The Ultimate Guide to succeed in United Nations Internship Interviews (Part 1)

You have been selected for a United Nations Internship Interview? Congratulations! You have made it this far. Have you gone for one or two more United Nations Internship interviews but didn’t secure the Internship? Are you a first-time applicant and hopeful you will be called for a United Nations Internship Interview in the future? This piece of writing is a continuation of a series of helpful articles dedicated to internship seekers: Dear United Nations Internship Seekers meant to successfully guide you to secure United Nations Internships. Below you will find background information about United Nations Internships, preparing for competency based interviews, to do’s before interviews, during interview, types of United Nations Internship Interviews, to do’s after the interviews, sample United Nations Internship Interview questions, what you must not do before, during and after interview. This article is written by a UN Internships Expert
The United Nations Internships often come in form of competency-based interviews. Competency Based Interviews are widely understood as behavioural interviews, past experiences/ behaviours determine future actions. Past performances / if you were able to do certain actions /tasks successfully you can successfully do the same in future. Perhaps you are wondering now, l am just a student or a recent graduate without experience, how do l demonstrate my past work experiences? You would understand how difficult this is and often you see some master’s and PhD candidates applying for United Nations internships in a quest to gain experience. You can still demonstrate how some of your actions led to the success of group/teamwork project. This is why l emphasise that students need to actively be engaged with clubs/projects at their schools to shadow their desired future careers. If you stay in your shell at college its likely you may not have enough to show other than your academic credentials. With stiff competition, on average the United Nations receives thousands and thousands of applications for just one vacancy. ‘
Before the United Nations Internship Interviews
- Prepare, prepare, and prepare for the interview. You can imagine how frustrating it can be to interview a candidate that is under prepared. You need to read widely about the organisation, google current reports, current issues, and statistics.
- Save the vacancy advert or notice. By the time you are shortlisted for a United Nations Internship Interview, there is high chances that the notification of the vacancy interview, would have gone. The United Nations Internship Interview advert has important competencies such as planning, teamwork and communication skills.
- Panel only asks competency-based interview questions.
During the United Nations Internship Interviews; Structure of the Interview
A.CBI Icebreaker questions
This often focuses on questions around weather, how you are fairing or if you travelled for an in-person interview-you could be asked about your journey etc.
- During the Interview
This includes Motivation question, Tell us a brief about yourself and why you applied for this position, what is it about you that will make you a competent candidate for this United Nations Internship/ What will make you a successful candidate for this position? Don’t repeat what’s already on your CV, you can allude it. Talk about the value that you will bring to the organisation. What is your value proposition? This is the catch, the panel and or the hiring manager are looking for competent candidates to drive the work of the United Nations
- United Nations Competency Based Interviews (CBI) explained.
With competency-based interviews, one needs to go with ready examples. Towards the end of every United Nations Internship advert, the terms of reference/internship advert list the required competencies. The competencies include excellent communication skills, teamwork, project management, time management etc. CBIs are used in most multilateral sectors like EU, UN. If you can successfully demonstrate that you have done it in the past, chances are you will be able to successfully do it in the future. Past Experience as a predictor of future performance, how successful you will be do in your new organisation.
- Understand the structure of the United Nations Competency Based Interviews
Check which competencies were advertised for a United Nations Internship, practice well researched examples for past experience, the more the many examples you give, the more your chances of being selected. The panel intends to assess how as a candidate you are fit for the job and prospective future performance on the job.
This article is continued in part 2.