Unicef does not have a hard time attracting Child Protection officers, except for conflict locations. But one expertise area they are lacking is nutritionists. So if you are a nutritionist, you should look for Unicef jobs.
At Unicef, gender parity is achieved at the junior/mid-level, which means that 50% of the career positions are filled by a woman and 50% by a man. However, one can see that the men/women 50/50 goal starts to drop already at P4-level, which is a mid-level career grade at Unicef that requires a Masters's degree and 7 years of professional experience.
As a consequence, women are generally under-represented at higher seniority levels.
Before applying, make sure you meet the minimum requirements:
- To apply you must have completed your Master’s degree (or your first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of relevant experience);
- To apply for a P4 (this is a career position at the Mid/Senior level), you must have completed 8 years of professional work experience;
- To apply for a P5 (this is a career position at the Senior level), you must have completed 10 years of professional work experience;
- To apply for the D2 (Senior Executive), you must have a minimum of 15 years of progressively responsible experience that combines strategic and managerial leadership in administration, business management, planning and operations in a large international and/or corporate/social enterprise organization.
To be successful, you should bring to the recruiter's attention hands-on work experience from challenging locations. Proven resilience and mobility were two skills that always caught my attention when screening applications. A recruiter would quickly go through your work experience and look for;
- volunteer experience; any hands-on hardship experience (previous/current work in crisis countries or locations);
- any experience from working in Ukraine, Sudan, DRC, Somalia, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Mano River countries, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ebola, or Tsunami affected regions.
- any language combinations that would be an advantage - Arabic/English, Arabic/French/English/Chinese;
- any UN field mission experience;
- any experience from other organizations that serve in similar contexts such as Save the Children, Plan International, Care, ICRC, IRC, NRC, DRC, WFP, UNHCR, OCHA, UNDP, IOM etc;
- any experience as a UN volunteer;
- any other professional UN staff experience;
- any experience serving at the same level (P4/P5/D2) or one level below;
- any indication that you have qualified for other UN rosters, technical clearance, talent pipelines or talent pools.
