Work For Refugees - 7 Tips to make your UNHCR application a success!

Working for United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is a career dream of many talents around the World. I was asked to compile seven tips, but while writing I came in a flow, so I added a few more tips for your next UNHCR application.

1. Make sure to fulfill all requirements

Start to read the requirements of the job you are interested in and make sure that you are eligible- You are eligible if you meet all the requirements (years of experience, degree, and language).

2. Make sure you have advanced language skills

Next step, ensure you meet the UNHCR-specific language requirements for a professional career. Don’t take this lightly, your language skills will be tested. As a highly mobile Organization operating in more than 100 countries, UNHCR is deeply committed to the principle of multilingualism and requires its international professional staff, upon recruitment, to demonstrate competence in at least two official UN languages.

Therefore, candidates aspiring to join the international professional category must be able to demonstrate, at a minimum, proficiency at an advanced level (C1 or above) in either one of the two working languages of UNHCR (English and French) as well as knowledge of a second official UN language at an intermediate level (B2 or above).

All organizations contacting us these days are looking for Arabic-speaking talent, so applying to have Arabic as one of your languages is extremely competitive.

3. Read the job advertisement carefully!

When you know that you have what it takes (requirements and languages), the next step I recommend is to carefully read the job advertisement. The purpose of your reading is to understand what the profile requires and how you fulfill the areas of most significant importance. To understand what is important I suggest using the T-table method.

By using a T-table you get a tool to identify the most important functions/deliverables/results of a job advertisement and the ability to pair these with your own relevant experience from your professional career.