Limited development opportunities for general service staff - Assistant UNICEF Employee Review

2.0
Sep 21, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

UNICEF has a great mission and an important role in influencing government policies for children and families. The salaries are better than the average for this sector.

Cons

The external values of the organisation are sometimes not implemented internally. - Staff at different levels are treated as different categories of people - general service staff are looked down upon and discouraged to share their views during meetings. - Staff at programme assistant level have very limited to no development opportunities. Once hired as an assistant, there is almost no chance to grow. - The organisation hires people with higher education and/or experience than the required for a programme assistant. - The ratio between technical and programme work in job descriptions and promised at interviews is unrealistic - in practice technical work spans to most of the time. These factors reduce motivation for staff and lead to disappointment. In the end people don't leave because of the relatively good salary or because they feel intimidated of the few job opportunities in this sector.

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5.0
May 15, 2026
Anonymous intern
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-great exposure to a UN agency with one of the strongest and clearest mandates

Cons

-the exposure and experience does not make up for the fact that interns are unpaid

4.0
Mar 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Working at the UN was an amazing experience, being able to take part in such a significant mission was great.

Cons

As I was not a full-time volunteer and was also responsible for fundraising in my territory, I felt that I did not receive the same treatment as the other volunteers. It was a challenging role and experience, and at times it felt like my well-being was not fully considered.

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