Today’s young job seekers are looking for challenging and dynamic work environments; gone are the days of staying loyal to one organization for one’s entire career.
The United Nations, though, is still known for long career trajectories, where professionals stay for years in order to move up in terms of organization-specific grades, to learn the agency’s lingo and stay up-to-date on U.N.-centric changes.
To outsiders, the U.N. system — which houses more than 20 specialized agencies and programs, employing more than 55,000 employees around the world — may seem like a self-contained world, and careers paths may seem like long, one-way streets. U.N. leaders are aware of the potential to lose ambitious young candidates who don’t plan to stay in one job for more than a few years.