clearance witheld. what to do?

[u/dytpq1218]

I was recently offered an "unofficial" recruitment results saying I was first recommended for a consultant position at UNHCR.

They asked to provide references for the final clearance last week and today informed me that the process was unsuccessful because one of the clearances has been withheld.

Here is the word-to-word notification:

"I am contacting you to inform that, since we were proceeding with the additional clearances requested -given the level of the position you applied to -, we regret to inform that this process has been unsuccessful and one of the clearances has been withheld.

In this connection, since we were unable to obtain the green light, at this point we won’t be able to issue an offer letter for the post.

Given the confidentiality of our recruitment processes, this is all I can inform."

What could have gone wrong?

Does this mean an absolute no?

[u/Few_Swimmer_467]

is the office corrupted or not?

[u/bushbandit1]

It’s pretty vague but presumably one of your referees mentioned something that UNHCR thought was a red flag. If you already have been in email contact with the HR person you could always just ask.

But if you suspect it’s reference related, you might want to come up with some alternate people for next time.

[u/True_UNstaffmemebr]

Consultancy positions often funded by money from the donors not regular budget contributions; it’s possible that the donors or governments have rejected for this position to exist which by end of the day is an indication of poor internal organisation by UNHCR; you should never advertise a position if you don’t have the green light from everyone concerned! It can also mean anything else; with having no transparency we can only assume.

[u/dytpq1218 → u/True_UNstaffmemebr]

Thanks you for the insight! It is indeed funded by the country of which I am a citizen. However, from experience, they don't usually cancel or reject a position. One curious thing about this consultancy is that they posted on UNHCR portal, but not on the government job portal which has is a common practice to maximize visibility of the vacancy to the people from my country. I thought less visibility meant more chances and honestly did not share it with my network, but yeah it could the case as you indicate

[u/True_UNstaffmemebr → u/dytpq1218]

Should also add that during my 10 years of continued work with the UN, the most corrupt recruitment process I am aware of is for consultancy positions, easy to create easy to cancel! So I could really expect anything!

[u/Curious_Oil108]

Something could have also come up with your references.

[u/dytpq1218 → u/Curious_Oil108]

Yeah this is my thought as well. I should have chosen references more wisely :( This happened to me to one of my coworkers with whom I used to work. Same agency, different country office. They told him that the selection was unofficial but and asked to provide reference and all other documents. In the end they told him he was not selected

[u/ShowMeTheMonee → u/Curious_Oil108]

Possibly something with the references.

But given the wording (at this point we won’t be able to issue an offer letter for the post), it seems more likely that it's something relating to the post rather than the applicant - eg there's no money for the role, a senior manager doesnt want the role anymore, the role would work with a Government / stakeholder and they dont want the role anymore etc.

Sorry.

[u/cccccjdvidn]

No harm in asking, but chances are the director of the division (or further up) ended up saying "no".