Category Archives: Career advice

The Upsides of Working for a UN Agency

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Since early April, I’ve been writing and publishing my thoughts and advice related to a career in international humanitarian development. I think this will finally wrap up that series of blogs, though I’ll probably have more to say later.

To end this series, I’m going to share an answer that I posted to Reddit in response to this question:

Is there any thing that makes the UN a good place to work at? The upsides of working for UN agencies?

This question also asked lots about the “best” United Nations agency to work for, the “best” country to work in, etc. And, of course, that’s impossible to answer.

Here’s what I posted:

The UN isn’t a monolith when it comes to workplace environments nor the kind of work you do. And an office that everyone loves working in now can change drastically when a new person takes over.

Working at UNICEF isn’t the same as working at WHO. Working in the field isn’t the same as working at an HQ. Working in Kosovo isn’t the same as working in Congo. Working in procurement isn’t the same as managing a program focused on maternal health.

What I liked about working for UNDP the three times I did so:

  • I prefer working in organizations that are focused on a mission, as opposed to those focused on working for a profit. In that sense, I found it as satisfying as working for any nonprofit.
  • I loved the kind of work that I did. I worked in communications. I love writing reports. Yes, really. I love interviewing sanitation engineers about what they did last week. I love reading proposals and making them better. I love digging into data and finding things we should highlight or otherwise pay attention to. I love taking photos or going through the photos someone else took and picking the best one for a report. I love meeting with funders and “selling” what we’re doing. I love editing other people’s writing. And I loved that all of this very non-glamorous work was in pursuit of a mission to make people’s lives better, to make the environment cleaner, etc. I don’t know that I could do this kind of work for a company that makes toasters.
  • I loved working with local staff. I always considered them the real reason I was there – to build their capacities so they wouldn’t need me or anyone like me eventually. The best was in Afghanistan, when I got to work with federal government workers. I loved their energy, I loved their curiosity, I loved how much they wanted their country to be better, and I worry about them every day. Every. Day. Especially the women.
  • I loved working with the communities we were serving, on the RARE chance I got to be in the field and really experience that.
  • I really liked a lot of my co-workers that were also from somewhere else. Many were incredible workers who helped me SO much in my work. Many inspired me. Many got me through the rough times of the work.
  • I loved learning about development, and seeing what I learned about in a Master’s program really happening in real life contexts. I loved learning that a government-led community meeting in Ukraine is a heck of a lot like a government-led community meeting in Oregon.
  • There were two heads of mission that I ADORED and I am grateful to have worked with them. They were tough, they were inspiring, they were frustrating, they were demanding and they were utterly supportive. And it’s interesting to note that a lot of staff did NOT like them for all the reasons I did.
  • Yes, sure, absolutely, at times, it was a kick to get to say “I work for the United Nations.” No question.

I think that, because I was a seasoned nonprofit professional, I didn’t go into my first UN job with stars in my eyes. I also at that point had worked for a Fortune 500 company, so, altogether, I already knew the frustration of bureaucracies and encountering staff who were on power trips or who actually didn’t know what they were doing and didn’t care except for the paycheck. What sector does NOT have this? I get frustrated with people acting like the UN ecosystem is SO unique in these “negatives” – it’s not.

One last thing: I am so disappointed to be one of the few former UN workers who actively, deliberately gives career advice online to people that want to work in international development. When you take the elevator up to a higher floor, you should always send it back down. That’s common courtesy.

If you have benefited from this blog 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. 

Advice for those looking to work abroad: choosing a second or third language

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two shadows of humans talk together, with a globe behind them.

All last month, I shared blogs related to advice for working in international humanitarian development. I had intended to stop at the end of the month, but I have a few more blogs to share on the topic.

This one is about choosing a second or third language to learn to improve your international development career opportunities.

First and foremost, when trying to choose a language to study, don’t get hyperfocused on what the “right” language might be. The demand for languages can ebb and flow: there have been times when I felt like every job that I would love to do and that is in high demand requires Portuguese (for work in Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Macau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe). And then, poof, a time comes when it seems no one is asking for that anymore. Instead, pick a language that you enjoy. Learning a language well enough to work in it is a MAJOR time investment. It’s like a marriage: you have to spend time on it every day for it to work, and you have to spend time with it even when you might not really feel “into” it at every moment. You need to pick something that you personally enjoy, as you are going to be spending a huge amount of time with it.

You also want to think about WHERE you want to work. If you really want to work in a particular region, what is the official language of that region? Sure, there are people that speak Spanish and then get sent to Armenia – a language isn’t a guarantee that you are always going to get a job in the region where that language is spoken.

French is a great choice, as it’s an official language in more than 25 countries. You will see it asked for regularly in job descriptions for UN positions. It is also a very popular second language. French is highly sought after for roles throughout Africa and the Caribbean.

Arabic is a great choice, as it’s the official language in 19 countries or so, many of them a joy to work in. Note that Arabic is going to be MUCH more difficult to learn than any language that uses the Latin alphabet.

Russian is still a good choice as a second or third language and will be for quite a few years to come. Beyond the obvious place it’s spoken primarily, it’s also an official language in Kazakhstan and Kyrgystan, and is widely used Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Estonia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. A lot of older people still speak Russian in Eastern Europe. You will have to learn an entirely new alphabet, as it is not written with the Latin alphabet.

You might want to pick a language that could serve you beyond a career in international development – as in a language that’s represented among immigrants wherever you hope to retire someday.

Picking a language that is more niche can also be a great choice for making you more competitive. For instance, I have a colleague who, MANY years ago, invested in learning Dari and Persian Farsi, knowing it would land her work in Afghanistan and Tajikistan regularly, where jobs were in high demand at that time, and it did, for years (along with her area of expertise, not just her language abilities). But then, wham, August 2021 happened and her job prospects got severely reduced. But for more than a decade, she was a hot commodity in international development circles.

I have a colleague who is fluent in English, French and German, and its the GERMAN that has sometimes been the biggest asset, because the project she applies for has a major German funder, and when they visit the country where she is working, they love that someone can speak to them in German. And when I did a motorcycle tour of Eastern Europe, I was stunned at how many people spoke German as a second or third language, especially in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Bosnia and Montenegro.

Another good way to choose might be regarding your area of expertise. What do you do? Public health? Small business development? IT? Elementary education? Emergency services management? What area of development is your area of concentration when it comes to international work, and regarding that, how many professionals are there that do that work and that, say, speak French? Or Arabic? Or whatever language you might be interested in?

As for my own story: before I knew I was going to pursue a career in international development, I focused on Spanish. It’s a language I like a lot and, living in the USA, I knew would be helpful. But it hasn’t helped me much in my international development career, because what I do as a professional in humanitarian development (and nonprofit management, for that matter) is EASILY found among native Spanish speakers throughout the Northern and Southern hemispheres. By contrast, if I’d chosen pretty much ANY other language, even French, I would have been way more marketable/competitive in this field. But it was something that I didn’t realize until I was almost 40, and by then, I just wasn’t up to a “divorce” and remarriage, when it comes to language… that said, my Spanish skills have served me well when I travel to Central and South America: I’m most proud of when I was in Paraguay with Habitat for Humanity and could talk with both local Habitat employees and the family where we were building a house. And in my nonprofit work, I’ve been able to use it on occasion, including when editing a video that featured a Spanish client.

There are benefits to learning a second languague (or more!) beyond your career:

  • Once you learn a second language well enough to have daily conversations in it, learning a third language (or more!) will be easier, because your brain better understands how to learn a language, you better understand parts of speech, etc. You may struggle at first, trying to speak that stronger second language when you should be using the third language, but trust me on this, it DOES get easier the more you do it.
  • A review of more than 20 existing studies determined that the onset of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms is slower to develop in bilingual individuals versus people who speak only one language, or monolinguals. The researchers discovered that the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are halted by up to five years, on average, in people who fluently speak more than one language (the study did not substantially show that bilingualism deters Alzheimer’s disease incidence rates; only that it helps to delay symptoms).
  • Learning another language contributes to forming new connections in the brain and strengthening nervous system links. Just one week of learning a new language has a positive impact on a person’s levels of alertness and focus. People who speak a second language regularly perform better on memory tests than monolingual people. 
  • Being able to communicate with someone that you could not communicate with otherwise, whether it’s someone on a bus, someone at a party, someone’s partner, someone you encounter while traveling, is amazing. It’s a superpower.

That’s my advice on learning another language specifically to improve your international development career opportunities. Really interested to hear what others say in the comments.

Also see:

Movies I recommend if you want to do international aid work, foreign affairs or journalism abroad.

Working abroad is not always looked on positively when looking for a local job.

US Citizen? Planning a career in international humanitarian affairs? You might want to rethink it.

All of my international development career-related advice. 

Movies I recommend if you want to do international aid work, foreign affairs or journalism abroad.

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Three scenes from the movies listed. The first is a white man of European descent facing several angry Asian uniformed officials, the second is a white man using a phone in the middle of a chaotic African village, next to a wooden sign painted with the words "Public phone international", and the third is a woman in a head scarf and also wearing a vest that says PRESS, with shouting men and a car behind her.

For all of this month, each week, I’m publishing a blog focused on working in international humanitarian affairs and community development. This is part three of that series.

I know that, for many people, their career, or their career dreams, of working internationally in humanitarian development, or even as a journalist, are on hold. In fact, I’ve recommended that people who are pursuing a career in international development to rethink those plans. But the world cannot function without international aid workers and without international journalists. And maybe everyone needs to have a reality check on what the work REALLY looks like.

I’ve been thinking of this for a while: what movies would I recommend to someone who wants to work in international humanitarian development, in foreign affairs, or in journalism abroad, to give them an idea of what conditions and challenges are like? Or what movies do I think represent what it’s like to work “in the field” internationally, as we say?

Below is my list, in the order the movies were released. Most are not uplifting. Most are quite dark and even depressing. None are idealizations of aid workers or journalists: the people featured are flawed and white saviorism is on full display in many of them (and often not in a kind way). But, to me, what they collectively do is let you know that “doing good” and living abroad in country’s in post conflict situations and experiencing instability and poverty is not as easy as you might think, and not everything you see on the TV news is to be believed.

Black Narcissus (1947).

The Third Man (1949).

The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).

The Killing Fields (1984).

Volunteers (1985).

The Mission (1986).

The Constant Gardener (2005).

Shooting Dogs (2005).

The Whistleblower (2010).

A Perfect Day (2015).

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016).

The Night Manager (2016 – mini series).

A good source for more movie ideas are these movie lists from the Council on Foreign Relations.

Which are my absolute favorites? What if I could recommend only two? The Year of Living Dangerously and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

What would be your recommendation for films that are good representations of working abroad in humanitarian affairs or as a journalist – or even if they aren’t accurate, you enjoy them?

All of my blogs with career-related advice are here. What I have written lately may be in conflict with some of the things I’ve advised over the years. But I never saw this coming… Here are some highlights:

If you have benefited from this blog 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. 

Working abroad is not always looked on positively when looking for a local job

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two shadows of humans talk together, with a globe behind them.

For all of this month, each week, I’m publishing a blog focused on working in international humanitarian affairs and community development. This is part two of that series.

Even in this climate of drastic cutbacks in foreign aid programs around the world, not only by the US government, many people want to work in humanitarian-related fields abroad. Many believe that such works means life-long employability, because they think international work is always perceived as a plus on a résumé.

I’m oh-so-proud of my work abroad, or my international work that I’ve been able to do while still in my home country, but my international work has not at all been the “wow” on my CV I thought it would be. In fact, sometimes, I think it has cost me some job interviews, and I am pretty sure it cost me at least two jobs I interviewed for. And the more I talk to others, the more I have realized that not all employers look favorably on work or volunteering abroad.

For years, I’ve gathered negative comments others have heard in job interviews with regard to their service abroad. Here’s a few that I think represent all that I’ve gathered. I’ve changed some comments slightly so that where they were said can’t be easily found with an online search.

I have been asked twice in interviews, almost with a scoff, “But why do you want to work HERE when you’ve done all this work abroad?” One of them followed up with, “Well, I just feel like if we hired you, you might run off at any moment to go back overseas.” Never mind that I had just bought a house – which I noted in both the interview and my cover letter.

I was giving a behavioral interview example using my time in the Peace Corps, and one of the panel interrupted me and told to instead pick an example from my “professional career”.

I had someone in an interview tell me it was a mistake to go off to Africa early in my career when I could be using my degree and learning the trade for the job I was interviewing for.

One interviewer just kept saying he feared I would be bored, because working at this local government agency would be COMPLETELY different than working abroad. I don’t think the interviewer had ever stepped out of his state, let alone the USA. And never mind that the work I would have been doing locally would have been almost identical to what I had done in other countries.

Two different interviewers implied I must not like the USA if I worked abroad. I wasn’t prepared to prove my patriotism in job interviews.

I have lots of advice for translating humanitarian work abroad such that it you present it in the same words as a federal, state, county or city job posting. But the reality is that, even if you were to follow that advice, you need to be prepared, if you are making the transition from international to local, that some folks don’t see how the work is oh-so-similar, and your work abroad may even make them suspicious of you, no matter how you phrase it. You may have to apply for far more jobs than you thought you would have to, to find hiring managers that see international work as an asset.

For sure, some regions are more friendly to international workers than others. In the USA, you are going to have a better reception from potential employers in the greater Washington DC and New York metropolitan areas, for instance, than you will in some other areas where there isn’t a large number of international agencies.

It’s such a shame that more local government agencies in particular don’t see international work as an asset among applicants. They are losing out on a tremendous amount of talent, ideas and experience.

All of my blogs with career-related advice are here. What I have written lately about working internationally may be in conflict with some of the things I’ve advised over the years. But I never saw this coming… Here are some highlights:

If you have benefited from this blog 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. 

US Citizen? Planning a career in international humanitarian affairs? You might want to rethink it.

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two shadows of humans talk together, with a globe behind them.

For all of this month, each week, I’m going to write a blog focused on working in international humanitarian affairs and community development. This is part one of that series.

If you’re a US citizen with the goal of working in international humanitarian affairs or community development, even disaster relief, in impoverished regions not in the USA, it’s time to pick a different career.

The US Presidential order withdrawing the USA from 66 international organizations, including many United Nations agencies, means US candidates won’t be considered for most international development jobs. When qualified applicants are identified for such jobs, hiring managers will then look at the nationalities of those applicants, per the funder’s preferences. And the USA isn’t funding.

I used to work for the United Nations, and I was on a fair share of hiring committees. In my department, I was often the person who went through the stack of applicants to pick only those who were absolutely qualified, because I was really good at it (I was amazed at how others couldn’t figure out how to rank people). But then someone else would go through that first round of finalists and remove a person or two specifically because of their nationality – a nationality that the government funding the position didn’t like. Or was at war with. And if there was a qualified applicant from the country funding the position, very often, that person got the job.

The current US Presidential administration has not only withdrawn financial support for international humanitarian work, the leader has said vile things about the people and leaders of dozens of other countries. This can result in targeted hostility toward someone from the USA even if they do not at ALL support the current administration – so many international organizations will just avoid any potential problems entirely and not consider job candidates from the USA.

Even if a new administration in 2029 starts reversing the disastrous policies of the current President and his staff, the damage that has been done now is long-term and will take MANY years to undo. Why should another country believe any plans of the USA? Better to partner with other countries. That means that, despite the fact that there will always be a need for international funding for community development, environmental protections, help for refugees, job development programs in underserved countries, etc., what jobs are available are, more often than not, closed to citizens of the USA, and I don’t see that changing for at least the next five years even if the current administration changes..

Studying international development is a wonderful experience, and I hate advising anyone to not do it. I have a Master’s Degree in international development management, and while it was difficult and stressful and consumed my life outside of work for three years, it also made me a much better professional in a thousand ways. It not only helped me in my work with international agencies, it also made me more effective in working for nonprofits in my own country, particularly small ones. It’s made me a better citizen of my local community as well as the global community – I really believe that. I applied for work with several government agencies here where I live in Oregon because I knew that my Master’s Degree, as well as my work experience in various development initiatives in various regions around the world, made me well-prepared for local government work – and, plus, I really wanted to do it. But I quickly found out that working abroad is not always looked on positively when looking for a local job – my next blog will be about that. So if you are thinking your international development degree will help you in other work – it might not (even though it should).

If you are in the USA< should you chance it and still pursue a career in international humanitarian development? Only if you have a very strong backup plan for if it doesn’t work out, and only if you are ready for the long haul in terms of actually getting into the field – like, 10 years from now.

All of my blogs with career-related advice are here. What I have written above may be in conflict with some of the things I’ve advised over the years. But I never saw this coming…

For people in the USA, if you can afford it, I hope you will consider pursuing a two-year gig in the PeaceCorps (which I hope will survive the current administration), or participating in a short-term program like Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village program; I have a list of international development volunteering programs here. Or, when you travel abroad, make a deliberate effort every day toward transire benefaciendo: to travel along while doing good. If you do any of these things, be a living testimony that contradicts the things said and done by the current administration, and showing that not all US citizens are anything like the current administration.

Also, if you have a UN Association in your area, or an affiliate of the World Affairs Councils of America, join it, and go to their meetings. Come together with others in your own community that think globally. At the very least, you will know you aren’t alone.

And, finally: I hope I’m wrong. I really do. But I’m trying to be realistic, no matter how much it hurts my heart.

What some nonprofits ask for in job candidates is ridiculous.

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a simplistic drawing of a wizard

Within one week, I saw three different job announcements at three different mid-size or large nonprofits that, altogether, were what I did part-time at a small nonprofit for the last three years. And much of the activities in each of these roles are, altogether, what I have done at nonprofits for the last thirty years.

What each job listed for qualifications was so specific that the organizations are going to end up excluding MANY qualified people – and, probably, the best person for the job. Despite my extensive professional background, despite being expertly qualified for some positions, I don’t even bother applying because so many people don’t see a journalism degree as something desirable now.

When your small or medium-sized nonprofit is looking for someone to be a videographer or photographer, who you are going to pay a salary FAR below the market rate, what you need from job candidates is work portfolios, not a degree in videography or photography. Same for a web designer or a graphic designer or a communications manager and many other positions. And for education, what you may need most is graduation from a recent certificate program, not a full-fledged BA. You need people who can do the job, and since you cannot afford to pay people with the training and experience you are demanding, you need to adjust your expectations.

There’s a better way to attract and screen candidates for roles where the person will produce communications pieces – and will do the job you need done:

(1) Ask applicants to note in their résumés or applications where (in what professional and volunteer positions) they used the tools or produced the projects or demonstrated the skills you are asking for. If your job involves setting up press conferences, or designing web sites, or managing web sites, or designing brochures, or distributing brochures, etc., ask applicants to note in their résumés or applications where they have experience doing that.

(2) Note that you will be asking later for online portfolios from the top 10 candidates, what you will want in those portfolios, and approximately how many weeks you will contact the top 10 candidates to ask for those portfolios. Note how many people you will choose to interview from those top 10 candidates and approximately when those interviews will take place. If someone doesn’t already have the material for a portfolio, they aren’t going to apply – and if they do, they now know they need to make sure their portfolio is full of fantastic examples of their work.

And if you are going to demand that the person use certain specific software – Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Illustrator, InDesign, Final Cut Pro, etc. – then you had better say what YOU are going to provide the selected candidate. What kind of laptop or desk top are you going to provide? Running what software? What kind of camera are you going to provide? Do you have a quiet room for creatives to create and edit? Are you committed to web accessibility and will give your web designer the tools needed to make that happen?

Be flexible in asking for a degree. I know amazing photographers with English degrees. I know very talented videographers with music degrees. I know kick-ass web designers with philosophy degrees.

And, finally: what you see as an entry-level job may be, particularly for seasoned professional in their 50s or 60s, a way to work for a few more years, work at a pace that is better suited to their life now than the senior and executive positions they held in the past, and apply a vast amount of skills and experience that your organization may be in much more need of than you might think. If you are thinking, “Oh, but what about health problems they might have?”, then also consider that it’s likely that candidates in their 50s or 60s aren’t starting families in the next few years, aren’t going to quit to pursue other, better job opportunities, and aren’t going to move across country to get married. And they are no more likely to have home-care obligations than a 30 something.

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. 

Work & volunteering advice: don’t leave it all on the field every time

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I attended a fantastic workshop on video editing several weeks ago. One of the things the instructor said has haunted me – and not just regarding video editing. He said that you need to NOT fall in love with whatever video you are making. Instead, you have to make the video, do work you can be proud of, post it, and then MOVE ON. But do NOT pour your heart into it and offer it up with the highest of hopes that all of your hard work and artistry is going to be popular or even acknowledged – because more than likely, you will get just a couple of “likes”, if you’re lucky. That’s it.

I pour my heart into my professional work. I do most projects as though I am doing them as a model for others. I relish in anyone acknowledging that they see my determination and skills in my work. In fact, I live for it. And my heart gets broken repeatedly.

Leaving it all on the field or court after every game is something that man fans and sports commentators admire, but it’s not a healthy approach to every day work and volunteering. I’m not sure I’ve experienced any benefits at all from just how much love and care I’ve poured into my work over the years – or even in the work I do now.

A few years ago, hungry to make some community connections and really missing any sorts of arts in my life outside of movies, I decided to apply for a citizens’ advisory group for a local government body regarding the arts. The role was simple: review applications from area arts organizations, very very small groups, entirely amateur, choose who gets what tiny sum of money, and attend a celebration at the end of the year where performing arts grants recipients perform. Perfect! I would get introduced to a big array of various dance, theater, music and fine arts groups and partake in their work. There would probably also be snacks.

I really enjoyed the first year, especially the grants celebration! Yes, there WERE snacks – and some beautiful performances.

I was shocked when one of the members asked me to be the chair for the next year. She said all the longer-term folks had done it already and I was “fresh” and I’d seen how it works, how much fun it was. So, yeah, okay! I said yes. COVID was in full swing, but we were having meetings online, and they were working WAY better than our face-to-face stuff, so I was quite happy to take on this volunteer leadership role.

At the very first meeting I ran came the bombshell, which the person who talked me into serving as chair swears she did NOT know was coming: our little advisory committee was losing its administrative support from the local government, and we had to form an independent 501 (c)(3) in 12 weeks if we were to continue.

I worked 20 hours a week for six months, identifying priorities, keeping track of who was doing what, scheduling meetings, opening a bank account, researching and drafting by-laws, drafting the web site content and then designing the simple site, working with our new fiscal agent, reading over the government requirements, researching grants management software, designing Google forms and spreadsheets for the data generated, and running meetings. I poured my heart into it.

One member of the committee didn’t like how I was doing things and would question every sentence, every detail, every suggestion, all of which came from hours and hours of research – but never offer to take over any task and work on it outside of meeting time. During one particularly horrible meeting, he insulted me during a long speech about how he didn’t like something I had drafted and, at last, I stopped him. I don’t want to get into details, but before the entire group, I calmly but FIRMLY told him he was going to stop that immediately, that his language and accusations were beyond inappropriate, and I wouldn’t continue for one more minute. He backed down. After that meeting, like so many other meetings, I sat at my computer and wept. Yes, I cried. At least two members wrote me to say they were so, so sorry at what I had just experienced. But they didn’t speak up at this or any other meeting.

The whole experience was grueling, degrading and soul-crusing. And I didn’t feel any sort of passion or love for this. Why did I stick with it? Because I have this ridiculous sense of duty and honor and pride when I take on a role: I’m going to see it to an appropriate conclusion and do my absolute best every moment and THEN walk away. Heaven forbid I inconvenience anyone, just because I’m being repeatedly insulted and overworked! At least I’ll have the knowledge that I did what I could and did my best!

Insert eyeroll here.

I wish I’d said, “F*ck ’em.” Because all but maybe one person on that committee, and no one in the government, saw the hours I was spending on what was supposed to be a simple community volunteering job, and that I was doing absolutely all that was necessary, in RECORD time, to see that this committee would get to continue its work and that small arts groups in my area would continue to receive a bit of funding each year.

I told the other members I would not be continuing on the committee once my term was up. I recruited six more board members, all under 45 – something the board said it wanted, since others were resigning at the end of the term as well and a need for younger minds was very much needed. I interviewed them and onboarded them, trying to give them as much support as I got when I first joined. I chaired my last meeting, introducing the new members, and then I walked away.

There was no real thank you and no acknowledgement that I’d undertaken a part-time job, for no pay, for much of the year to preserve funding for small nonprofits and to create a model that would allow the committee to get back to reviewing grant applications, awarding money and celebrating at the end of it all. In fact, what I felt mostly from the others was hostility at how demanding and pushy I’d been – something that was absolutely required to get all this done.

I kept all those emails and drafts and files from this experience. I went back and looked at them this week. The work takes up more storage on my computer than any one consulting job I’ve ever done.

I threw most of it away at last.

This is just one of MANY examples I could offer regarding having my heart broken because I wanted to do the BEST job possible. In fact, I’m doing this again now, professionally, for my one and only client, and I’m realizing that I need to stop. I need to scale back. I’ll always do work that I can be proud of and that a client and employer deserves. But do they deserve my absolute, tireless BEST, every time? Not for this pay.

I know that I am one of the best people out there for small nonprofits regarding leveraging social media, for crisis communications, for general public relations and marketing, and for donor cultivation, let alone volunteer engagement. But there comes a time when you have to say, “I’ll do just this much, and then stop. Because I’m not getting my heart broken at work anymore and the pay certainly is NOT worth it.”

Life’s too short. Time to play some piano.

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What’s the future of international humanitarian development & foreign relations careers?

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two shadows of humans talk together, with a globe behind them.

The panic is real. Thousands and thousands of people are losing their jobs, entire agencies are shuttering and their property being sold off, contracts for funding are not being honored, and jobs in international humanitarian development and foreign relations are being eliminated.

In addition to the lives being upended and the financial hardships on both those working in the sectors and those served by such, there are many thousands of young people who are studying at the university level for careers in international humanitarian development and foreign relations – and they are panicked.

Here’s some advice for those affected by the cuts:

As I was in year three of my journalism degree back in the late 1980s, newspapers started being consolidated. There were far, far fewer jobs for journalists than there were when I started the degree. And “life time” jobs were ending: I’d never expected to have one job for life, or even one job for many years. But I started to panic about the changing job landscape. I wondered if I’d made a horrible mistake in my major.

I started exploring other careers, and realized, via an internship my senior year, that I really loved nonprofit marketing far more than journalism. So I stuck with the major, but in terms of my job search, I pivoted. I ended up in a much more satisfying career, one that VERY much appreciated my journalism degree, and one where I used what I learned in getting that degree over and over and over.

I still use that journalism degree in my work. I still leverage it.

The pundits were, indeed, correct in their predictions: newspapers are now few and far between. Sources for news, curated and written by professional reporters, are so, so fewer than even 10 years ago, let alone 40 years ago. And the pundits were right on another front: I have never had the same job for more than four years.

But there is a difference between newspapers and humanitarian development, as well as foreign relations: if there is a need for humanitarian assistance, then there will be jobs in humanitarian assistance. And if there is a need for foreign relations, there will be jobs in foreign relations. And I believe both of those needs will always exist. It’s going to take time, however: it’s going to take things to get really, really awful. There’s going to be a great deal of harm and death before people realize we either ALL sink or swim.

I have a Master’s in International Development. I worked for years in that field and loved it. But now I’m working for a small nonprofit in rural Oregon, and the things I learned in this degree, as well as what I learned on the job internationally, still deliver for me, hugely. Turns out rural Afghanistan and rural Oregon have a lot more in common than you might think.

Yes, right now, the humanitarian job sector is drastically shrinking. The foreign affairs job sector is also drastically shrinking. But the need is not. The need is, in fact, increasing. Eventually, the sectors will start expanding again, because people, even for-profit businesses, will start needing the services of such, and realize AI cannot do it: AI cannot convince rural farmers to stop growing poppies, or convince women to change a traditional but dangerous baby-rearing practice, or train government workers in how to build trust with their constituencies, or manage a refugee camp effectively. AI cannot humanely negotiate nor manage anything.

There are no guarantees for international development jobs with one particular degree. There are no guarantees for any jobs with any particular degree. So quit stressing over which degree to choose. My advice for the last few decades remains the same: study a subject because you love it and want to immerse yourself in it, because you want to be all but married to it. And then find a way to leverage that degree when you graduate.

The key to job success is flexibility and adaption. It’s been this way for the last few decades. And you may end up working in a field that, at least initially, doesn’t seem to have anything at all to do with the field you studied. But I have to say: I sure know a lot more successful, fully employed folks who majored in theater or music – even if they aren’t working in those fields – than I do people who majored in some aspect of computer science.

And as for AI, sure, learn to use it edit emails and reports – but then re-read that email and report carefully, because AI constantly, regularly messes things up. AI is, and will remain, lousy at compiling accurate information, because of the volumes of misinformation online. Being able to identify accurate remains a human strength, as does building trust with others and creating things that are unique and original.

If you have benefited from this blog 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. 

Why Work for the United Nations? & What is Working the for UN really like?

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Three years ago, someone on Reddit wrote on the subreddit UNPath, “Why Work for the UN?” Their post said:

What is the appeal? It seems very difficult to even get in at all, regardless of qualifications. So why try? I am studying a field that would probably be perfect for the UN but I’m not sure why it’s actually even appealing or worth trying to get in.

Here’s my reply from then, with some edits for clarity:

A lot of people want to work for the UN because they believe all sorts of myths – UN employees get to travel the world, you get paid a huge salary, you get a special passport, everyone is impressed that you worked at the UN and will want to hire you, etc. In fact, most UN employees don’t travel for work, don’t get a “huge” salary and don’t get that special passport. And some people, including employers back in your home country, view working at the UN as some weird thing – or will say to you, “But you worked at the UN, so why are you now applying for a boring normal job?”

Spoiler alert: a lot of UN work is really boring and normal.

I’m suspicious of anyone who says, “I want to work at the UN” on this subreddit or in a cover letter and leaves it at that. It’s like saying, “I want to work for a mega huge software company.” It doesn’t tell me anything about what work you actually want to do. It sounds like you just want a certain company on your CV. But what kind of WORK is it you want to do?

The nature and atmosphere of work for a UN employee in Bonn, Germany working on government policy recommendations for climate change is nothing like the nature and atmosphere of the head accountant that’s been brought in from abroad to work in the UNICEF office in Afghanistan. They might as well be working on different planets. Most UN jobs are administration – you’re sitting at a desk, not driving orphans to safety.

Why do I like working for the UN as a communication professional or project manager? Because the work feels very much like it matters and is making a difference on a scale far bigger than just in one community. Because I love reading country strategies and program strategies and interviewing a diversity of staff to try to represent their work. Because I love taking photos of the work my colleagues are doing and then sharing those photos in a variety of communications materials. Because I love helping people understand the benefits and impact of development projects, from earthen dams to repaired bridges to work training programs to HIV AIDS education programs to micro loans and on and on and on. Because I love working in multi-cultural environments or in an environment filled with local people staffing most of the posts in a developing country and getting to help build their capacities. And, indeed, the pay is competitive, far more than doing that exact same work for a nonprofit.

My UN job in Bonn, Germany was mostly at a desk. I met a ton of interesting people from all over the world, but I rarely traveled for work. Most of my colleagues didn’t travel for work. My jobs in Afghanistan and Ukraine were spent mostly at a desk, trying to rapidly prepare material for very demanding funders from various foreign governments – in one I had to be taken to work in an armored car and couldn’t leave the work campus except to leave for the day, nor leave my home except with approval. In the other, I could walk to work, go out with colleagues after work, go to street markets and live life like anywhere – except on the days when there were potentially violent protests. But even on “boring” days, the work always, always felt like it mattered. But note: a lot of colleagues, doing very similar work, didn’t feel energized by it – it was just a job.

As for it being difficult to get in – I have to say, most of the people I see here wanting a job in the UN don’t offer anything to show any qualifications at all for working at the UN. They seem to think there’s some sort of magical master’s degree or PhD that gets you “in”. Or some magical way to phrase things in a cover letter. And as a person that often was the person who went through a stack of CVs to pick who would get interviewed, it was soooo easy to disregard 80% of applicants, because they so clearly did NOT have anything in their CV that showed they had all – and I mean ALL – of the skills and experience asked for in the job description.

End of my reply on Reddit.

A lot of this could be said for why I prefer working for nonprofits or government agencies, rather than in the private sector: because it feels like the work matters, even if it’s at a desk most days. I like helping a specific community, including the one that’s all around me currently. And the differences between rural Oregon and rural anywhere else aren’t as great as you might think.

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If you have benefited from this blog 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. 

Webinar: Careers in International Development

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Images, in the style of petroglyphs, of people doing various activities, like writing or construction.

In late August, I had the honor of presenting a live webinar for the Beyond Africa Podcast. You can see a recording of the webinar on YouTube. You can also download the slides I used and see resources I used in the webinar and that I encouraged people to view after the webinar here on my web site.

The webinar opened with a question I have never been asked: why am I doing this? Why am I posting on r/UNPath and other online communities about how to work in international development? As briefly as possible, and among other reasons, because I don’t think there’s equity in who know about and has access to careers in international development, including at the United Nations. You can hear my full answer by listening to the webinar.

Please note that I did this pro bono for this group, but that I usually charge for my consulting, including delivering trainings.