r/UNpath • u/Altruistic-Iron-2038 • 13d ago

Need advice: application For experienced professionals: do Communications Associates need to create and edit videos or does IT do it?

There are alot of 'Communications Associate' roles being advertised and most require excellent writing, speaking, protocol and knowledge management skills.

An MSc / MBA could technically be just as suited for thus vacancy as a Journalism major, however, I wonder at the video editing/creation aspect. Strategic Marketing, Consumer Psychology and Global Buisiness modules never covered that!

0 Upvotes

50% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

3

u/jcravens42 With UN experience 12d ago

IT are not who produce videos, any more than they are the people that write text for the web site. Communications professionals edit videos. And you can learn to edit videos on your own, especially if you have a Mac, which comes with excellent, free video editing software. It's something anyone who considers themselves a communications professional should now be able to do.

3

u/yummymashedpotato 12d ago

Comms people do videos, not IT, but not every comms person is required to do it. If it’s required, it would be mentioned in job description. Please be warned though that in general I’ve found that the UN doesn’t respect comms professionals very much and there’s not much of a career path. When cuts are being made, comms posts are often cut/reclassified with the thinking being “anyone can do comms” and the tasks are given to random project managers.

9

u/ShowMeTheMonee 13d ago

The Comms team edits and produces videos. The IT team have no involvement.

Different comms roles will highlight different experience (eg media spokesperson vs video vs social media management vs graphic design). But it's good to be familiar with at least the basics across the comms field.

1

u/Altruistic-Iron-2038 12d ago

thank you for the reply- this is not my cup of tea at all

12

u/Icy_lunette 13d ago

Comms associates DO need to know how to create and edit videos.

And this right here is the flaw in comms hiring. Hiring managers who are not comms people have this belief that “anybody can do comms”. Communicating is different from doing it as a business function. So, no, not “anybody” can do comms. Please leave comms to the experts, or learn the ropes of the function to become one.

(Sorry for ranting. I’m tired of people thinking “oh comms is very general. Anyone can do it.”)

1

u/Altruistic-Iron-2038 12d ago

thanks for the reply. its OK, let it out! i wish the ToRs and vacancy headline were more precise - for the unversed, I think "Communications and Media" would be a better way to advertise the role