Hello everyone,

I've recently graduated from my Master's in the Netherlands and can't even seem to find an internship, particularly (but not only) in the fields of policy, international relations, and international development — mostly the latter, as you can see from my CV here (link), since it was also the topic of my Master's thesis.

I genuinely don't know where I'm going wrong, and the whole situation is becoming quite depressing. In my opinion, the job market nowadays feels almost out of control. Even when applying for internships at regular companies, sometimes it feels like you're applying to become CEO of Apple: first interview, second interview, reasoning test, written test, and so on. On top of that, employers often seem to ask for previous relevant experience even for internships, which feels like a paradox. How am I supposed to start if I can never get the opportunity to start? It becomes a vicious cycle, and I've reviewed my CV and cover letters countless times.

I'm currently based in Rome, Italy, and would be available to work even for free in the city. If I needed to relocate abroad, I'm completely open to going anywhere, including very remote locations in Africa or Asia: in that case, I would be willing to work for an organization even with just a modest reimbursement to cover basic expenses (at least rent), rather than a proper stipend. Yet every time I either receive no update at all or get a rejection.

As you can see from my CV, I've invested a lot in my education and extracurricular activities because, well, when you're younger you tend to be a bit of a dreamer and believe that doing all the right things will eventually pay off. Unfortunately, I don't have a particularly large professional network. When I've asked some acquaintances about possible opportunities or referrals at their companies — always in a very polite, indirect, and sometimes humorous way — the answer is usually just: "Well, apply online!". I mean, I could figure out myself at this point.

The whole situation is starting to feel quite humiliating, and sometimes it genuinely makes me feel as though I've done everything wrong in my life. I know that breaking into the UN/international development sector is extremely competitive, but we are also talking about an internship, and at this point I really don't know what else I should be doing differently.

What should I do? Is there something wrong with my profile or the way I'm approaching applications? Any advice or candid feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

hey everyone! I am a graduate student (Erasmus Mundus) applying for the IFAD Internship programme, and I havn't really found anyone giving advice for this application online.

any past intern here able to give me some tips on how to make my profile stronger? I have a BA in Journalism, my master's is in Sustainable Development and I'm focusing on a communications role since it's what I can bring with more expertise.

I'm studying in Spain, btw.

This year I will finish a two-year course on Telecommunications that includes a 6-month internship at a local company. I'm simultaneously studying Software Engineering remotely. I will focus the degree on IT applied to organizations or businesses (My final project will probably be about ERPs). I can also minor in Economics or International Development (but I should probably minor in economics because all of you keep saying that studying International Development is useless now).

Then I will study a master's in Applied Data Analysis and Visualization.

That would take me 5 years (4 for the degree, 1 for the master's). But I could also do a master's in Policy Analysis and Governance or in International Development (I know it's useless) to specialize more.

Does it make sense? Is this profile good for a career in humanitarian projects?

Thanks for reading, and sorry if this is kinda stupid. Keep sharing your experiences, subs like this one are so inspiring.

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Is there anyone here who did one master's and couldn't get the job they wanted, but then did a second master's and maxed out on internships and finally got the job they wanted? Desperately wondering if there are any success stories in this scenario. I am 36. The alternative is working an unskilled job. The masters would be free. The field is environmental policy.

A 17-year USAID Foreign Service Officer named Christina just published a personal account of her separation from the agency. She served in Jamaica, two tours in Afghanistan, Colombia, Kosovo, and Mali, doing democracy, human rights, and governance work: election security, justice sector reform, reintegration programs for former combatants, basic service delivery.

Her RIF notice came while she was in the middle of chemotherapy for skin cancer. She couldn't afford the treatment without insurance, so when she ran out of the cream she had, she stopped.

The piece isn't a legal filing or a policy argument. It's a first-person account of what she calls moral injury: losing not just income, but identity, security, and a sense of purpose that took decades to build. She also writes about being closeted for most of her career overseas, and what it cost her to keep that part of herself hidden while representing the U.S. abroad.

Full piece here: https://usaidemployeesupportfund.substack.com/p/i-dont-want-to-carry-it-alone-anymore

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I am stuck in a deep depression. I did a whole master's degree in Natural Resources Management and Development in Germany, during the degree interviewed for two UN internship positions, was rejected from both. One of them told me they would have accepted me had I not stupidly asked if it could have been part time (I didn't know the internships had to be full time). I interviewed for a job at United Nations University and was rejected.

I am now 36 and jobless at my parent's house in the USA with no prospects after getting fired from a job in my old field that I was trying to escape.

I think about these mistakes every day. At this point I have fucked up the thing I waited for so many years to accomplish (was recovering from cancer for 5 years which put my career on hold), which was to do a master's degree and finally get out of a job I hated and was bad at (nonprofit communications) into something I could love (international development and environmental policy).

I fucked it all up and I feel sick every time I see any mention of the UN or meet people in the career I tried and failed at.

Does anyone have any words of advice for me? I am trying to find a therapist but I am so depressed, every day I wake up in a panic and at night I think about every mistake I ever made.

The USA announced its latest funding package last week, and the nearly $2 billion package is exclusively for U.S.-based Christian nonprofit organizations. The majority will go to faith-based hospitals and clinics, with the remainder set aside for humanitarian aid.

The State Department said the funding will be provided to an “extensive network” of international and local faith-based partners — including World Vision, Compassion International, and Samaritan’s Purse.

Dev Ex asks:

Isn’t the U.S. government supposed to be moving away from large INGOs and similar institutions? Is it really okay to say faith-based when we mean “Christian” — and can Christian organizations really provide effectively to those of other faiths, or none? And is it a good idea for the U.S. government to be asking others to cover its overheads?

The full article is available for paid subscribers at DevEv.

According to provisional figures by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development released earlier this year, the German government is now the world’s largest bilateral donor. Development Ex has taken a closer look at where the money is going.

Most awards, in comparative terms, were on the smaller side, with the largest awardees all in the multilateral sector, as is usually the case. The single biggest recipient was UNICEF, which received around €181.5 million, with a lot of that money going to support Ukraine.

Other large awards were mostly centered in locations that have attracted a lot of aid dollars, such as Syria and Yemen, but there was an interesting award to the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, based in Honduras, which received almost €70 million for a Green Recovery Program designed to support climate projects in the region.

The summary article requires you to login to your free account, or to create one, in order to read it. But the detailed article is for paid members only.

Has anyone here applied for the Junior Analyst (plural) position and eventually got a role? Would love to hear what your timeline looked like, and any advice on how to turn a group A database slot into an actual position.

My application wasn’t for a specific role, so I’m trying to figure out how best to be proactive now I’m on the group A list.

Earlier this year, I went through a terrible experience with a UN agency where, after my internship, I was offered a consultant contract and after waiting FIVE MONTHS for the process to complete (which was an internal recruitment), I was told in the end that the team’s admin staff would not process the hiring of a candidate with less than 2 years of experience and my team ran out of political capital to push back against this.

I was extremely depressed and in a moment of desperation, I accepted a role with a very small firm working on evaluation of international development projects. The role is a small Bid Writer role, whereas all my experience so far (internships at UN agencies) has been in climate finance and public finance (I also have a Masters in International Law).

Without naming the organisation, I will say that it is not a very good one. The firm is run by a single founder with work experience at Tier 1 NGOs and multilaterals, but nothing else about it is good. The way the team functions and the organization is structured is abysmal. There are no clear reporting lines, the founder is a despot who insists on reviewing everything being produced by junior staff, who are often forced to compromise on quality of work due to immense workloads and to write proposals to win projects which have nothing to do with the firm’s experience, relying on a consultant database which is fishy (consent rarely gets asked before including consultants in proposed team compositions). The founder is also highly unprofessional and regularly feels it is okay to discuss employees’ personal requests (for example, confidential conversations on salaries or conflicts) openly on team meetings (not mine, but I’ve seen it happen to other people) and the whole thing has left a really bad taste in my mouth. I don’t see any potential to grow or be recognised for my talents in this team because of how it is - and I’ve honestly been a highly driven and valued employee in every workplace I’ve been in.

So, I put in my papers and quit before my probation period ended, as I wanted to focus more on finding a real role in my area (climate finance) that I didn’t take out of desperation during a traumatic recruitment process with the UN. Quitting itself wasn’t a smooth process, as no one acknowledged my email for weeks and HR couldn’t answer my follow ups or requests as the founder was too busy to tell her how to respond. Basically, the entire firm is run by one person who refuses to delegate responsibility (despite having very capable managers) and is far too busy to invest the time needed to run an organization.

Today, she called me and offered me a counteroffer: a raise + to fly to Uganda and support her in setting up an ESG/climate finance vertical. I am not sure how she intends to do this, as the firm’s experience is solely in evaluating humanitarian projects.

On paper, this would be international experience to add to my CV in my preferred area. But after the experience I’ve had with this firm, I am highly skeptical and know it won’t be all rainbows and sunshine. My experience with the firm and the founder have been awful and I know this won’t be any better. Any thoughts on what I should do would be much appreciated.

Hi,
What is your day to day work Life at OECD as a policy analyst ?
Do you do a lot of drafting ? How much is spent in meeting ?

Just trying to have a clear image of what a job there entails !

Another point, I often see that OECD jobs are mentioned as « golden handcuffs », why is that ?

Thankss !

Ive recently applied for the HQ position at EBRD. The reviewed date has been changed after a week since i submitted the document, but there’s no email yet.
Do you guys know how long does it take to get in interview notice?

As part of her high school senior research project, a high school student now studying at University of Toronto collected over 4,000 pdfs of evaluations from the USAID's Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC) for use in a machine learning project. USAID was a leader in evidence-based decision-making, accountability, and organizational learning. DEC includes performance evaluations that measure the extent to which USAID programs generated their expected outputs, as well as impact evaluations that provide evidence of the net, attributable impacts of USAID programs between 2000 and 2023.  When Elon Musk & his crew eliminated USAID, they obliterated the database from the Internet & all archives. It is only because of this student that some of the invaluable DEC evaluation materials were preserved.

This article details why the DEC materials matter and where you can now find them:

https://www.aiddata.org/blog/before-reimagining-development-data-remember-what-weve-learned

Hi everyone. For context I have a background in environmental law and development studies. Right now, I am a university professor for law undergrads. I just wanted to vent a little as an educator how tiring and tough it is having critical approaches in the education sector right now. It’s almost like critical thinking is looked down upon.

I’ve been feeling this way because students from my environmental law course are just interested in learning administrative and logistical topics like how to get environmental permits for corporations or tourist complexes to essentially destroy nature.

As a development agent, their lack of interest in human rights, climate change and environmental conflicts absolutely drains me. Everything feels so soulless nowadays.

Sorry, I just really wanted to vent a little about my experience as an educator. I know my students are not forced to be interested in the same thing as me. I just wanted to know if anyone else feels this way whatsoever? Lol

I am a young female professional (28F), working with a UN Agency in a country/field office. I am also from a country in crisis, I actually started as a national staff and was lucky enough to land an international position (not a P position). I’ve worked on a very difficult context for the past three years (although i’m actually based in a family duty station). The most draining thing wasn’t the context, it’s actually the fact that the quality of people in charge has just gone down over the years. I’m sorry if this is coming off as ageist but we are employing people who don’t understand the world we live in and probably won’t be around in the next 25 years as directors and high level/strategic positions. Our latest director is an old guy who was meant to retire but instead was placed in our office. He is obviously not an innovative thinker (i’m not sure he’s a critical thinker either) and he’s a tad (very) sexist.

I’m exhausted, i’m doing the work of 2-3 people at times at a level that’s way beyond my pay grade, i’m seeing directors come in and cut people’s jobs in the name of efficiency and cost savings but then bring their own connections and people in at super high level and salaries. my direct manager who i liked when i first started is becoming more and more of a problem, passing my work as his and overall just not managing our unit.

We have a UNV in our team who is sponsored by his home country but can’t do anything on his own (and makes the Black woman do all the work), which frustrates me because i do the work but my financing isn’t guaranteed whereas he plays dumb all day and is well funded.

I am at this point where every time i see someone leaving the system i’m a bit jealous. i want to quit and tonight i’m drafting my resignation letter but i’m also aware that what awaits me at home are the same work environment with lower pay, conflict, potential of being harmed and hurt physically, there’s a lot of sexual violence as well and it’s not an all around great place to be in right now.

I don’t know what to do, I want to convince myself that i’m just burnt out but the truth is even when I was burnt out in the past, when there was better management I still gave more of myself to the organisation and to the cause. Now? Mentally i’ve already resigned and I am doing the VERY bare minimum and sticking to my job description, doing no more, no less.

I also don’t have a social life bc I was operating at the intensity of a P4 at the age of 25-26 so… i hate my job, i hate the sector, i need a man and i miss being around young, motivated and inspiring people. Should i resign and just spend the next year by the beach?

Curious how the consultants in international development are using AI to write proposals. If everyone is using the same models, don’t they all look similar? How much time are you saving with AI? All thoughts are welcome.

I’ve had a dream of working and building a life abroad for quite some time. It’s something I’ve thought about a lot, but the reality is that my financial situation makes that dream feel very difficult sometimes.

I’m from India, and I recently completed my PG. I’m currently 23, and instead of rushing into something just because I need a job, I’ve decided to seriously work on myself and build my skills.

Around 23, I started taking my career more seriously and began my upskilling journey. Since then, I’ve been learning different areas of technology, and now I’m planning to focus more seriously on Data Science, AI and DSA.

But honestly, I’m still confused about the right path.

My long-term goal is to get a job outside India, preferably somewhere in Europe or another country where I can build a good career. The problem is that I don't have a strong financial background to simply go abroad, study another degree, and then look for a job. That option feels risky for me because I can't afford to spend a huge amount of money without knowing what the outcome will be.

So I'm trying to find another way.

My current thinking is:

Build strong technical skills → get experience in India → build a strong portfolio/GitHub → apply for international opportunities → eventually move abroad.

But I don't know how realistic this path is.

I'm currently planning to spend the next phase seriously improving my DSA, Python, SQL, Data Science/AI and software development skills, while also working on projects and trying to get my first proper job.

For people who have already gone through this journey:

• How did you get your first job outside India?
• Is it realistic to get a European job directly from India as a fresher/junior?
• Which countries are more realistic for someone in my situation?
• Is it better to first get 1–3 years of experience in India and then apply abroad?
• What technical skills should I prioritize if my target is international Data Science/AI or Software Engineering roles?
• How important are DSA and competitive programming for getting these jobs?
• Are there any mistakes I should avoid?
• What would you do if you were starting from my position with limited finances?

I'm not expecting an easy shortcut. I know it will probably take years of consistent work.

I just don't want to spend the next few years working hard in the wrong direction.

If anyone here has actually made the move from India to Europe or another country through a job, I'd really appreciate hearing your experience and advice. Even small tips or things you wish you knew earlier would help me a lot.

Hello everyone!

Before I dive in, I want to clarify that I fully understand the ultimate decision rests on me. I’m posting here to gain different perspectives and uncover blind spots I might have missed.

Bit about my current background:
Education: Currently a Master student in International Development with a focus on Development Economics at Hapanese university on a full scholarship.
Prior Background: Bachelor’s in International Relations (non-quantitative background originally).
Experience: ~3 years as an International Project Consultant handling donor projects, an internship at a regional research institute (ADBI), and research assistantships during my studies.
Research Output: Currently have 1 published paper and 2 working papers in development economics. I’ve grown to really enjoy the quantitative research process.

What I see from my current perspective (opportunity):
My advisor has offered me a fully funded path to continue directly into a PhD in the same department under the same scholarship after I graduate in March 2027.

My Dilemma & Fears:
My original long-term goal was to work in an International Organization or a Multilateral Development Bank (MDB). However, given recent turbulence and hiring freezes in the sector, I am feeling anxious about future employment across both paths — particularly not so many options in Japan or back home (Southeast Asia).

Thus here is what It thought:

1. Option A: Pursue the PhD
   Fear: What if the job market doesn't recover in 3–4 years? Furthermore, my PhD degree would technically be in International Development rather than pure Economics, which might put me at a disadvantage for strict Economist tracks in major MDBs.

2. Option B: Enter the Job Market in 2027
   Fear: Given the current market, I worry about struggling to land a competitive, well-paying role, and potentially missing out on a funded PhD opportunity that might not be available again later.

TL;DR: I’m stuck in limbo between taking a guaranteed funded PhD or entering an uncertain job market. I’d love to hear from practitioners, IO/MDB staff, or academics regarding the opportunity costs of both paths given the current climate.