u/frakbar

Hi all, I am unsure about what to do now.

Two weeks ago, on Monday, I finally received the communication from ICRC that I was shortlisted for the recruitment process to become an ICRC delegate. For an unfortunate coincidence, that exact day I was leaving for Canada, and was therefore unable to immediately do the language test (first step of the process). Luckily, they give you 7 days to do the test, I guess anticipating a situation like mine, and I didn’t worry too much.

After arriving to my destination, and overcoming jet lag, I finally tried the test, well before the deadline. However, when I clicked on the link provided, a message came up saying, I quote, "This company has no remaining assessment credits. Please contact them to resolve the issue”. Moment of panic. I immediately emailed the person who sent me the email saying I was shortlisted, since they said to contact them for any technical issue. Took them three days and one follow-up from me to answer with a very vague response stating that they were looking into the matter.

Two days later, the same email address re-sent me the same email I received initially, saying I was shortlisted, but with no new link for the test. I immediately emailed back asking for the link. Another two days have passed, and still nothing. I am sending another follow-up.

I refuse to lose such an opportunity for technical issue. Has anybody ever experienced this? Who else could I contact for help?

Thank you!

Hey everyone!

I found a position at the NRC office in Ramallah. I satisfy all the requirements, apart from one: fluency in Arabic, both written and spoken.

I have a very basic knowledge of Levantine Arabic earned during previous fieldwork in Palestine (which I think would be an asset). Despite that, I decided not to apply, because I consider the unmet language requirement too important to be ignored.

Am I making a mistake? Should I still try?

Thank you!

While I was looking for jobs, I bumped into DevEx. At first, it looked like a normal job portal like any other, but as I started to look at the single jobs, I saw that some of them could be accessed only via subscription to DevEx’s career account membership (19 USD a month!).

My question is: is that money worth it? What am I paying for? A privileged application? Exclusive jobs? I am thinking to start the free trial out of curiosity, but I wanted to hear from people first, either to confirm it’s useless or to find out it’s actually useful.

Thanks!

EDIT:
Thank you all, you confirmed my initial impression. I just wanted to be sure to not be missing anything, but I remain really doubtful about the usefulness and the ethics of this

Hey everyone!

I am a recent graduate from the NOHA Master’s Program in Humanitarian Action, and I am now in the (extenuating) process of applying for jobs. I have a main question for more experienced humanitarians:

how useful is to get extra-curricular humanitarian certificates at an early stage of my career? Would they be a boost?

(I am referring to courses with admission fees)

The question rises from the fact that currently I have free time to attend the above-mentioned courses, but I am unsure whether it would be a good idea to start this early, or it would be better to wait (because, to mention one problem, these certificates tend to expire, and it might be smarter to get them when I have an imminent opportunity to use them).

In addition, I have some sub-questions:
- are there any specific humanitarian courses/trainings/certificates you would recommend? (My interests are Protection, Disaster Management, Humanitarian Mediation and Negotiation, Emergency Response Management)
- does anyone know Harvard’s online course on Humanitarian Response to Conflict and Disaster? It can be audited for free, but the certificate costs 100$, and I don’t know if it would be worth paying
- what’s your take on free courses (e. g. Sphere’s courses, Disasterready.org courses)? Can they make a difference on your CV?

N.d.A. Of course, I consider each one of these courses, free or not, an opportunity to enrich myself, and therefore worth it in any case. The objective of the post is to make efficient choices at a crucial moment of my career, in a time when the humanitarian system is shrinking.

Thank you in advance!

Hey everyone!

I am currently waiting for a response from the UNDRR for an internship in Geneva, and in the meantime I’m trying to organize the future months of my life. They told me they are pretty flexible about everything (starting date, working in presence or remotely). One question that came up to me (and didn’t have the chance to ask them directly) is:

is it possible to work remotely, from a place with a completely different time zone?

In my case, I would be working one month from Canada (8 hours behind Geneva) before moving to Geneva. To me it seemed impossible, but then I thought about the fact that if they offer the possibility of working remotely, it has to be valid for everyone worldwide. Plus it’s the UN, in my mind enough used to be work with employees in different time zones. Does it make sense, or is it not possible? If yes, does anybody have experience on how it would work?

Thank you! And apologies if the topic has already been discussed.

So che non è stagione, ma ho due amici in visita e volevano comprare qualche prodotto al tartufo (olio, salame, ecc.).
Essendo io un acerrimo nemico del tartufo, mi vengono in mente solo Biraghi e La Bottega del Tartufo in Piazza Castello. Avete consigli?