Studium beendet – was nun?Career options for ICT graduates in

international organizations*

Martin Adolph, Programme Officer ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau

Visit of DHBW Mannheim @ ITU, 16 April 2010, Geneva

*Focus on organizations of the UN system

Motivation

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Academic career, MSc, PhD, …

“Perfect employer”

Work in other city or abroad

“Where do you see yourself in 2/5/10 years?”Job market

Interests

Qualifications

Experience

Internship / Trainee

Disclaimer

• These questions cannot be answered for you by the presenter.

• It’s never too early to start thinking about possible answers.

• Results may vary.

• The views expressed in this presentation are those of the presenter, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the ITU or its Membership.

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Potential employers (?)

4UN Organizational Chart available at http://www.un.org/aboutun/chart_en.pdf.

ICT-related fields of work

• Corporate/organizational IT/IS• ICT policy• ICT for (trade and) development• ICT statistics• Standardization• Applied ICT, e.g., GIS, mobile solutions, web• Etc.

5Leading UN agency for information and communication technology issues

Entry-level positions• Where to search?

– Official UN-wide e-Staffing System “Galaxy”, at https://jobs.un.org/ – Career websites of organizations, e.g., http://www.itu.int/employment/– Other websites, such as http://unjobs.org/, http://www.jobs-io.de/, etc.

• What to look for?

– Positions requiring little experience– Young / Junior Professional Programs– Internship programs in most organizations (mostly unpaid)

• Highly competitive recruitment process– Qualification– (international) experience– etc

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HR websites

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Government-funded programs• Funding of internships

– E.g., in Germany: “Carlo Schmid Programm”• Organized by DAAD / Studienstiftung• 6 months• 2010/11: 143 proposed positions in ~40 UN organizations • Information at http://www.daad.de/csp

• Junior Professional Officer– E.g., in Germany: “Programm Beigeordnete Sachverständige”

• Organized by Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Büro Führungskräfte zu Internationalen Organisationen (BFIO))

• 1-2 year government funding for entry-level position in UN organization

• Germany sends ~40 JPOs per year• Also see dedicated Auswärtiges Amt website

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Some room for discussion

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Thank you!

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