UNITAR
09 November 2022, New York, USA - UNITAR office in New York held "UNITAR: Knowledge to Lead — Career Opportunities at the United Nations” with the Hospitality Committee for United Nations Delegations (HCUND), its second official event with the committee. The hybrid event was held at Conference Room 9 of the United Nations Headquarters and garnered over 55 in-person participants and 50 more joining through video conference.
The event started with Ms Ashley Bernhard, Member of the HCUND Advisory Council and CEO of Haven Hill, introducing Mr. Marco Suazo, Head of UNITAR Office in New York, and Rev. Carol Shuttleworth, President of HCUND. Mr. Suazo stated how excited UNITAR is for this second event with HCUND and shared a few anecdotes from his experience working at the United Nations. Rev. Shuttleworth shared her excitement with Ambassador Suazo, stating how happy she was for such a great turnout.
UNITAR
The event then formally started as Ms Holly White, Human Resources Specialist – Central Recruitment, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), started by asking the participants about which questions they want to be answered by the end of the session. Ms White then went on to discuss the foundations of applying for a job at the United Nations. Applying for a job requires one to assess their experience and specializations, and to do this, one must ask certain questions such as — “What do I like doing?”, “What type of environment do I like working in?”, “Do I want to work in person or remotely?” — and using the answers to these questions as a guide to determining which position or job opening will fit you best. Ms White also emphasized that searching for the perfect job requires one to assess and list down their strengths and weaknesses in terms of skills and abilities they already possess or want to improve. This list will serve as a guide not only for the career search but also talk about themselves once they have secured an interview.
UNITAR
Ms White then proceeded to give tips about how to look for vacancies at the United Nations through LinkedIn, the UNDP website, UN Job List, and UN Careers to list a few. She also gave some tips on how to get through the initial screenings, emphasizing how important it is to familiarize oneself with basic knowledge about the United Nations, its work, and the Sustainable Development Goals. Ms White stated that it is not easy to get a job within the United Nations as thousands apply every day — however, being able to showcase one’s expertise and specializations as well as actively applying to every vacancy related to one’s expertise and experience will give one’s application a boost. The session ended with the participants actively asking Ms White a wide range of questions.
Ms Bernhard closed the session as she thanked the participants, Ms White, and UNITAR for a successful event — and invited the participants to watch out for updates on the next UNITAR and HCUND session next year.