Top Five Tips on beginning a career with the UN or other International NGOs

Would you like to be a programme manager in the UN or any international organisation? Five Tips on how to kick start your career path.

Are you a college graduate and wondering how to join the NGO world?  Are you a professional in other fields but have a heart for community development and wondering how you will get yourself in? Well, there are several ways that can assist you to move closer to your dream UN job. I shall discuss five of the tips in this article.

Volunteering in a Charity or NGO- Much as most organisations that offer volunteer services do not pay stipends ( a few international ones do), look at it from the other side of the coin. The experience you gain is invaluable. Begin volunteering while still in college. If you have already left college, look for organisations including churches/mosques where you can volunteer your services.
  • The most famous volunteer organisation is the United Nations Volunteer www.unv.org. It promotes global volunteerism. For people with no experience this might not be the place to start as one has to be a professional with years of experience.
  • The International Volunteer Program Association is an association of non-governmental organizations involved in international volunteer work and internship exchanges. IVPA is an association of volunteer sending organizations but does not organize or run its own volunteer programs. From their website, you can check the current member organisations  of IVPA and contact them  http://www.volunteerinternational.org/
  • Peace corp is another international volunteer program that is involved in community development globally- www.peacecorps.gov
  • Volunteer Services Organisation (VSO) is an international development organisation that works through volunteers to fight poverty in over 40 developing countries http://www.vsointernational.org/
  • VSO office in Kenya  is the recruitment base for volunteers from Africa willing to work in any of the countries mentioned in their website. Visit their website  http://www.vsojitolee.org/volunteer/  for application forms and more details.  
  • Red Cross and Red Crescent often need volunteers when there are emergencies. Most developing countries have local Red Cross/Red Crescent offices. Pay them a visit.
  • In Kenya, CIVS offers local and international volunteers a chance to utilise their skills in community projects. Check them out http://www.civskenya/.. The government of Kenya  through the Ministry of  Youth Affairs and Sports  kick-started  the National Youth Volunteer Scheme in 2010. A perfect opportunity for young college graduates to begin volunteering in their careers of choice .
  • When organisations are rolling out projects at the community level and they need community volunteers( community paralegals, community health workers, community resource persons etc), they often pick on people who have had volunteer experience before. Dont be left out.
Career Mentorship -Do you know anyone who works as a programme manager or any other post in the NGO world? if you do, seek the person's guidance in what skills organisations look for in programme management, or your areas of interest. The person can also guide you on what courses to take in order to be more marketable.

Participate in charity events in your home area - small fundraising and charity events can provide avenues for you to showcase your skills. Such events include organising for charity runs, religious functions for a specific cause, visiting homes for orphans, aged, and so on.  This will give you a few ideas of what working in community development is. You will also begin to notice gaps that exist which will give you and your team an opportunity to write a proposal to address the needs and begin fundraising activities.

Offer your short term services to NGOs, the UN or development consultants - Often times, NGOs, the UN and other development actors like consultants and researchers normally  conduct surveys and assessments (baseline, mid-term, end of project, and other surveys). Watch out for such advertisements in the papers and submit your CVs for the services of a research assistant, enumerator,  data collector, report writer (in a workshop).  Organisations like Population Services International, Family Health International, Centre for Disease Control ( in Africa) and many more are always conducting research. Watch out for the rest of the organisations in the newspapers when the call for proposals for consultant is advertised.  The more you go for short term contracts, the more you are building your CV and sharpening your skills in development.

Begin Projects with your group - if you are a member of a community, youth, women, investment group etc, which is also engaged in small time CSR/charity, you can build that to something bigger. For example when your youth group meets to discuss investments or check out businesses, your group can take that opportunity to talk about pressing issues affecting the youth like drugs and substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and so on. The more you learn and talk about a topic, the more knowledge and skills you get (assuming you have a volunteer speaker and get relevant materials for the topic). You will soon develop a small plan or project to deal with the issue in your group, then spread  to your neighbours. When international NGOs come calling in your community, they will be interested in a group that has already hit the road running. When they call for proposals from community groups or networking partners, you will be among the first on their list.

I hope the tips will assist you in making the right path. Remember too that you need to have a heart for community service.  Good luck.


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This entry was posted on 5:15 PM and is filed under 2012 tips on getting a job in the UN or NGO , 2012 volunteer tips , how to begin a programme manager career , NGO career tips for you , Top 5 tips on getting a job in the UN , Volunteering in the UN . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

 

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About Me

10 years experience enhancing donor-funded partner organizations’ capacities in strategic planning, financial, administrative, organizational and programming management. Skilled in donor partner organizational assessments and partner capacity building. A 10 years experience in managing development donor-funded projects in the thematic areas of poverty-reduction, governance and democracy, conflict transformation and integration of Gender, Justice and Peace issues into mainstream programs (HIV/AIDS, Agriculture, Water and Sanitation, Emergency)

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