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Tips how to land an Education job at an International Organization

Impactpool works with several clients in the area of education, UNICEF, Save the Children, UNESCO and many more. In this article, we list what skills you should highlight in your application to be of greatest interest for a recruiter.

Several organizations are targeting international professionals in the area of Education. It is a long list of different profiles needed, from early childhood education to adult education, including the need for policy/advocacy and knowledge management for organizations and capacity building at different levels of society. 
To be of interest for most of these opportunities you benefit from having prior professional experience from working in developing countries and crisis-affected contexts. Some positions are recruited to the Headquarters locations and for those jobs, your expertise will more be used for formulating strategies, policies, and approaches to achieve concrete and sustainable results in education in emergencies and protracted crises.
Women from developing countries are an underrepresented group in several of these organizations, so if you are women from a developing country fulfilling all requirements you should not hesitate applying for vacancies when you meet the requirements. For most jobs, English is a prerequisite. But having a second language such as Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish is always a great advantage.
To be successful, you should bring to the recruiter's attention hands-on work experience from challenging locations. Proven resilience and mobility were two skills that always caught my attention when screening applications. A recruiter would quickly go through your work experience and look for;
  • volunteer experience; any hands-on hardship experience (previous/current work in crisis countries or locations);
  • any experience from working in Sudan, DRC, Somalia, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Mano River countries, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ebola or Tsunami affected regions.
  • any language combinations that would be an advantage - Arabic/English, Arabic/French/English/Chinese;
  • any field mission experience;
  • any experience from other organizations that serve in similar contexts such as Save the Children WFP, UNHCR, OCHA, UNDP, ICRC, IRC, NRC, DRC, IOM etc;
  • any experience as a volunteer;
  • any other professional staff experience from International Organizations;
  • any experience serving at the same seniority level;
  • any indication that you have qualified for other rosters, technical clearance, talent pipelines or talent pools.

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