Introduction episode for the Impactpool (former UNjobfinder) Career Podcast by INTALMA. This podcast is for all of you who are interested in a career within the United Nations, European Union, Development Banks, intergovernmental or non-governmental organisations. By following this podcast you are going to hear interviews with people who are having a remarkable careers within this field; to hear their stories about how they once entered into this type of career, choices that they have made, challenges that they have faced and not least hear what advice they can share with you. In this introduction episode we are talking about the background of INTALMA and Impactpool, why we started this service and what we want to achieve.

EP#1 Introduction episode for the Impactpool (former UNjobfinder) Career Podcast

Michael Emery is the Director of Human Resources at UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. He started his career as a teacher in Australia and has since then had a remarkable career with different UN organizations. In this interview you will hear Michael share some of his experiences and valuable advice. Hear what Michel believes are essential skills and qualities if you you want to work with UNFPA and much more.


EP#2 | Meet Michael Emery - Director of Human Resources at UNFPA

Julia started her career with the United Nations when she got a JPO position with UNDP 25 years ago. Since then she has worked for UNOPS, UNHCR and ITU. In this episode she will share some of her experiences from these years and give some valuable career tips.

EP#3| Meet Julia Watt from ITU

Sajid Ali has over 15 years of experience from IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which is the oldest environmental organization in the world. 

In this episode you will learn more about:
- IUCN and their recruitment needs 
- What are the challenges and rewards from a career within a global organization
- Important lessons –It’s not all about your expertise!
- What are the personal traits that IUCN are looking for? 
- How you can make an impression with your CV and interviewing skills. 


EP#5 | Meet Sajid Ali from IUCN

In this episode you will get useful career advice from Charles Cisney, Global HR-director of Pact, an international nonprofit organization open for all nationalities. Listen to how Pact supports people in over 25 countries through establishing local solutions and partnerships. 

“At the end of the day we’re all working towards the same thing which is in the service of people, helping them live better lives”, says Charles Cisney.

In this episode you Charles will share with us his own story and of course some really valuable advice! Some of the issues discussed in this episode are:

·      Key competences and important skills needed for an international career
·      The need to be resourceful and persistent
·      The importance of networking
·      How you can demonstrate your international exposure and experience.

You can find full transcript of the episode at http://unjobfinder.org/transcripts/transcript-episode-6-interview-with-charles-cisney

EP#6 | Meet Charles Cisney, Global HR-director at Pact

After her first job after university, resettling Vietnamese refugees in Finland, she’s done four different UN entities, nine field duty stations, and three headquarters including the UN Secretariat in New York. Laura Londén just hit her 25th anniversary in the UN system and has worked in every single aspect of operational support. 
“That makes me a UN veteran and it also makes me a UN gypsy. I’m also what they call a UN brat, which basically makes me a second generation UN”, says Laura Londén, Director of Human Resources at UNWRA.

Listen to her many great stories, like how she contributed to the building of a new country in East Timor and worked with the transition from peace keeping to peace building in Sierra Leone. It might be one of the lesser-known UN-agencies but UNRWA has 32,000 staff in areas where many other organizations no longer operate.

Here are some of the other highlights from this episode with Laura Londén:

·      The essence of a UN career and how it makes a difference
·      Her favorite UN-accomplishments that she’s been part of
·      The challenges of operating in conflicts or high-risk zones like Syria
·      What UNRWA does and why people should come and join
·      Why UNRWA have some of the best jobs you can have in the UN system
·      The most important skills needed for an international career
·      Career advice on the recruitment process and how to prepare as a candidate

EP#7 | Meet Laura Londén, HR Director at UNRWA

In this episode you will meet Becky Bakr Abdulla, Media Coordinator in Iraq at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). Listening to this episode will really give you an understanding of the importance of communications and what it means to be working in a conflict situation for an international organization such as the NRC. 

Becky Bakr Abdulla, a 27-year old from Oslo, Norway, is in the beginning of her career with the Norwegian Refugee Council, the NRC. In a short while she has gone from graduating university, via an internship, to being sent right into a field role as a Media Coordinator, where she’s dealing directly with the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. Becky is also a child of refugee parents from Kurdistan, which is located in the northern part of Iraq, where she is currently based.
 
–      Obviously that sort of background has always given me an interest in more than just in a region border. I’ve always had an interest in travelling, in learning more about other cultures and other nationalities. So when it was time for me to study and decide on something to study, I started off in Rome, in Italy, and I did some courses there in philosophy. And then, I did some courses in sociology before I decided that media communication sounded very interesting. So that’s my background. It’s within media and communication, and it’s given me a nice platform for the work I’m doing now with NRC, where I’m the Media Coordinator. And I’m also based abroad. So I find myself in a very satisfying position, Becky says.
 
Working with the humanitarian crisis in Iraq
Becky is stationed in Erbil, the capital city of the Kurdistan region in the northern part of Iraq where the majority of the population are Kurds. With 3.4 million people currently displaced inside their own country and, in addition, the Kurdistan region of Iraq have taken in approximately 250,000 Syrians. This means that Iraq is in an ongoing crisis currently now, escalating into becoming a humanitarian crisis on a very big level.

– We see that there’s a lot of attention on Syria, rightly so, but Iraq is definitely forgotten when it comes to the human stories, the human testimonies, the human suffering that we so desperately need more to focus on. And that’s also been extremely rewarding and something I’m very proud of myself and my team down here is that we’ve now managed with Fallujah to show the rest of the world through BBC, through Al Jazeera, through CNN, through New York Times, through dozens of different media outlets, that these are the people of Iraq, these are the civilian and innocent women, children, elderly that are taking the biggest fall for what’s going on here. And that’s been extremely rewarding, Becky says.

With her job also comes a lot of traveling. So for the last month, she has been based in Baghdad, covering the Fallujah crisis and response. But she also travel to other parts of the country, to a city called Kirkuk and also to Dohuk, which is a city in the northern part of Kurdistan where most of the Syrian refugees are currently located. According to Becky the Iraq crisis is a forgotten crisis in the sense that Iraq is all over the news almost on a daily basis, but the focus tends to be with the military and the political narrative.


Read the whole article about Becky here: https://unjobfinder.org/podcasts/making-the-world-know-what-is-going-on---becky-bakr-abdulla-at-the-nrc


EP#12 | Meet Becky Bakr Abdulla from the NRC

Impactpool Career Podcast is for all of you who are interested in a career within the United Nations, European Union, Development Banks, intergovernmental or non-governmental organisations. By following this podcast you are going to hear interviews with people who are having a remarkable careers within this field; to hear their stories about how they once entered into this type of career, choices that they have made, challenges that they have faced and not least hear what advice they can share with you. Find jobs and more career resources at impactpool.org

EP#1 Introduction episode for the Impactpool (former UNjobfinder) Career Podcast

Where Talent Meets Impact

Related tracks