How do I find consultant-type work for the UN?
May 8, 2009 4:15 AM   Subscribe

I'd like to work for the United Nations (or a similar international civil service organization). How do I find temporary/consultant work for them?

I'd like to start a career with the UN. They have suspended their regular recruitment via examinations, so I'm looking for another way in. How do I find temporary, consultant-type work for the UN (or for other international organizations)?

If it matters, I'm late 20s, EU citizen, with a master's degree in international relations & international finance.

I've seen this question, but it refers more to regular employment.
posted by insouciant to Work & Money (1 answer total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: In case you don't already know about them, here are a few websites you should keep an eye on:

UN Jobs

ReliefWeb vacancies

In my experience (I do consultancy work for international development agencies), a lot of stuff happens internally in individual country offices - this is obviously especially true for places like WHO, UNESCO, UNICEF, etc. This means that consultancies may be advertised only on the country website. More irritating, consultancies can sometimes be advertised only for convenience so it helps to start networking as hard as you can.

My own route: started as a journalist for 2 years, left, did some consultancy work for NGOs whose people I'd got to know whilst at the paper (another 1-2 years). A person at a development agency which supported one of the projects I worked saw my work, liked it. They also asked around about me and had read my newspaper work. We met a couple of times, and told me that a relevant job was coming up. I applied when it opened, and got it. Certainly, having spoken to people from the recruiting department gave me a considerable edge.
posted by tavegyl at 5:50 AM on May 8, 2009


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