It has been a while since I have last written about the UN NCRE. Nothing much has developed over the last few months but as I have said, that was to be expected. While patiently waiting, I have been busy working on a few projects that I am excited about. Firstly, due to resignations and contractual issues; we have had to delay the launch of our website again. But I am excited about that because we have taken an entirely new approach to the whole development process. One was we collaborated with our Marketing department on this initiative. In the past projects were mostly developed in isolation. Secondly, although e-commerce will be some years away we have taken the initiative to add an e-commerce comment on our new website. We are building it on Drupal and after testing eCommerce, we finally decided to go with Ubercart for our e-commerce front end. Next exciting bit of news is, 4 new web servers have arrived and are just waiting for me to get my hands on them and put them online. After a year of pleading I finally get to have options to offer our customers, we will now offer a Linux web hosting environment in addition to the Windows offering we currently offer. That will be a huge leap forward.
But back to the UN. Read on and find out some of the information that I have collated from other sources on the Internet.
From the UN NCRE website, this announcement.
2010 National Competitive Recruitment Examination (2010 NCRE):
NCRE 2010 is delayed until summer 2010. Additional information will be provided on our website by Sept. 2009
Looks like those wishing to sit for the exams in 2010 have reason to be happy after the initial scare that the program would be suspended for 2010. Additionally, Statistics and Information Technology results for those convoked for the 2009 exams are now available. For candidates who have sat the exam in 2008, Political Affairs and Programme Evaluation have finalized their rosters. Candidates in these streams should now be awaiting for placement once an appropriate vacancy is available from the UN.
For those now on the roster, here are some inside information you will certainly find very valuable. I got this off a long running thread of discussions on Frank Ejby Poulsen’s blog by far the most popular blog on this topic.
In response to a question on how many people on the roster actually get a job, a UN Program Manager registered as Mazza on the website responds:
“There are no statistics, at least not published, on placement time, or how long it takes from going from the roster to an actual job.
One correction to your question first of all; you don’t get on the roster to wait for a specific job to open up. There are a bunch of jobs out there, that require a specific set of skills. When one of these jobs opens up -because a P2 got a promotion, moved to another P2 post, quit, went on mission or secondment, a new job was created- the manager will request HR to provide him with the list of available roster candidates. He may ask for a specific roster, so only to see the economic affairs officers, but may also ask to see others he may feel could qualify. In my case, I am Program Manager, but took the Humanitarian Affairs exam. Just happened to qualify for the program management job.
The manager or HR will contact those candidates that appeal to the manager. At the least, they will need to speak the required languages, have the right work experience, and for certain very specific jobs it may be required to know how to use a certain kind of software or know of a specific branch of law, for example. These candidates will be approached to see whether they are interested to be interviewed.
Then a normal procedure is followed; candidates interviewed according to the competency-based interviewing method, a choice is made, the job offer is made, the candidate accepts or not.
There is absolutely no rule that says you can’t be contacted the day you are placed on the roster. I know colleagues who were off the roster and in the UN within 3 months. It really just depends on the job available, your qualifications and the qualifications of the others on the roster; it is a competition between you and the other candidates, as for any other job. And yes, there is a bias against people new on the roster, as in general they will be younger and thus with less relevant experience as those who have been on the roster for 3 years, assuming they have not spent those years wasting their time. If you were a manager, I guess you’d prefer the candidate with more experience, too.
As for the time limit, so far the roster has never been cleared, except for those who have refused 2 offers. So you can be on the roster for however long you want. I know they say it’s max. 1 year, but that isn’t something that’s enforced. There are horror stories going around of people being on the list for 10 or 15 years.”
Mazza comments and summarizes a few things by saying:
“1. The speed of the marking process. The exam questions are written by UN staff in the area of the exam. So, the Admin exam will have questions designed by people working in Admin, HR, etc. If the question you designed is part of the exam, then you will be responsible for marking that specific question for all the exams around the world. As you can imagine, especially in large groups like e.g. social affairs, this may take a while…Also, bear in mind that the people marking actually hold full-time jobs, get sick, pregnant, go on mission or holiday, etc. As you can’t publish results until every question has been marked, it can take a while.
2. The success rate. Internally, with the information about the suspension of the 2010 exams, we were sent some statistics aswell. The exams are suspended because they want to review the speed and efficacy of the process. Looking at the stats, I personally think it is the right thing to do. For example, in 2007 there were 6977 applicants. 1741 were convoked to the exam. 1195 actually sat the exam. Of these, 39 made it onto the roster. This is a success rate of 3.2%, which is among the highest since the start of the exam. In 2001, the success rate was 2.0%, in 2002, 1.15%. In 2005, 14364 candidates applied, but only 2554 sat the exam in the end. All this should tell you that you should not be too sad not having made it onto the roster, and that the General Assembly is right in wanting to revise the process.
3. Someone asked if it helps the grading (i.e. easier grading) if you’re from an underrepresented country, like Afghanistan. If you paid attention, you would have known that only candidates from underrepresented countries can even enter the exam. So no, there is no different scaling for different countries. Besides, the exams are marked blind (i.e. the corrector does not see name, sex or nationality of the candidate). Would you want a job in the UN with all your colleagues knowing that you had an easier time at the exam than they all had? Didn’t think so!”
The respondent now works with the UN in Program Management. I hope those information will be helpful for those who regularly read my blog for information on the UN NCRE.
could you please inform me on the procedure to follow on writing the NCRE exam for the 2010 stream. thank you
Hi all,
I wanted to know if a roster candiate would like to apply for a P3 in a different occupational group for relevant experience, is it considered by OHRM? or does it leave any -ve impressions? From mazza’s experience I feel its okay but not sure..please let me know what you think including mazza.
best
Salehin
Rafael – Simple answer, no. The UN also makes it very clear that placement on the roster does not guarantee a job. This you will find on the letters that they send after they have placed you on the roster. The exam/interview is only to be placed on the roster, the interview that follows is just like any other job interview in which managers of each department try to gauge your suitability for the position. So in a sense it does make sense. The second lot of interviews is always the more testing ones and where the wait can be very long indeed.
G – congratulations on your placement on the roster. I am excited to know that you will document the whole process for others to use. I support that.
I am glad you found this blog helpful.
Lynnold
Hi there Lynnold
I also just found out I passed and am on the roster for ADMIN. Results are up and all parts are showing as completed.
Without the help of this blog and franks blog on vox it is likely I would not have done it. Your clear structured step by step explanations helped so much as well.
I will set out a full summary of the whole process and link to this blog / post here in comments and I really do believe that all us lucky ones who benefited from this great advice should do the same. We should give back what we have been given by adding to the advice above and on other blogs.
Lynnold – you are a gentleman – I think you have helped more people than you know by setting this up (not everyone leaves a comment) and they will each be thanking you in their own way I am sure.
All the best to you all
G
Hello everybody!
I don’t understand one thing- if you eventually end up at the roster, are you guaranteed a job? I mean, within some really flexible time limits..
I read that even when on the roster, you have to pass another round of interviews, tests and things..in order to get the contract!
So what have we been doing up to now with written exams, interviews etc.
Regards!
Thanks pfui i checked the link i found out that my country haven’t participate from 1998 in ncre
sri, No one can tell you whether or not your country is participating in the upcoming examinations until there is a formal call for examinations. The best you can do is to look up the NCRE page on the Internet Archive to find out how often your country or discipline have featured in the NCRE. The URL is:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/examin/exam.htm
Further, you may try to contact them at “ohrm_ncre AT un DOT org” for a simple yes/no answer to the question of whether your country is over/under-represented at the secretariat.
Unfortunately for me, it turns out that Egypt is overrepresented at the UN 🙁
Hope this helps.
pfui
Will some one tell me that will India be participating in upcoming NCRE 2010?
Would you happen to know if Egypt is in the same situation as Nigeria? and why on earth is information so scarce on this examination? >:|
Thanks joyce. The simplest reason could be that Nigeria has fulfilled its quota at the UN in terms of employment. Perhaps those closer to the organization may have a better answer but to be invited for the UN NCRE one of the key requirements is simply that your country must underrepresented in employment numbers at the UN.
please i would like to know why nigeria is not included among the countries that are qualified to write the UN NCRE
pfui, at least in my opinion and interpretation. If they make an announcement sometimes between now and September 2010 then the exams will be held in 2010. My hunch, is it will be in 2011. But do not take my word for it. Regularly check the website and your local government for an official announcement. These announcements are done through official channels, sometimes respective government departments can also fail to publicise the announcements.
Whoa! you mean it’s unlikely that there will be a call for exams in the next few months? I thought the 2010 *exam* was delayed till the summer, not the call itself. This is completely abhorable.
Thanks for your prompt reply.
Hi pfui. Mazza’s comments, esp #2 above is very helpful. But basically the NCRE is currently being reviewed. The UN wants to make improvements especially on ways to streamline the process. There is also a current backlog of candidates waiting for placement so it is only logical that the NCRE be suspended until the review is over and the new measures are put in place to improve the system. If calls are made for exams in September 2010 then it is most likely that the exam will be held in 2011.
Chris, thanks and check my post: http://asimplemind.grafixfarm.com/?p=382
Would anyone happen to know why the announcement of the 2010 examination was delayed? The website used to say that further information will be available in September. Now it has a notice saying additional information will be provided on the website without specifying any time frame for the announcement.
Hi Lynnold, thanks for the above information, it is has been helpful and eye opening. I have been invited to an interview in the IT occupational group, I dont really know how to best prepare for it, seing as you have already gone through this process, what do you reckon i should be ready for?? will there be It related questions? do you get asked questions in line with your cv? how much about yourself do you have to tell them (I am not much of a talker) and what advice would you give regarding the UN open ended questions.
Thank you very much.
Chris.
Hi Dana & Dare. Thanks for commenting.
Dana, I am unsure of how the UN determines which subjects to include each year. However, I guess the subject areas are chosen as and when the need arises. I am sure that if there is a need for more in a particular area they will coordinate the exams in that subject. For you I wish they included Library in 2010.
Dare, the countries selected to participate “targets the nationals of Member States that are not adequately represented in the Secretariat”. A list of these countries is available on the NCRE website. This is the primary reason for selection. So the theory is if your country is already over/or adequately represented, it will not be invited to participate. I am told Nigeria is already adequately represented at the UN. My guess is, it may take until the numbers drop before Nigeria is invited again to the NCRE. Just my thoughts.
Lynnold
I am thankful to God that you made this post but i will like to ask, is there any possibility that African country like Nigeria could be included? I pray they do. Fingers are crossed all the way from Africa.
I’m glad to see some updates about this; thanks for posting! Do you happen to know how to find out what subjects will be included in the NCRE 2010? I’ve got my fingers crossed for the Library test. It looks like that test was last administered in 2006.
Oh! that was very helpful.
Thanks a lot!
But the success rate is too disappointing:(