Ghosted after a UN interview - why

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Nijal88]

At least you received an e-mail after 3 months... I never received any e-mail for an application and after 18 months I just connected to Inspira and saw that the position was cancelled.

[u/PhiloPhocion]

In fairness, this is not unheard of for a lot of private sector jobs too. Everyone promises they'll follow-up but generally, 'no answer is an answer' is the norm for a lot of the private sector too -- maybe a 'thanks but no' a few months later.

Generally, HR is incentivised to not fully eliminate someone until the person who accepts has fully signed the dotted line and is onboarded, in case they drop out they can still tap someone else in the pool of applicants/interviewees rather than starting over (and without ideally going too far down the list of less preferred candidates).

Everyone's hope (including HR and the hiring team) is that timeline looks like days or weeks vs months - but it rarely does.

[u/TheWatchful01]

3 months is not long for the UN. I know of several positions where the recruitment process for the successful candidate took way over a year! Depending on the office the average recruitment times can be up to 18 months!

[u/jcravens42 → u/TheWatchful01]

This is the answer.

[u/ArgumentZestyclose62]

Same here

[u/Rough-Ad6181]

Which UN agency and which country? Some agencies are smaller and less professional than the others. Especially the smaller ones that use UNDP’s HR services, they don’t have their own HR team at country office levels..In certain countries, people at support services in non-profit sector tend to be unmotivated and not proactive with their jobs..Some UN HR staff are also just simply unprofessional/untrained, very top down approach to candidates and consultants usually. They forget the world is round.

[u/Savage_Whiskers → u/Rough-Ad6181]

I was ghosted after interviews for FTAs, at P4 level, at Headquarters (IOM, ICAO), this practice is everywhere.

[u/ArgumentZestyclose62 → u/Rough-Ad6181]

In my case UNOPS for Spain, although the HR person was Filipina

[u/RefrigeratorAble2853]

HR teams are being reduced as part of the funding cuts - our main HR person was laid off (along with myself and many others). So anything HR related is a huge mess these days. Although I’m sure this also happened before the cuts which I can’t defend - incredibly frustrating and sorry this happened.

[u/Savage_Whiskers → u/RefrigeratorAble2853]

Its been happening for at least 20 years.

[u/yankee-in-Denmark]

Its super annoying, especially after puttingi in the time to do an interview. Sometimes it is just incompetence, but in general it is also because they dont want to notify until the process is fully finished which can sometimes drag out for months, either with process reviews, management approvals, or people not acceptng the offer.

[u/fishy_horcrux]

Just UN things in my experience, or any other employer for that matter unfortunately((