For ‘Young Professionals,’ How to Land a Job at the UN

This article is re-published * as part of Fridays With MUNPlanet and its series dedicated to world politics and the United Nations. This time, PassBlue brings you an interesting story by Mirva Lempiainen about what it takes to get your first job at the United Nations, and what the job application procedure through the UN Young Professional Program looks like.

As far as cool job titles go, you would be hard-pressed to beat that of Heli Pahlman, who is from Parainen, an archipelago town in southwest Finland. Her title has the words “outer space” in it.

Pahlman, 28, works as an associate program officer at the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs in Vienna. She is a staff member with the Committee, Policy and Legal Affairs Section, which is the secretariat for the UN General Assembly’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

The term “peaceful uses of outer space” refers to using space technology in satellite communications and navigation, natural resource management, environmental monitoring and disaster management and emergency response, Pahlman said in an interview with PassBlue. Her committee deals mostly with legal and policy aspects.

Just how did Pahlman, who has been with the UN for more than a year, get this gig? Through the UN Young Professional Program, or what UN folks like to abbreviate to YPP.

You can read the full article on MUNPlanet.

Cover Image: United Nations Photo