Contents: Special International Careers Issue

While humanitarian aid and international development are often talked about together, there are some important differences that are vital to understand if you are considering entering these fields.

After you find a job you think you would be interesting, you then have to look at what subject area it’s in. In international development, there are a whole bunch of different fields. Some would be health, education, disaster relief, and procurement; these are all specialist areas that you will eventually need to pick from and build skills in. A willingness to put in more than what’s expected is a key component of a good international development worker. The nature of our work demands it. Working in this industry is a privilege, and you have to treat it as such. And have some reverence for the work you’re doing. Apply personal time to bolster the skills that you have. Here at the UN, it’s common to find people speaking six or seven languages—and that’s not just from taking a couple of university courses, it’s about added effort. It’s about going out and actually improving skills you want to develop, and applying them. It doesn’t have to be languages. Things like web design, programming—even something as simple as brushing up on your Excel skills—these are things that will really serve to differentiate you and make you a stronger worker. Whenever you’re coming in as a newcomer, your contributions are less important than what everybody else has already been doing. It’s your job to go in there, and integrate into the office as if you were a cog in the wider machine. It’s common for people new to the international development world to come and try to do as much as they can as quickly as they can. And it seems like that would be a good idea, but actually, when you look closer, it’s a much better strategy to actually align yourself with the priorities of the office.