My name is William Howard. I will be graduating soon/have just gradauted with a masters in politics at the School of International and Public Affairs. Recently, I completed an internship at the United Nations Secretariat in New York City in the Department of Global Communications. This was an amazing and worthwhile experience.
During my semester abroad at Sciences Po, which I was lucky to undertake through SIPA’s graduate exchange program, I knew given my previous experience in communications, language skills, and education at SJTU, I would be a great fit for a position at the United Nations. Initially, I applied for positions at the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (located in Paris), the Food and Agriculture Organization (located in Rome), and the UN Secretariat (located in New York City).
The applications were difficult, often including lengthy systems designed to screen out undetermined applicants. If you are planning on applying for one of these it is key that you fully explain the answers you give to the short response questions, this is what the UN recruiters see when looking at an application; simply uploading your CV may not suffice.
Quite quickly after applying, I was interviewed by a team in New York looking to hire two interns. They worked on the United Nation’s Messengers of Peace and Creative Community Outreach Initiative team. This team was small but covered a huge area of responsibility within the Department of Global Communications. Everything from celebrity visits to social media campaigns to coordination between the biggest names in football, they handled it. I had some prior experience in relevant communications fields, interviewed twice and was hired to start in January.
I conducted this internship while writing my thesis, so if you were wondering it is possible to do both, though not easy.
I published newsletters, reviewed applications for an initiative called Football for the Goals (FFTG), coordinate the visit of Japanese pop group JO1, and assisted with administrative tasks as interns usually do.
Surprisingly for an intern, I did also have the opportunity to do event photography twice: once for Ryan Reynold’s visit to the UN through the FFTG initiative and his club Wrexham F.C., and another for a forum bringing together the biggest names in sustainability throughout the global football community.
Overall it was a great experience and I recommend it for those interested in gaining valuable work experience and learning how the United Nations works.
