Hello, I've recently applied to a home-based Communications role at UN Women and want to understand my chances at the organization. I'm based in India and want to get a realistic understanding whether Indians are considered for home-based vacancies. I have a Master's degree with relevant experience from the UK and have 7 years of experience as a political journalist in India. I would absolutely Love to connect with someone in UN Women who may be able to guide me better so I can be realistic about my applications in the future. thank you!

Can anyone tell me about PEC level salaries?

Hi everyone,

I’m a UK-based professional looking to transition into a Digital Specialist role at a multilateral development bank (MDB), ideally in Asia.

My goal is to build a career in East Asia, applying my digital governance and transformation experience to international development through multilateral organisations.

My background:
5+ years at a large global multinational, with progressive career advancement into management.
Experience across digital transformation, cybersecurity governance, technology policy and programme management.

Delivered international enterprise initiatives involving regulatory implementation, digital adoption and stakeholder engagement.
Developed and implemented technology, cybersecurity and AI governance frameworks and standards.

MA in Asian and International Studies, with a dissertation specialising in China’s digital economy, and a BSc in Management.

PMP certified, with additional professional development in cybersecurity, risk management and AI governance.

My challenge:
I’ve already started applying for Digital Specialist, Digital Governance and Digital Transformation positions at organisations such as the World Bank Group, ADB and AIIB.

While my enterprise experience is highly transferable, I’m finding it challenging to position and articulate my credentials against MDB recruitment requirements, particularly without direct international development experience.

I’d appreciate advice on three areas:
Competitiveness: Is my professional background suitable for specialist-level positions, or are there significant gaps I should address?

Positioning: How can I effectively tailor my private-sector experience, CV and cover letters to demonstrate relevance to MDB roles?

Entry pathways: Is direct recruitment realistic, or should I consider consulting assignments, alternative organisations or other routes into the sector?

I’d particularly appreciate insights from current or former MDB employees, recruiters or professionals who have successfully made a similar transition.

With gratitude.

I’m putting this out here because I’m utterly exhausted. I’ve tried every other traditional method to get noticed by these companies: cold emailing, LinkedIn, other social media, careers websites, you name it but all my efforts feel like a drop in the ocean and they go unnoticed!!

I’m a 24(F) with an LL.B and a B.L — both with second class upper honors. I have experience in Contract management, commercial transactions, procurement and Company secretarial support. I’m desperately trying to break into the energy sector and hopefully secure a job with an IOC.

Do they actually employ ? They have to because every day you’ll come across LinkedIn posts of people saying how they secured a new position with chevron or completed their internship with Shell and all the likes.

What do I have to do to be like those people, to get my applications noticed and considered or is there no hope for those of us who do not have connections or live within Nigeria ??

At this point I want to Serve with these companies for my Service year and I would welcome any recommendation I can get. Please help me if you can. I’m really tired of the rejections and silence.

Hello,

I got a request to complete the YPP Online Assessment and i was wondering if anyone has successfully completed it and if so, could you recommend on how to approach it. Any advice would be helpful as it’s my first time

Regards

I applied for a Junior Professional role at the New Development Bank on 14 August. I’ve not heard anything back from them and my application portal still say „we are currently reviewing all applications“. Does anyone have experience with recruitment at the NDB? how long does the process take and is it safe to say that I can consider this a ghosted application?

Feel free to add any experience with the NDB that may be useful. Thank you in advance!

Hey! I'm 21 and I am a recent International Relations graduate. I am interested in working with human rights organisations and am looking to do an internship in Toronto. I would appreciate any advice you can give me :)

I'm currently volunteering in a refugee community centre as an english teacher, but my goal is to learn more about the "background" work in NGO's (operations, management, fundraising, etc).

I would appreciate any advice you can give me about orgs in Toronto or just what steps you think i should take, any kind of guidance is welcome and greatly appreciated!

Does anyone have any experience with this field of study? I find it genuinely interesting and would love to pursue it come 2028, but I’m afraid of wasting my time on this. My bachelor’s degree is in Journalism, and was not a good choice (I did it out of passion, thinking that I’d be among the few that actually make it- I didn’t) Thankfully I had some accounting certifications and have been able to work in a junior role in an NGO in the accounting department. I’d like to get into impact capital and DFIs. Is this the correct masters degree for me?

Can anyone recommend good intro or intermediate-level books or courses (short or free) for background reading? I am taking the intro course “International Development for Interpreters” on Coursera. For context, I’m a translator and editor and have worked on four publications for the UN.

I have a BA in devs and MA in polisci and been job searching for almost 2 years now and driving me insane

am in Canada too as well and honestly seeing my peers progress as managers etc really sucks as I feel stuck in this rut

So does anyone else regret doing Devs as I do right now

For those who work/worked in INGOs such as USAID, Jphiego, Save the Children, UNFPA, etc. Can you share your experiences? Salary, benefits, workload, work environment and anything else you would like to share. Eyeing to shift careers, from the government to INGO.

📍Philippines

Thanks in advance!

Hello,

I've created a math app that I would like to share a free licence with NGOs and governments. My philosophy is to learn math you have to do math and I sincerely believe that the app is something new that covers that principle.

The app: txtbk.org/app.

1- While everything seems to be in English, it is in French and the Spanish and Portuguese versions will be available soon.

2- It doesn't use AI so it can work off line and on a cheap smartphone. You can even print and grade problems on paper then re-upload the marked tests to the app for automated corrections.

3- While most apps cover basic arithmetic, this one covers everything from counting to first year undergraduate, including statistics, trigonometry, calculus... This is what students lack and super important. It also has a virtually unlimited number of problems per question.

Being from the DRC I am actively working with the Ministry of Education to implement it there for next school year. I am looking for other partner NGOs and ministries to give my pitch, but have a hard with it because I'm an economist not used to the Development field.

I was wondering if anybody can tell me how I can get in contact. Phone, email, form, LinkedIn. Who to contact. What organizations can find this useful...

Some background on me: I have a background in economics and public policy. I spent approximately five years working as a research assistant and portfolio analyst at an IFI, all on long-term consultant contracts. Then I got married and moved from the EU to Latin America to follow my spouse, who was offered a good fixed term position in a UN Agency. After moving, I worked for a little while as a consultant on the design and assessment of IFI loans/investment projects, coordinated some research projects, and wrote some papers that were published by the World Bank and a few other places. Since 2024, I've been working a fixed term P3 for a UN Agency, mostly working on regional project coordination and technical assistance in statistics and demography. I'm neither strictly a statistician or demographer, but my economics background and basic understanding of project management have largely enabled me in this environment. I speak English (native) and Spanish (learned) interchangeably at work.

Right now, the environment is precarious, and there's a real possibility (not certain, but definitely on the table) that my position will be abolished within a year. If it goes, I really don't know what I will do. I pivoted away from portfolio and investment project analysis for this role, because it offered more stability than the consulting work that I was doing, and frankly, I like what I'm currently doing. But right now, I don't feel like I offer much of anything outside the institutional environment that I'm in. I'm not a highly technical economist or statistician, and as I've moved roles, I no longer feel that I'm building deep subject matter expertise that is transferable back to the IFI world or to the private sector. I don't really know how to asses what I'm good at and what I'm suited to anymore.

On a personal level, I'm a US citizen who somehow found their way to Europe after college for these jobs. My wife is a dual EU/LatAm citizen and may be rotated to a better position in a few years. Her childhood home in LatAm isn't exactly stable right now and doesn't offer good job opportunities. We were both open to moving to the US at some point, but with our job market decimated and the current political environment, that now looks impossible. I'm now stuck looking at my home country from the outside, seeing my parents get older and my friends drift apart, but without any idea of how to get back there, and where we can go to continue growing our careers. It feels like the only thing ahead is degrowth. This is to say nothing of the experience of seeing our work lose its impact and people suffer as a result, which may belong in another post.

I know that I'm so lucky to have a job right now, but things look bleak and I struggle to see a path forward in what I'm currently doing. For those with similar backgrounds, do you have any advice for figuring out what to do after this? Are there any specific areas, courses, or certifications that might make former UN staff more suited to private sector work, for example, with multinational companies? I know this is very general, but I don't really know what else to say.

I am in my penultimate year of my Bachelor in Econ but everyone that got an internship at the OECD seems to be a grad student even though they take applications from undergrads. Will they actually consider my application or am I just wasting my time?

Hey - I'm part of a group project (MS in supply chain) that is looking at sustainable methods to improve delivery outcomes on vaccines in Jharkhand state, a landlocked state bordering Bangladesh which is, in relative terms to the rest of India (I don't want to get into a conversation about India's relative wealth - "under resourced" vs "developing" vs "third world", because arguments over nomenclature are usually a distraction from focusing on solutions) is very poor.

There's a ton of things that go into this but what I'm here to ask is: what's the track record on NGO's, even ones that are more hands off and distribute money more than do active programming (Gates Foundation, etc.) respectfully engaging with communities they want to serve for the purpose of figuring out what their real interests and priorities are? I know there's not one answer to this but even anecdotal perspectives from people with direct experience in this, even in different countries, would be super useful for me.

Hi everyone! I applied for the OECD Internship about 6 months ago, and my application is still marked as “Under Review.”

I was wondering if anyone here has gone through the application process. How long did it take to hear back? Did you eventually get an interview or an offer? I’m currently studying at a university that isn’t prestigious, but I also have several years of professional experience, including in international companies etc. Does anyone know how much weight the OECD places on university reputation versus professional experience? And is there anything I can do at this stage to improve my chances?

Also, does being under review for this long actually mean the application is still being considered?

Because I had updated my cv, also changed the categories of interest because I understand they can be particularly competitive so I chose the other one i'm interested in but no response for this long gives me less and less hope :(( I have also selected the 3 month buffer time as my availability to give it enough time but it looks like it doesn't matter really in my case

Would really appreciate any advice or personal experiences. Thanks!

I’m an early-career economist with a few years across a central bank, the UN system and a development finance focus, and I’d really like to work at the World Bank, ideally on a data or impact evaluation team like DIME. I know a lot is changing there and I’m trying to understand what’s realistic now.

Everything I read said to start as a short-term consultant, but I’ve heard STCs are being phased out. Some questions for anyone who knows the current situation:

1. Is that accurate, and what’s replacing the STC route in practice? ETCs, firm-based contracts, contracts through government project units?
2. For people who got in recently, how did it happen?
3. Unadvertised consultancies used to come from team leaders reaching out to people directly. Does that still happen, and how do you get on someone’s radar without cold-emailing everyone?
4. Most postings I see are Washington-based local hires. Is the Bank moving toward country offices and less centralized hiring?
5. I passed the test for the internship program but never heard back, and I applied to YPP but expect it’s a long shot. What else would you do in parallel?
6. Does RA work at IPA, J-PAL or similar help, and does anyone know how DIME is hiring now?

Background: Masters in Economics,. Stata/R/Python, causal inference coursework].

Happy to hear from people who went through any of this, including what didn’t work.

In an interview for a human rights related internship in an osce field mission in a Central Asian country (-stan), should one focus their interview answers only on the region?

E.g. one has relevant UN project based experience both in Central Asian countries and in two Balkan countries.

Is it ok to highlight all of these when talking to a local panel? Last time I presented my experience like this for another osce internship in a -stan country and for some reason was not selected, not knowing why.

I would appreciate your insights! Thank you.