly called the United Nations System, a network of international organisations such as UNICEF, the World Food Programme, etc. One of these member organisations is itself called the United Nations, and it is this confusion with naming which causes problems when looking for jobs.

The United Nations (the organisation, not the system) and each specialised agency (as all the other organisations in the UN System are called) are highly autonomous from one another. For example, they will all likely have their own legal departments. They also all have their own human resources departments, and conduct their own recruitment. This means that if you would like to be a "UN lawyer" (or accountant, security guard, whomever), you have to apply at a huge number of different places to have the best possible chance.

Two links are essential for finding vacancy announcements in the UN System. The "Galaxy" staffing system for jobs at the United Nations (again only the organisation, not the system), and the "Job Opportunities" page of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), which in turn links to the jobs pages of 39 specialised UN agencies and related organisations.

That's 40 different places to look, enough to test anyone's dedication to a UN career! However if you take the time to go through these links, you will have seen all of the currently advertised UN vacancies. Well... not exactly all: although the ICSC has linked to all of the specialised UN agencies, it didn't get all the jobs pages of entities formed as a joint venture between the different organisations, for example those of the United Nations Chief Executives Board for Coordination or the International Centre for Science and High Technology (it may be that vacancies on these sites are replicated at one or all of their parent organisations' sites, but I am not sure - if you are really aiming for all jobs and not just 99%, I suggest looking at these too).

If the above super-systematic method of regularly trawling through the websites of every agency in the UN doesn't appeal to you, you can have someone else do it for you: unjoblist.org is powered by a "screen scraping" robot which pulls down jobs as they appear on UN sites, and unjobs.org is run by the more traditional method of humans looking and manually posting jobs. Both sites list thousands of vacancies, but the fact that they are not run by the UN and the processes behind them cannot guarantee comprehensiveness means that using them instead of doing it yourself you sacrifice accuracy for time.

A prime segment of UN job hopefuls are our clients at the UN Staff Mobility Programme. As expatriates following their UN spouses or partners around the world, their job choices are often limited to working for international organisations due to immigration issues. Now you know what they do about finding a UN job - good luck!

Comments

[Ihthy Sham]

Well my name is Ihthysham, 21 years old, working for a NGO as a Prtoject Coordinator on minorities rights funded by MRG. I have been working with them since November 2009 and looking forward to join with un .pls reply me.

[generic viagra]

these pages are of little, here I have discovered many things that really did not know, I thank you for the blog!

[Retro Jordans]

The career management has the vital significance to individual, the enterprise and even the society.

[career consulting]

I have great interest in history, all aspects of it. Like logic and works hard to understand why things are the way they are. Being a high school, I need to decide what to do with my life. I would appreciate the history engraved in my career but I do not want to be a teacher by any means. Some ideas for career choice are appreciated.

[supra shoes]

Your article made me gain a lot of and support here.

[ugg adirondack boot II]

I would appreciate the history engraved in my career but I do not want to be a teacher by any means. Some ideas for career choice are appreciated.

[This is it]

Anyhow I wanted to say it’s nice to know that somebody else also pointed out this as I experienced trouble finding the exact same info elsewhere.

[Air Jordan]

Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit. Do you think so?

[miami web design]

When I think about UN, I imediately think bout high rank jobs and a ton of paper work to get nd interview!!!

I imagine the greater obstacules and harder tasks, because world wide problems are studied/tried to get fixed there!!

[miami web services]

Very bad for someone like him to use his influences in to try to take advantage of people that is just not nice at all and they should be ashamed of themselves.

[business logo design]

I don't know what's happened, but I'm not complaining..though it does look nice.

[hgh]

It's a learning process to anybody. There are certainly tough times to face.

[pharmacy]

Just wanted to thank you, not just because the nice post, but pretty much more because my grandfather is nearly recovering from his surgery and he has almost nothing to do but staying on bed all day, his best source of entertainment has been this blog and I feel this is something good for him and his recovery.

[Lingerie]

Great post. i like it. feeling great when reading your post. The content of the articles there will be a lot of attractive people to appreciate

[supra shoes]

Liked you on Facebook, too. =)

[Generic Viagra]

INteresting approach, I cant lie when I say that I'm intrigued with this methods.

[house plans]

They require a very high experience and bachelor on the department.

[Viagra]

Thank you for the tips!