u/Miserable_Career_919

Earlier this year, I went through a terrible experience with a UN agency where, after my internship, I was offered a consultant contract and after waiting FIVE MONTHS for the process to complete (which was an internal recruitment), I was told in the end that the team’s admin staff would not process the hiring of a candidate with less than 2 years of experience and my team ran out of political capital to push back against this.

I was extremely depressed and in a moment of desperation, I accepted a role with a very small firm working on evaluation of international development projects. The role is a small Bid Writer role, whereas all my experience so far (internships at UN agencies) has been in climate finance and public finance (I also have a Masters in International Law).

Without naming the organisation, I will say that it is not a very good one. The firm is run by a single founder with work experience at Tier 1 NGOs and multilaterals, but nothing else about it is good. The way the team functions and the organization is structured is abysmal. There are no clear reporting lines, the founder is a despot who insists on reviewing everything being produced by junior staff, who are often forced to compromise on quality of work due to immense workloads and to write proposals to win projects which have nothing to do with the firm’s experience, relying on a consultant database which is fishy (consent rarely gets asked before including consultants in proposed team compositions). The founder is also highly unprofessional and regularly feels it is okay to discuss employees’ personal requests (for example, confidential conversations on salaries or conflicts) openly on team meetings (not mine, but I’ve seen it happen to other people) and the whole thing has left a really bad taste in my mouth. I don’t see any potential to grow or be recognised for my talents in this team because of how it is - and I’ve honestly been a highly driven and valued employee in every workplace I’ve been in.

So, I put in my papers and quit before my probation period ended, as I wanted to focus more on finding a real role in my area (climate finance) that I didn’t take out of desperation during a traumatic recruitment process with the UN. Quitting itself wasn’t a smooth process, as no one acknowledged my email for weeks and HR couldn’t answer my follow ups or requests as the founder was too busy to tell her how to respond. Basically, the entire firm is run by one person who refuses to delegate responsibility (despite having very capable managers) and is far too busy to invest the time needed to run an organization.

Today, she called me and offered me a counteroffer: a raise + to fly to Uganda and support her in setting up an ESG/climate finance vertical. I am not sure how she intends to do this, as the firm’s experience is solely in evaluating humanitarian projects.

On paper, this would be international experience to add to my CV in my preferred area. But after the experience I’ve had with this firm, I am highly skeptical and know it won’t be all rainbows and sunshine. My experience with the firm and the founder have been awful and I know this won’t be any better. Any thoughts on what I should do would be much appreciated.

I graduated with a Master’s in International Law in 2024, after which I completed 2 UN internships in the area of public finance/dev finance and climate. The second internship offered me a consultancy position - where the process took 5 months to complete. After constant back and forth, them giving me hope and later saying things look bleak, they finally told me the process did not succeed as admin preferred not to hire an entry-level candidate.

My life had been on hold for 5 months for this position and I truly do not know what to do next. Seeking genuine advice on how to plan out my next steps. I know I shouldn’t have waited around for this job but it seemed so hopeful and I was so sure at times that it would come through that it seemed useless to accept roles (that I had interviewed for in my home country, move to a different city and then quit within a month). Anyway, I am seeking advice:

I am from a country in the Global South where the pay is very low and the work culture is awful. I want to stick to ID work, but I realise how ridiculous that sounds in the current market. My other option is applying for funded PhDs in International Tax/Financial Law to ride out this job market.

Another idea I have is to pivot to public sector consulting, maybe in one of the Gulf countries but to be honest, that’s an area I’ve never explored or applied for before and have no idea how to go about it.

If anyone has any experience with pivoting into this field, or has any insights to share about the realistic prospects of landing a real entry level role in this field (I have a law degree, masters and 1 year of UN internship experience), it would be much appreciated. Frankly, the extremely long and bureaucratic recruitment process which ended in the worst news of my life has kind of broken me, and I’m struggling a lot to get back on my feet. I could really use some guidance on finding something because I now have a very large gap on my CV which is stressing me out. I know those older than me with more experience in this field have experienced many setbacks like this one but this is my first ever in life, and I am worried I will be unemployed forever and my career will be meaningless.

I’ve been through the worst 6 months of my existence and I am shocked at how low my life can sink.

I work in international development, and finished a UN Internship in January this year. As everyone knows, the UN is a notoriously difficult organization to work for. The competition is brutal and the bureaucracy is crippling.

At the end of my internship, after months of stringing me along telling me I am really good and they’d like to hire me, but the team only hires seasoned and experienced policy professionals and since I am an entry-level candidate my team lead would never sign off on it, they actually finally did offer me a job.

My supervisor liked me a lot and fought very hard for it to happen. I am extremely grateful that someone was invested in my career development in that way. He himself was hired after his internship, which probably happens to like 5% of interns, and is now very successful in life. It’s super super rare for that to happen, though.

I was overjoyed. I had been struggling with periods of unemployment and this was a dream come true. I am from an Asian country where the work culture is painful and the pay in my industry is abysmal - the UN was my only way out.

Anyway, I already mentioned that UN bureaucracy is crippling. Any hiring process takes a long time, with lots of administrative steps. I know people whose hiring took over a year - it can be really inhumane timelines.

So, I was told I’ll have to wait for them to draw up the new contract. I was prepared for this. 2 months into my wait, I got told that admin was making a big deal about hiring me as a) they cannot hire someone new without pretending it has been a competitive process and they have allowed the whole world to apply and b) I do not have 2 years of work experience, and they apparently cannot post a job for less than that. I know this is not actually a UN policy because it has happened countless times before, but more so an admin preference in my team that they weren’t able to override.

Experience requirements are calculated very very strictly at the UN and I knew I did not meet that requirement. However, my supervisor still posted the job and asked me to apply. He said they will have to see if I meet the requirement once I apply. But I know I don’t. I had just been waiting for them to tell me it didn’t work out. I waited for this for 4 months (it took 1 month since this communication to post the job, and 1 more month of silence after the application deadline) and fell into a depression so deep - I have developed a severe anxiety disorder and have never in my life had suicidal thoughts until now.

And it’s not just because of this job prospect, but I also was applying to other jobs at the same time and realised how bleak the market is, and how low I would get paid and how shit I would be treated as an employee in my home country. It just broke me.

Crazily enough, 4 months post internship, I got an interview call for the position that was posted? I have no idea how - I know I don’t meet the basic requirement in the job posting? I was texting a colleague who told me my supervisor was trying really hard to hire me. Again, I am so grateful for him.

Anyways, I did the interview, and I got told in the interview that selection would take a few weeks and that after selection, drawing up the contract would take a couple months since it’s the summer months (which is basically 2 months off in Europe).

Seems hopeful, right? I mean, it’s strange for anyone in an interview to tell you how long onboarding processes would take post selection - it makes sense to just leave it at how long the decision would take? Or maybe I’m going crazy, idk?

Anyway, 3 weeks later post interview. I haven’t heard anything. I emailed the hiring manager for a follow up and haven’t received a reply. And I’m officially going nuts. My career has been on hold for 5 months exactly now - and I really have been reduced to a husk of a person. I truly have crippling anxiety and killing myself is not even out of the question anymore and I don’t know what to do. There is this gigantic gap on my CV now and what if they’re just going to pick another candidate? And they don’t even tell me that until the other person is fully on board (which will obviously take a century)? I am truly freaking out and so scared for my future. I think this setback will ruin me forever and I’m scared I won’t be alive in a few weeks.

I finished an internship earlier this year during which my supervisor expressed strong interest in hiring me after. Although it was not easy, my team was finally convinced to create a position for me (my team had no history of hiring an intern so this was quite unconventional).

Since this was decided towards the very end of my internship, I was prepared for a contract break. I was ready to wait 3 months, although my team wanted to get it done faster due to capacity constraints, etc.

2 months into my contract break, I found out that there had been a lot of pushback against posting a ToR for a junior consultant (Level A - this is a Secretariat entity) for less than 2 years of experience. Eventually, despite being told by admin it would be a hard requirement, my team advertised the position and asked me to apply, saying they would have to check if I meet the requirement once I applied. I clearly do not have 2 years of experience, so at this moment I knew it was over. Kind of (extremely) painful since I had been waiting for 3 months at this point and even turned down other offers early in the wait since I thought it was a done deal.

Cut to a month later (4 months post-internship), I received an interview invite for the position. I have no idea how since I do not meet the experience requirement. Anyway, I had the interview (with my own former colleagues) and was told it will take "a few weeks for selection and a few more months for contracting" since the summer months are coming up, which is fair enough. Now, I have truly no idea what to make of this. I always knew it was going to be a competitive process but after all these mixed signals, I don't know if I am still the internal candidate or not? The endless waiting is getting to me - I don't mind waiting for something that's going to happen but waiting this long and not having anything to show for it on my CV is stressing me out. I know timelines can take forever and if I weren't initially the internal candidate for this role I would've applied and forgot, moved on, etc. But I have no clue what to do now.

I finished an internship at a Secretariat entity in January this year. Throughout my internship, I was told that my performance was great, and my supervisor strongly advocated for me to be hired. My supervisor’s supervisor, however, was not on board with the idea of hiring an intern and strongly believed that consultants need to have more experience (not an uncommon idea in the UN system, I know). It was a very busy team, and I got anxious at the prospect of being hired, then being told it can’t happen, but that I am really competent, etc. etc.

When I finally made my peace with the fact that there were no future prospects for me at the team, and towards the very end of my internship contract, I was told that finally, after some discussion, they would create a position for me.

This was toward the end of my internship, so I was prepared for a contract break before the consultant contract was in place. I knew it could take up to 3 months, and was fully prepared for it - although my team aimed to get it done quicker.

Cut to 3 months into my contract break, I get told that there’s a lot of pushback against my hiring by admin staff, who believe a junior consultant must have 2 years of experience and the ToR cannot be posted for less than that. At this point, I had turned down other opportunities in my country because I knew the UN hiring process would take a considerable about of time, and I could not justify holding off on making a decision for months on end with any other organization.

Regardless of my not meeting the experience requirement, I got told my ToR would be posted, I would be asked to apply, and they would then have to “check if I meet the requirement”. Obviously, I do not meet the requirement. So, I applied, and figured there’s no way I would meet the requirement. Tried to forget about it, but I still hadn’t officially heard that I didn’t qualify for the position so it was gnawing at my brain. One month after applying, I received an interview invite. I have no clue how, or why - I simply do not meet the experience requirement on the ToR.

Post-interview, I got told it would take a few weeks for selection, and that contracting would take another 2-3 months since the summer months are coming up. Fair enough. On my end, it has now been 4.5 months of waiting since my internship ended, and I have turned to a ball of anxiety. I have genuinely never experienced anxiety of this magnitude ever before in my life, and I am not sure I will make it to the end of this month to hear a decision. If it really even will take just “a few weeks”.

I am trying extremely hard to decenter this job, to apply to others, to take up hobbies to forget about this, but every time I receive an interview for a role in my home country (in the Global South) I am reminded how low the pay is and how dehumanizing the work culture is. What my future has in store for me is officially haunting me. I have been waiting for 5 days for a decision and the anxiety is eating me alive.

I’ve been job searching post-internship a lot lately and come across a particular type of job with NGOs very often - these are roles which will be titled something like “Junior Project Officer/Coordinator/Assistant” but the ToR will state that the role is “on a voluntary basis”, usually entirely unpaid or with a living stipend. These roles don’t call themselves internships, and have the title of a real job but don’t have a salary, so they lie in that grey area where I can’t tell if taking up such a role would add to my years of work experience or not?

Just recently went through a very long and very anxiety inducing recruitment process for a consultant role with a team at the secretariat (after my internship) where my recruitment was blocked by HR for not meeting 2 years of experience, so taking up a role that would be considered real work experience and is NOT an internship is very important to me at this stage in my career. Any guidance on whether these types of roles do indeed count as real, full-time work experience would be much appreciated!

I’ve been job searching post-internship a lot lately and come across a particular type of job with NGOs very often - these are roles which will be titled something like “Junior Project Officer/Coordinator/Assistant” but the ToR will state that the role is “on a voluntary basis”, usually entirely unpaid or with a living stipend. These roles don’t call themselves internships, and have the title of a real job but don’t have a salary, so they lie in that grey area where I can’t tell if taking up such a role would add to my years of work experience or not?

Just recently went through a very long and very anxiety inducing recruitment process for a consultant role with a team at the UN secretariat (after my internship) where ultimately my recruitment was blocked by HR for not meeting 2 years of experience, so taking up a role that would be considered real work experience and is NOT an internship is very important to me at this stage in my career. Any guidance on whether these types of roles do indeed count as real, full-time work experience would be much appreciated!

The purpose of this post is to ask how my early-career peers are doing and if you found work post-internship (if you didn't get hired by your team)? If so, how long did it take to secure employment? Do you currently work in your preferred area? Generally, how's it going? I know it's a rough time in the market for everyone but arguably the worst time to break in as an entry-level candidate. Trying to find hope (obviously, I am unemployed) as I'm considering quitting the sector and want to hear if it is at all possible to salvage this career path as a young person.