Self-paced · Lifetime access · By Farhaan Ahmed
If you are trying to get into the UN, this is the map I never had.
Nearly eight hours of structured instruction across 60 lessons, from how the system actually hires to the competency interview that decides it. I have spent years on both sides of the hiring table. I built this for you, and for everyone else who was not handed the map.
One-time investment · lifetime access, including every future update.
Demystifying the UN career · Reflects the current and latest hiring landscape · For early-career and mid-career professionals · Pay-what-your-country-can pricing
- lessons
- 60
- hours
- ~8
- modules, plus a bonus
- 11
- downloadable tools
- 12
Realistic full-completion time including exercises: 8–12 hours, self-paced.
- The United Nations Secretariat Building, New York, seen from below against a clear sky, with the Conference Building roof in the foreground. Billie Grace Ward from New York, USA (Wikimedia Commons). Released under CC0 1.0 Universal (public domain dedication); no attribution required, credit given as a courtesy. CC0. Source.
Before you decide, see the work, and the course.
Two minutes on why I built this and what the eight hours actually cover. Judge it on substance rather than on my name.
Image credits
Images via Wikimedia Commons and Flickr: UN Headquarters, New York (Nanagrams, CC BY-SA 4.0); child vaccination, Kibati Camp (Julien Harneis, CC BY-SA 2.0); Peace Palace, The Hague (Fred Romero, CC BY 2.0); ICC, The Hague (Choinowski, CC BY-SA 4.0); ITLOS, Hamburg (Wolfgang Meinhart, CC BY-SA 3.0); Security Council (UN Photo/Rick Bajornas, CC0); Human Rights Council, 37th session (Ecuadorian delegation, CC BY-SA 2.0); peacekeeper, Sarajevo 1995 (MSGT Michael J. Haggerty, US Air Force, public domain); General Assembly Hall, 73rd session (Jakub Szymczuk/KPRP, CC BY-SA 4.0); aid convoy for Kurdish refugees (PH3 James R. Klein, US Navy, public domain); WFP food distribution, Sudan (WFP/Abubaker Garelnabei, CC BY 4.0, cropped and animated); UNHCR relief distribution, Kenya (Robert Palomares, US Navy, public domain); earthquake relief, Türkiye (US Naval Forces Europe-Africa, public domain).
The UN career is deliberately opaque. The people who get in are too often the ones who happened to know someone who could explain how Inspira, the UN’s main application portal, actually works, what a competency interview is really testing, and why a rejection is not always a rejection. Everyone else is left guessing.
This course exists to close that gap. My mission with it is threefold: to demystify the UN career; to give every person who dreams of this work the tools they actually need to pursue it well; and to put those tools in front of as many people as possible, especially those without access to mentors, coaches, or insiders who could otherwise have shown them the way.
That is also why the price adapts to where you live. Talent is distributed everywhere; access is not. This course is my attempt to change the second part.
Here is what you are actually walking into.
I would rather show you the arithmetic than reassure you. In 2024 the UN Secretariat received 263,708 applications for the professional, director and field service posts in this lane, and made 1,714 selections. That is the system you are applying to, and almost nothing written about UN careers says it out loud. I have drawn it from the Organization’s own report to the General Assembly, and I have kept the four limits that report puts on its own numbers, because a figure without them is not an honest figure.
- Applied263,708100%
Applications submitted for the openings in this lane.
- Screened in171,57065.1%
Passed eligibility and the manual suitability review. The rest never reach a hiring manager.
- Assessed53,87620.4%
Reached a written assessment or an interview.
- Endorsed3,0561.2%
Recommended by the panel and endorsed for selection or a roster.
- Selected1,7140.6%
Offered the post.
- ‘Screened’ here means screened IN, not merely processed: on average 60 per cent of applications were screened in.
- The population is job openings that ended in at least one selection. Applications to cancelled and unfilled openings are excluded, so the real odds facing an applicant are worse than this, never better.
- This is one lane, not the whole system: Professional, Director and Field Service posts under ST/AI/2010/3. Roster-creating and temporary openings are excluded, and the geographical-posts lane has its own separate figures.
- Every share above is a share of applications submitted. Of the applications that survive screening, a different and larger majority never reach assessment; the two answer different questions and neither may be quoted without its denominator.
The report’s own summary of the five years to 2024: more than 1.4 million applications for 8,652 job openings, resulting in 9,538 selections, with “less than 1 per cent of all applications being selected”.
Separately, and not to be read against the totals above: 162 applications per job opening in 2024, and about the same across the five years. Applications per OPENING, which is not applications per selection: an opening may result in more than one selection, or in none.
Nothing I can teach you changes those proportions. What the course does is narrower and real: most applications that fail, fail at a screening stage that is largely mechanical, and it teaches you what that stage actually tests so you are not guessing at it.
Whatever stage you’re at.
Take it in order, or take only the parts you need and mark the rest complete. I built it that way on purpose: nothing here assumes you are twenty-three.
Students and recent graduates
Mapping a route in before the competition does.
Early-career professionals
Who keep applying and never reach interview, and can't work out why.
Mid-career professionals
In NGOs, government, the private sector, or academia, ready to move into the UN system and needing to translate what they already have.
A mid-career applicant who needs only the contract system, the application mechanics, and the interview can take exactly those, and mark the rest complete.
Built complete, and current.
The whole journey in one place
I couldn't find a course that took you from understanding the system to the day after you're hired, so I built it: not a PDF, not a single webinar, the full funnel.
Built for the UN job market as it is now
It reflects the current and latest hiring landscape (the budget contraction, the constrained agencies, the routes that still work) rather than the abundance of a decade ago. Most guidance online is quietly out of date.
The pathways, weighted honestly
The Young Professionals Programme is one route among several, not the centrepiece: roughly a hundred placements a year from some fifty thousand applicants. It tells you which routes actually fit your profile.
Every UN employer, not just the famous five
A complete directory of the organisations and where each one posts its vacancies, because Inspira is only one door among dozens.
I have been on both sides of it.
I am a lawyer, and I spent years at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, on both sides of the hiring table. I have seen how these decisions are really made. I would still rather you judged this on the depth and specificity of the content than on my name: watch the introduction, download the free tool, and decide for yourself.
The famous route is not the main one.
If you have read anything at all about working for the UN, you have read about the Young Professionals Programme. It is one of at least five ways in, and on its own published figures it is roughly a hundred placements against some fifty thousand applicants. I teach all of them, weighted the way they actually weigh, because choosing the wrong door costs you years, and nobody who has already walked through one has any reason to tell you that.
Direct application at P-2 and above
Anyone meeting the education, experience and language requirements of the opening.
The main route, and the one the funnel above describes.
The Junior Professional Officer programme
Nationals of a donor country that funds JPO posts, sponsored by that country.
Real and substantial, and closed to you if your country does not fund it.
Consultancies and UN Volunteers
Anyone; the contract is not a staff contract and does not become one automatically.
The most common way in through the side door, and the most misunderstood.
Internships
Students and recent graduates. Secretariat internships remain unpaid.
A pathway to a network, not a pathway to a post.
The Young Professionals Programme
Under 32 on 31 December of the exam year, and a national of a participating country that cycle.
The famous one. Roughly a hundred placements from some fifty thousand applicants.
~100 from ~50,000 placements from applicants, per cycle. Commonly cited, and it varies by cycle.
60 convoked, 40 advance per country, per exam area. Where more than 90 apply from one country, applicants are ranked on education, languages and relevant experience first; 90 is that over-subscription trigger and not the convocation cap. Verify the current cycle's job opening: the mechanics change.
Eight lessons of this course are about nothing but this question, and the answer is different for you than it is for the person beside you. There are 60 in all.
Eleven modules, sixty lessons, one complete map.
I have printed all sixty lesson titles here rather than hiding them behind a chevron, because you should be able to see exactly what you are buying before you buy it. Take it in order, or go straight to what you need and mark the rest complete.
Welcome and How to Use This Course
Orientation: who made this, and how to get the most from it.
2 lessons- Welcome: who made this course and why
- How to use this course
Understanding the UN System
What the system actually is, and what it is like to work inside it.
5 lessons- The UN in three minutes: what it is and what it does
- The UN common system: every agency, fund, and programme explained
- What it is actually like to work at the UN
- The current UN jobs climate: what you need to know
- The state of UN hiring: a 2026 briefing
The UN Grade and Contract System
What the grades, salaries, and contract types really mean.
5 lessons- P grades, G grades, and D grades: what each one means
- Salary, post adjustment, and benefits: what you would actually earn
- Non-staff modalities: what they are, what you get, and what you don't
- Agency-specific contract types: IPSA, service contracts, ICA, APW, and consultancy
- Which grade should you be targeting?
Your Entry Routes Into the UN
Every way in: weighted honestly, not just the one everyone talks about.
8 lessons- All the ways in: a complete overview of entry routes
- Direct application at P-2 and above: the main route
- The Junior Professional Officer (JPO) programme
- Internships as a career pathway: what they are and are not
- Consultancies and UNV as career entry points
- The Young Professionals Programme (YPP): is it your route?
- Choosing your strategy: a decision framework
- Applying to UNV: the actual mechanics
Building the Profile That Gets You Shortlisted
Turning what you already have into a profile that clears screening.
4 lessons- The candidate profile that gets shortlisted, and how to build it
- Education and experience: the 'required vs desirable' rule
- Languages: which ones matter, where, and how to build them
- Networking before you apply: why it matters more than you think
Mastering the Application Process
Where vacancies live, how to read them, and how to apply well at volume.
8 lessons- How UN vacancies are published: where to look
- How to read a job opening
- Mastering Inspira: setting up your profile step by step
- Applying outside Inspira: UNDP, UNICEF, WFP, and the P-11 formFree preview
- The cover letter and motivation statement: what actually worksFree preview
- Tailoring every application: writing to the job opening's evaluation criteria
- The volume problem: how many applications, and how to track them
- The CV document: when it is required, and when the profile is the application
Assessments and Written Tests
What the screening tests and written assessments really demand.
5 lessons- Online pre-screening tests: aptitude, psychometrics, and what to expectFree preview
- The UN written assessment: what to expect
- The YPP written exam: phase by phase
- How to write a UN-style analytical paper
- Case studies and assessment centre tasks
The Competency-Based Interview
The interview that decides it: every competency, the STAR method, the day itself.
11 lessons- What a competency-based interview is and why the UN uses it
- The UN competency frameworks: the 1999 set and the Values and Behaviours Framework
- The STAR method: a complete tutorialFree preview
- Building your STAR story bank: the career journal method
- Deep dive: communication, teamwork, and accountability
- Deep dive: planning, client orientation, and creativity
- Deep dive: continuous learning and technological awareness
- Managerial competencies: for P-4 and above
- Interview day: preparation, conduct, and mindset
- The most common mistakes in UN interviews, and how to avoid them
- Worked answers: strong and weak, side by side
After the Interview: Rosters, Offers, and Timelines
What happens between the interview and your first ninety days.
4 lessons- The roster system
- From offer letter to start date
- Timeline expectations and how to deal with silence
- Your first days: contract, onboarding, and the first ninety days
Agency-Specific Guides
Where each cluster of employers posts, what they look for, and the full agency directory.
4 lessons- The Secretariat and peace operations
- Funds and programmes
- Specialised agencies and UNOPS
- Tribunals and smaller employers
The Long Game
Recalibrating after rejection, and the plan that keeps you moving.
3 lessons- Managing rejection and recalibrating
- Your 90-day action plan
- Resources, tools, and communities
Bonus: Life After Entry
The first promotion horizon: once you are in.
1 lesson- Step increments, FTA renewal, and career progression
Four lessons are free to watch in full, no account needed. Total 60 lessons.
Twelve tools, built to be used, not just read.
Every lesson comes with the working documents the UN application actually demands, and they sit alongside the videos, ready to fill in. I have left one free to download right now, no email asked, so you can judge the standard before you pay me anything.
UN Salary Reference Table
PDFWhat each grade actually pays once post adjustment and benefits are counted. Download this one free (315 KB).
JPO Country Programme Directory
PDFWhich sponsoring governments run Junior Professional Officer (JPO) programmes, and who is eligible for each.
YPP Application Timeline
PDFThe full Young Professionals Programme calendar, phase by phase.
Strategy Planner
PDFMap your realistic routes in and sequence them against your profile and timeline.
UNV Application Checklist
PDFThe mechanics of the UN Volunteers application, in the order the process actually asks for them.
Inspira Setup Checklist
PDFSet up the profile that clears automated screening, step by step.
Agency Portal Quick Reference
PDFEvery common-system employer and the portal where each one posts, not just Inspira.
Application Tracker
SpreadsheetManage applications at the volume the UN market actually requires, without losing the thread.
Annotated CV Examples
PDFReal CVs with the decisions marked up, rather than a template to fill in.
Model Written Assessment
PDFA worked UN-style analytical paper, so the standard is something you can see rather than guess at.
STAR Example Bank Template
PDFBuild and store interview answers against every competency, ready before the day.
STAR Answer Quality Checklist
PDFWhat separates a strong competency answer from a weak one, to mark your own against.
A grade does not tell you what a post pays.
P-3, P-4, D-1: you will see these on every vacancy, and almost nowhere is it explained that the grade is only one of the three things deciding the number. There is the step you enter at, and there is the post adjustment for the duty station, and the two move independently of each other and of the grade. I have drawn the structure rather than the money, and that is deliberate: the figures are revised every January by the International Civil Service Commission, and a number printed on a page like this one goes stale while a structure does not.
- P-1
13 steps: six annual increments, then six biennial
- P-2
13 steps: six annual increments, then six biennial
- P-3
13 steps: six annual increments, then six biennial
- P-4
13 steps: six annual increments, then six biennial
- P-5
13 steps: six annual increments, then six biennial
- D-1
13 steps: three annual increments, then biennial
- D-2
13 steps: biennial throughout
- Entry step and annual increments
- Biennial increments
Net base salary
By grade and step. The same figure everywhere in the world.
Post adjustment
A percentage on top, set per duty station and revised monthly, to equalise purchasing power.
Not to scale, and deliberately so: no proportion between the two parts is stated here, because it differs by duty station and changes month to month. Every increment depends on a satisfactory appraisal rather than on time served, so a grade on its own does not tell you what a post pays. The figures themselves are published by the International Civil Service Commission and revised each January; the course does not reprint them here because a number on a page like this one goes stale in a way a structure does not.
Where the figures areThe current scale is in my free salary reference table, and authoritatively at icsc.un.org. Take them from there rather than from me.
The whole structureIf you want it rather than this summary, I have written it out at how UN salaries work.
You pay once, and it is yours for life.
You pay once and keep it for life. I keep the course current as the hiring landscape changes, and every update reaches you automatically, with nothing to re-purchase. A UN professional post starts well above most national salaries and carries benefits few employers match; set against that, this is among the lowest-cost, highest-leverage decisions you can make in pursuit of it.
One payment. Lifetime access.
| High-income countriesIncluding the EU, UK, US, Japan and the Gulf states. | €200 |
|---|---|
| Upper-middle-income countriesIncluding Brazil, South Africa, Colombia and Malaysia. | €120 |
| Lower-middle-income countriesIncluding Nigeria, Kenya, Bangladesh and Pakistan. | €60 |
| Low-income and least-developed countriesSet by the UN's own LDC list. | €30 |
See every country and its price
€120: Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belize, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Gabon, Georgia, Grenada, Guatemala, Indonesia, Iraq, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Namibia, North Macedonia, Paraguay, Peru, Samoa, Serbia, South Africa, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Suriname, Thailand, Tonga, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Venezuela.
€60: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Congo - Brazzaville, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, El Salvador, Eswatini, Ghana, Honduras, India, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Micronesia, Mongolia, Morocco, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, São Tomé & Príncipe, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Zimbabwe.
€30: Afghanistan, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo - Kinshasa, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia.
€200: all other countries and territories.
Groupings follow the World Bank income classifications and the UN list of least-developed countries, reviewed annually.
- Full, lifetime access to all 60 lessons across 11 modules
- Every future updated version as the hiring landscape changes
- All twelve downloadable resources
- Self-paced: the course remembers where you stopped
No income or outcome is promised: the course improves how well you pursue the goal.
The price adapts to where you live. Talent is distributed everywhere; access is not. Your tier is set automatically at checkout, based on your country’s purchasing power, and verified against your payment card’s country.
I’m Farhaan Ahmed, a lawyer. I spent years at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, on both sides of the hiring table. Before any of that, I came to this work from Dhaka, without a map, which is why this course exists: it is the one I needed then, built from the public record and from years of watching, up close, what separates the candidates who get in. You can verify me: farhaanahmed.com.
Answered honestly.
Is this course affiliated with the United Nations?
No. UN Career Academy is an independent educational product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the United Nations, any of its agencies, or the International Criminal Court. Everything it teaches is built from public sources; that independence is what lets it be honest with you about how the system works.
Who made this course?
I did. I am Farhaan Ahmed, a lawyer who spent years at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, on both sides of the hiring table, and I have seen how these decisions are really made. I would still rather you judged the course on the depth and specificity of the content than on my name: watch the free introduction and decide for yourself.
Is this for mid-career professionals, or only graduates?
Both, and I built it that way deliberately. Take it in order or jump through it freely: if you need only the contract system, the application mechanics and the interview, take exactly those and mark the rest complete. Nothing here assumes you are twenty-three.
How long does it take?
Nearly eight hours of instruction across 60 lessons. Worked through properly, with the exercises, most people take 8–12 hours, entirely at your own pace, and I have built it to remember where you stopped.
Do I get updates?
Yes. Your access is to the course, not to a snapshot of it. As the hiring landscape changes, the material is revised, and existing members get every future updated version at no further cost, and the improvements appear in your course automatically, with nothing to re-purchase.
Why does the price depend on where I live?
Talent is distributed everywhere; access is not. The price adapts to local purchasing power so the course reaches the people who need it most, wherever they are. Your tier is set automatically at checkout.
Will this guarantee me a UN job?
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is not being honest. What this course does is improve how well you pursue the goal: it makes sure that when your chance comes, you are not the candidate who wasn't ready. The decision still rests with the system; your preparation is the part you control.
Talent for this work is everywhere. The map to it shouldn’t belong to a lucky few.
That is why I built this, and why I priced it by where you live. One investment, for the rest of your career.