40 unique tips to make your UN job application successful

A well-prepared and thought-through job application tremendously increases the chances for a recruiter to stop up the extra minutes to carefully read your application.

I have been involved in hundreds of UN recruitment processes and I don't even know how many CVs/applications I have read. Filling out a UN application is a cumbersome and tedious exercise itself, hence I recommend you spend the extra time it takes you to optimize the application.

Many applications that I have seen are weak and sloppy, hence if you can ensure that your application is great, you give yourself a better position.

When applying for the UN you will be filling out an application form called P11/PHP. Today most organizations have taken these forms from a Word document to an electronic application.

Although the P11/PHP has entered into the digital era, most organizations use clumsy large ERP systems built for finance purposes. Hence these recruitment tools rarely respond to any modern usability, nor offer any type of CV-parsing (Impactpool is the only ATS provider that offers a complete Impact recruitment tailored recruitment system including CV parsing).

The digital P11/PHP still leaves you expected to spend hours filling out every field, and remember that if you take a shortcut it may bring you under the eligibility bar or even another unexpected consequence is that you upon hire may be offered a lower base salary than you deserve.

In this article, I have listed 40 tips to be used in your next UN job application. As already mentioned, when applying for a job at the UN it is important not to take any shortcuts, include all your professional experiences obtained after completed bachelor's degree.

Since the digitalization of the P11/PHP the work experiences rows may be sorted automatically but take no technical improvements for granted, most organizations are using their own application software and hence the configuration looks different. To be safe, include all your work experience, starting at the earliest year of your career.

In this article, I start with tips for your cover letter, continue with formatting tips, and end with tips linked to what kind of experience you always should highlight in any application to the UN.