Professionals, who are hired for their specific expertise, constitute 40% of the UN's staff. The UN employs few generalists. It mainly hires people with advanced degrees and a great deal of experience in their fields. People with PhDs in economics, developmental agriculture, statistics, finance, engineering, health services, demography, public administration or international and political affairs qualify for many UN jobs as do people with master's degrees in these fields.
Unlike businesses or banks, UN agencies rarely have formal training programs for inexperienced people. They almost always hire people with five years or more work experience; infrequently they will hire someone with no experience who has recently received a doctorate. People with backgrounds in journalism, radio, film or publishing are hired for public information positions.
About one third of the professional staff is technical-assistance experts who have "recognized standing" and extensive experience abroad.
The UN also hires General Service clerical staff, Field Service staff, who handle communications and maintenance tasks for peacekeeping missions, and Military Observers from member governments who serve as peace-keeping staff.
UN professionals are paid on a scale comparable to but with a slightly higher range than the U.S. civil service salary system. The UN uses the GS, which is among the highest civil service pay rates in the world, as a point of reference to try to attract highly qualified people. (It realizes that most of its professional employees can make more money elsewhere and that New York is a particularly expensive city.) It offers expatriate benefits to compensate staff for the extra costs involved in living and working outside their home country. The UN provides cost-of-living adjustments so that all staff have roughly the same purchasing power wherever they are stationed.
Upper-level UN staff are D-2 or D-1, which correspond respectively to GS-18 and slightly below GS-17. The rest of the professional staff is P-5 (highest) to P-1. P-1s get paid a little better than GS-9s, and P-5s get paid about $8,000 more than GS-15s.
Application Procedure
For job-hunting purposes, the substantive differences between autonomous, specialized, voluntary or subsidiary organizations are not important. What is important to know is where to apply for what job.
This office only accepts applications from people who have a graduate degree, preferably with significant work experience. If you know of an opening, and have a vacancy announcement or post numbers, you should apply to Professional Recruitment, Room 2465, which will forward your application directly to the person hiring for the position.
There are some exceptions. For the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Organization of American States, applicants must apply directly to those organizations. The IAEA and UNESCO insist that applicants apply through their country's mission to the UN and that applicants have a letter of sponsorship from their mission. (Note: The U.S. has withdrawn from UNESCO.)
Professional-vacancy announcements are sent to universities, professional and women's associations, member states' missions, international organizations and UN offices worldwide. All professional recruitment- whether for positions in New York or abroad-is done internationally and all candidates compete internationally for positions.
Anyone applying for a UN position must fill out the P-11 form, which is available at this office. There are no standardized placement or qualification tests for employment. The office is open to the public between 10 AM and noon on weekdays.
General Recruitment also accepts applications for clerical and secretarial positions, guides, messengers, etc. Applicants must have an undergraduate degree and, preferably, some work experience. People who are hired for these nonprofessional positions may try to be promoted to professional status by taking a "General Service to Professional" test. This test may only be taken after five years of service and if the person holds a permanent employment contract. The test is given once or twice a year.
For nonprofessional positions with UN offices abroad, you must apply directly to the office in question. Likewise, for positions with specialized and voluntary organizations, which have their own separate and often different application procedures, you must also apply directly.
The U.S. Department of State, other Federal agencies, the U.S. Mission to the UN and missions to other international organizations (in Vienna, Geneva, Rome and Montreal) can advise and assist qualified Americans in finding UN jobs and can refer American candidates to the UN. Americans do not generally have to be sponsored by their government to be eligible for a UN position. Final selection is up to the UN agency head. The most direct and efficient way to apply for a UN position is to apply directly to the UN. For most jobs there is no significant advantage in having government sponsor-ship, although it is good to have some sort of an "in," either with a UN mission or with friends inside the UN. For high-level jobs, however, government backing is very important.
The Office of UN System Recruitment at the Department of State maintains a computerized roster of people who might qualify for professional UN positions. It welcomes detailed resumes from qualified Americans. It returns resumes to people whom it considers unqualified.
When it receives a vacancy announcement, it tries to match one of the people on its roster with the qualifications required. It then proposes the candidate to the UN, through the U.S. Mission to the UN. The office does not publicize job openings.
Since the State Department has to go through the U.S. Mission to the UN anyway, it suggests that applicants contact the mission directly. A staff member at the mission screens applications, scans vacancy announcements and when appropriate will write letters in support of qualified Americans applying for specific positions. It also maintains a computerized roster of applicants and a computerized list of people interested in receiving vacancy announcement bulletins, which it sends out regularly. It welcomes resumes for its roster and will gladly add names to the mailing list as well.
While putting your name on a roster is a good start, it is advisable that you identify a position in which you are interested and for which you are qualified, contact the specific office to monitor personnel changes, and let the U.S. Mission know your goals so it can advise you.
Some U.S. government agencies will screen UN applications, then send them on to the Office of UN System Recruitment, which forwards them to the U.S. Mission. Writing to a government agency is, therefore, a roundabout way of making application to the UN and is not suggested.
