Tag Archives: careers

Abilities you need to work in humanitarian development successfully

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I’ve been working on this for a while: a list of abilities that I believe a person needs to work in humanitarian development successfully – including to work at the United Nations. For my purposes here, I define such success as meeting the requirements of your job and the goals of your program and getting along well with others while also staying personally satisfied.

These are the skills I’ve seen that have made the difference in success, as I have just defined it, for oh so many people – and myself. Many would call them “soft skills.” These skills usually won’t be listed in job requirements. You can’t major in any of these skills at a university; you get them from working, volunteering and collaborating on anything with others (co-workers, neighbors, family…), and you can do all of that (and gain these skills) no matter where you live.

Also, it’s good to approach at least some of these as job interview questions: “Tell me about a time when you needed to adapt and improvise regarding a strategy you had planned out but you realized wouldn’t work as planned…” or “tell me about a time when you broke down a process into smaller steps so that it was easier to understand by co-workers or community members…”

To work in humanitarian development successfully, you need the abilities to:

  1. read large amounts of text, and to understand what you have read and apply it to your work.
  2. memorize.
  3. manage time effectively.
  4. speak comfortably in front of audiences, including those that may be hostile to your subject matter.
  5. shut up, listen and learn from others (and I am using “shut up” because too many don’t understand “listen quietly”).
  6. adapt and improvise when you realize a strategy has to be altered or something unexpected happens.
  7. negotiate.
  8. write words to educate, persuade and influence others.
  9. cultivate trust quickly and on an ongoing basis with others.
  10. make decisions based on facts and not on emotions or just your “gut” – and be ready to do that despite what you wanted to believe in your gut.
  11. break a process down to smaller steps.
  12. reframe complex ideas into plain language.
  13. delegate tasks appropriately and frequently with an eye to building the skills of others.
  14. build the skills of someone to eventually take over a process you currently undertake.
  15. guide without micromanaging.
  16. work with co-workers, community members and others you don’t like.
  17. know how to quickly tell your boss what you are doing and why you are doing it, what you are achieving and what is challenging you – and make sure your boss’s boss knows all of this too.
  18. not let an insult of you derail the work you need to do.
  19. read the room, to be aware of the feelings and opinions of those you are talking to, and to be able to alter your approach if you realize it’s not going to work or be inappropriate in that circumstance.
  20. keep trying and experimenting, and learn from failure.
  21. do self-analysis and let go of ideas when it’s clear they won’t work.
  22. stay positive and hopeful – and get that back when you lose it.
  23. understand what others feel, even if you disagree with their values.
  24. ask for advice and help and know how to seek and find the expertise you don’t have.
  25. recognize situations that are unnecessarily dangerous or when you are personally at risk and react to keep yourself safe.
  26. process your own stress, anxiety, and other negative feelings, and address feelings of loneliness in a healthy way.
  27. balance priorities with personal needs and know when it’s time to take a break.
  28. pick your battles.
  29. know when to ask for permission and when to do it without prior approval and be ready to ask for forgiveness.
  30. own your mistakes.
  31. know who you are working with that has your back and those who do NOT.
  32. how to get back up when you stumble and fall.

No one person can have all of these abilities all the time, by the way.

And, yes, it’s helpful to have abilities like being able to learn another language so that you can work in a language other than the one your own family and neighbors speak – your native language. And you need the abilities to obtain a university degree and a lot of work experience and on and on. But you need these “soft skills” as well – and just as much.

For those of you who have worked in international development, what abilities would you add – abilities that might not ever be named in a role’s Terms of Reference?

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Why qualified people get passed over for jobs

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It is the number one question or topic of discussion on any online discussion group about looking for a job in the humanitarian sector: I keep applying for jobs that I believe I am perfect for and I keep getting rejected. Why?

I’m sure it’s a frequent self-question for many people looking for a job in any sector.

I have been a part of many committees and panels to review résumés or interview candidates for a variety of jobs, including at the United Nations. I have also been told a few times why I got passed over for a job. And all of the reasons I’ve heard first hand about why someone, including myself, aren’t going to be interviewed run counter so many things we hear regularly about job hunting, like It’s easier to get a job when you already have one (this has never been my experience) or you have to know someone at the UN to get a job there (all three of my jobs at the UN came without already knowing anyone at any of the agencies where I was hired). Yes, luck and good connections can have a lot to do with finding a job, and knowing someone at a company you want to work for can absolutely help you get a job. But don’t assume that that’s why most people get hired.

In many cases, an applicant that doesn’t make the cut for an interview actually isn’t perfectly qualified for what they are applying for. When I get a stack of CVs for a job, I can eliminate half of them at first glance just by comparing what the résumés say versus what the job asks for. I can eliminate even more by looking at them in more detail and quickly discovering that some very specific things asked for in the job description not represented in the person’s profile.

So before you complain about being perfectly qualified for jobs you are being passed up for, make certain your profile represents the exact skills and experience asked for in the job description – if the job says applicants must speak Spanish, for instance, part of your cover letter needs to be in Spanish. Your résumé must explicitly list the skills and experience asked for in a job description – not just inferred. And if the job asks that you have a certain number of experience in a certain field, and you don’t have it, you go into the rejection pile, period.

With that stack of résumés from qualified people that I glean, I then put them in the order that I think represents the very best candidate on down. That might be just 10 résumés. That might be 30. I then look for jobs on the résumés that are similar to what we are asking for, I look at the type of education they have and I look at the kinds of work they have done that are most like what we’re asking for. Then I look at the top 3 or 5 or 10, whatever we’ve decided is the number we’re going to interview, and I ask myself, “Self, are these really the top folks you most want to interview?” Indeed, some of the people who don’t make the cut are qualified for the job – but they get beat out for an interview by people who match the profile even more.

When I interview candidates on a panel, we always have the same questions to ask applicants, and we assign a score to each answer. Afterward, we compare scores. Usually, we all have the same top candidate – our number twos and threes might be different. Sometimes, we don’t all have the same top candidate. It only gets dicey and uncomfortable when our scores vary wildly and we stanchly disagree on high and low scores – and in more than 20 years of being on hiring panels, this has happened just twice.

With all of that said, yes, I have heard arbitrary reasons for not considering a qualified candidate for a position. Not everyone chooses candidates to interview like I do and not everyone chooses the person to hire the way I do, and it’s when the arbitrary reasons for not choosing someone creep in that the process becomes unfair or impossible to navigate, that is absolutely true.

What are the reasons that don’t have to do with a lack of qualifications or lack of experience asked for that exclude a candidate? Here are reasons I’ve heard, blatantly or implied/inferred, as to why qualified people are not going to be interviewed or considered for a job:

  • This person already has a job. I’m suspicious of why they want to leave it.
  • They have a post-graduate degree, which is what we asked for, but this other person has a Master’s!
  • We asked for people who at least have a Bachelor’s – this person is overqualified because they have a Master’s.
  • They have applied for other jobs here. I’m suspicious of why they want to work here so much.
  • They might not stay long if they get this job. This person has never been at a job longer than four years.
  • They might want to stay in this job too long. This person has had only two jobs, both longer than 10 years.
  • They seem ambitious and will want a promotion quickly if they get this job.
  • They don’t seem very ambitious.
  • They seem overly-confident, maybe even arrogant.
  • They don’t seem confident enough.
  • This CV is too long. It has too much detail.
  • This résumé is too short. It doesn’t have enough detail.
  • Wow, this person has worked at insert name of very well known organization here. Why in the world have they left that company/that profession? Why do they want to work here instead? I’m not impressed – I’m suspicious.
  • Too old (50 or older)
  • Too young (26 – this was by someone at the UN who didn’t believe anyone in their 20s was capable of working abroad)
  • They don’t seem healthy (said about candidates over 50 or candidates who might have a perceivable disability).
  • They have a family. They might be too distracted for this work.
  • They don’t have a family. When they start one, they’ll need lots of leave time.
  • They don’t have a family. That means they have no ties to our community.

What has hearing these arbitrary and unfair reasons for not hiring someone taught me? For one thing, it’s taught me that it’s impossible to come up with that perfect résumé or cover letter – what one person will love another person will hate. It’s also taught me that it’s impossible to give a perfect interview for any situation – what one group likes, another group won’t. It’s also taught me that many career coaches and career consultants really don’t know what they are talking about – their ideas may or may not work, and there is absolutely no magical formula, no matter what they say.

Here’s my advice, in a nutshell, when applying for jobs,

  • Be accurate, be specific, be honest and spell correctly in your application
  • Make sure your résumé clearly shows why you are perfectly, exactly qualified for the job you are applying for, as described by the employer.
  • If you get the opportunity to ask someone why you weren’t chosen for a job or an interview, absolutely take that opportunity – but take the advice with a grain of salt. If someone says you seemed too confident, is that really something you want to change? Wouldn’t you prefer finding an employer who likes your confidence?
  • Apply for a job with absolute commitment and determination, as though it’s the only job you are applying for, and after you hit “send,” forget about it and move on to the next application.
  • Stay busy during your job search and, to anyone who is watching you, in person or online, stay positive.

Also see:

If you have benefited from this blog, my other blogs, or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

How will you leverage World Youth Skills Day?

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I love leveraging (exploiting!) days designated by the United Nations for my own program use. Why?

  • Many of the days have a lead agency that builds a marketing campaign around the day’s theme. Any press or others paying attention to that campaign might, as a result, stumble upon whatever it is I’m trying to promote if I’ve aligned my messaging with the day.
  • The lead agency marketing the day often creates a Twitter tag to go with the day, such as #humanitarianheroes for World Humanitarian Day on 19 August. I can use the tag on my own tweets about the activity I want to align with the day and any press or others paying attention to that hashtag might, as a result, stumble upon whatever it is I’m trying to promote.

So, for instance, those that promote volunteer engagement / volunteerism might want to pay attention to this: the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, that addresses issues relating to a range of social, humanitarian affairs and human rights issues that affect people all over the world, proposed 15 July as World Youth Skills Day. “Recognizing that fostering the acquisition of skills by youth would enhance their ability to make informed life and work choices and empower them to gain access to changing labour markets, the General Assembly would, by the terms of the draft text, invite all Member States and international, regional and United Nations system organizations to commemorate World Youth Skills Day in an appropriate manner.” Here is the full text of document A/C.3/69/L.13/Rev.1. The UN General Assembly has now approved the designation, though the UN web site doesn’t reflect this at the time of this blog’s publication.

Millions of youth worldwide are unemployed, uneducated and un-engaged: 74.5 million in 2013, the majority of whom live in the developing countries. Teens and people in their 20s aren’t just bored – they are frustrated at how they are locked out of local decision-making as well as economic and life opportunities. These disengaged, disenfranchised youth are a growing concern of governments and various international organizations. For instance, you might recall that, in 2013, I was part of the ICT4EMPL Future Work project undertaken by the Information Society Unit of the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, a European Union (EU) body, to produce this paper: Internet-mediated Volunteering in the EU: Its history, prevalence, and approaches and how it relates to employability and social inclusion. As part of this project, I created a wiki of all of the various resources I used for my research, including a list of “>resources related to volunteering as a contributor to employability.

How could your nonprofit, non-governmental organization (NGO) or government program that involves volunteers or promotes volunteerism leverage this day?

  • Start asking teens and 20 somethings that have volunteered at your organization, or various organizations, if volunteering has taught them skills or given them experience they were able to use to get a job or to advance in their careers. Ask them if they have ever been asked about their volunteering experience in a job interview. Put together an article to publish on your web site about the comments from these young people. And hold on to this data: maybe you could use it in a grant application to get more resources to help you involve even MORE youth volunteers. Compiling this information would be a wonderful task for a volunteer or group of volunteers – maybe even youth volunteers?!?
  • Be on the lookout for a Twitter tag that might develop in conjunction with this day. I’ll certainly share such as soon as I know about it here on my blog. You can use this hashtag for tweets leading up to World Youth Skills Day that relate to youth volunteering at your organization that are learning skills they need for the work place and adult life.
  • Publish a blog for World Youth Skills Day talking about how and why your organization recruits and involves teen and 20 something volunteers specifically, and how this involvement not only benefits your programs, but communities as well – today and in the future.
  • Think about an event you might be able to host at your organization related to World Youth Skills Day.

Pay attention to the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training and to the United Nations Volunteers programme, part of UNDP, on Twitter and Facebook – those are the two most likely candidates to be the lead agencies for World Youth Skills Day. Even if it turns out to be another UN agency, I suspect UNEVOC and UNV will somehow be involved in activities related to the day. And I’ll share here on my blog what I learn.