How to Get a Job at the UN

A friend recently send me an email asking how I got my internship athe UN, so I thought I'd share it with a wider audience The text follows, slightly edited:

Hey man,

Yeah it was really an amazing experience and I'd highly recommend anyone who can get an internship at the UNDP to take one.

Getting it was a bit tricky and took some luck and a lot of persistence. It began at fall On Campus Interviews ("OCI") 2007, at the beginning of my second year at Fordham Law. I skipped 2007 OCI to stay an extra week in Paris, where I was working at the OECD, at the end of my 1L summer. Working at a law firm wasn't something I thought I wanted to do at the time, so I was intent on doing another public interest summer. At any rate, throughout almost my entire second year, I didn't have a job lined up for the summer. Since I knew most application deadlines hadn't even passed, I wasn't nervous--feeling pretty confident I would find something good. I applied to the UN, the World Bank, the IMF, the US Dept. of State, IFC, OPIC, and MIGA, as well as countless other NGOs, IGOs, and GOs.

During my second year, I took three classes with professor Galizzi: International Law of Development, an independent study, and MDG: Ghana, the course that brought me to Ghana for 3 weeks. For the two classes with a lecture component, there were a few guest lecturers, one of whom, Naresh Singh, was the executive director of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, an independent commission that was hosted by the UNDP. I volunteered to help out on the UNDP side for the 5th Commission Meeting, spring semester of my second year at Fordham Law. I used this as a networking opportunity--I got to know Naresh quite well and he introduced me to several people, one of whom, Maaike DeLangen, was eventually designated as the person at the UNDP who would be receiving the commission report and start implementing it.

I asked Maaike if she was interested in having an intern. She said she hadn't thought about it, but was open to the possibility. I sent her my resume, a cover letter, and some other supporting documents. She interviewed me, basically told me I was hired but that she had to check with the hierarchy at UNDP. She found out there were some UN internship rules which had to be complied with. The rules stated Maaike had to announce the internship position and receive other applications. I was really anxious at this point, because time was getting short: it was mid April and I STILL didn't have a summer job for my 2nd summer. Maaike eventually got back to me and told me I was hired, after which there was a great deal of paperwork because the UN has so much bureaucracy. The job was very interesting, challenging, and eye-opening. Maaike ended up being a really great person to work with.

And that is the story of how I got my internship at the UNDP.

Take it easy bro.

~a