Date · Friday, 8 May 2026, 10:30 to 11:30 CEST
Hosted by · OSCE and AIIB
Session page · UNOG learning
Speakers
- Mariam Kakkar · Director of Human Resources, OSCE · Bio
- Richard Wolstenholme · HR Professional, OSCE (moderator) · Bio
- Theresa Beltramo · Head of Research and Development Impact, AIIB · Bio
This panel discussion challenges the “UN-for-life” mindset and invites staff to rethink what a successful international career can look like. Through candid personal stories from professionals who moved from the United Nations to other international organizations, the session demonstrates that career paths in the multilateral system are non-linear, mission-driven, and strategically strengthened by mobility. Participants will explore how UN-honed skills can transfer across IGOs, how stepping outside the UN can enrich a career portfolio, and why leaving does not mean losing, whether you return stronger with new skills or build a fulfilling path elsewhere.
Key takeaways
- Treat career disruption as a moment to invest in yourself. skills, wellbeing, positioning, not to contract and wait for stability that may not return.
- UN-built capabilities (sensemaking in chaos, systems thinking, adaptability under structural change) are transferable superpowers that are easy to take for granted and should be named explicitly in applications.
- Replace “I am leaving the UN” with “I am continuing my career in international public service”. the reframe reduces fear and opens the aperture for unexpected opportunities.
- Do an honest audit of your actual market value before moving: some people overestimate, and a grounded view of gaps allows you to close them before, or very quickly after, a transition.
- Reinvention should be continuous, not reactive. waiting until a crisis forces it means you are always starting from a deficit.
- Before applying, talk to people inside the organization: you will learn what the culture actually feels like, which sharpens both your interest and your application.
- In motivation letters, answer three questions: why this organization, why now, why you. Hiring managers go to the motivation letter first.
Theresa Beltramo
Theresa’s contribution centred on how to treat a career crisis as an active investment opportunity rather than a moment to contract. She described the scale of the current humanitarian funding shock, UNHCR’s budget dropping from over $5 billion to just over $3 billion in 2025, with ODA down roughly 30% year-on-year, as the concrete push factor that moved her out of the system and into AIIB. Her central message was that the instinctive response of cutting costs and waiting for clarity is the wrong one. Instead she took a deliberate approach: she enrolled at her own expense in a nine-month AI and machine learning course for business leaders at a leading US research institution, specifically to sharpen how she translates technical tools into policy and operational impact. She also made an explicit, budgeted investment in her physical and mental wellbeing, personal trainer, yoga, meditation, framing it not as self-indulgence but as strategic: in periods of instability, energy, clarity, and emotional resilience are professional assets. On the job search itself, she warned against the numbers game of applying to hundreds of roles, arguing that targeted, values-aligned applications where you can articulate your specific contribution will outperform volume. She encouraged colleagues to ask themselves where their comparative advantage lies and where the sector is heading, to use that intersection as the basis for positioning rather than reacting defensively to uncertainty.
Mariam Kakkar
Mariam offered a more structural perspective, drawing on 24 years across four UN organizations before joining the OSCE eight months prior. Her first contribution was to name three skills that UN staff systematically underestimate: the ability to make sense of chaos quickly, a systems mindset that sees interconnected actors rather than siloed mandates, and professional agility built through repeated exposure to structural change (budget cuts, restructurings, shifts from MDGs to SDGs, humanitarian jolts). Her point was not that these are nice-to-haves but that they are genuine differentiators when entering organizations outside the UN, where colleagues may not have had the same forcing functions. On cultural adaptation, she was frank: it is hard, you do start over, and some of your skills will not be needed while new ones must be built fast. At the OSCE she had to develop stakeholder management with ambassadors and participating states, consensus-building in a political organization, and a much more formal communication register than she had encountered in UN funds and programmes. She recommended talking to people inside target organizations before applying, not just to prepare for interviews but to understand whether the culture is actually a fit. Her most distinctive advice was on mindset: stop framing the decision as “leaving” or “joining,” which amplifies fear, and reframe it as continuing a career in international public service. She also pushed back on wishful thinking, urging colleagues to do an honest assessment of their actual market value before applying, and to treat reinvention as a continuous practice rather than something you do in response to a crisis.
Richard Wolstenholme
Richard moderated the session and drew on his own career arc, from general service staff at CTBTO to government in Washington DC, then IEA, UNICEF, WFP, and OSCE, to illustrate that a non-linear path is not a liability. His practical contributions were on two fronts. First, on the pace of adaptation: he cautioned against the impulse to prove value in the first few weeks and emphasized that learning the people, governance, and priorities of a new organization takes time that should be embraced rather than rushed. Second, on contract strategy: in the current climate, he argued that moving from a fixed-term to a temporary appointment, while a qualified risk, can be a worthwhile trade-off because longer-term fixed-term positions are highly competitive and shorter-term roles can open doors to new responsibilities and exposure. He also reinforced the network point, noting that the degrees of separation in the multilateral world are smaller than people assume, someone you have worked with will often be one step away from an insider at your target organization.
Frameworks and models
| Name | What it stands for | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| UN-Honed Transferable Capabilities | Three capabilities that UN staff systematically underestimate but that are highly valued in other international organisations: making sense of chaos quickly, a systems mindset, and professional agility built through repeated structural change | Use as a self-recognition reference and as a checklist of what to surface explicitly in applications and interviews when transitioning out of the UN. Pair each capability with a specific achievement from your BASIC bank |
| Why You | Three-question test for any motivation letter: why this organisation specifically, why this moment, why you specifically | Hiring managers read the motivation letter before the CV. The letter must answer all three explicitly, not implicitly. Use as a structural test on any cover-letter draft before submission |
| Reframe: continuing in international public service (narrative move, no separate framework page) | Mariam’s reframe: stop saying “I am leaving the UN”, which generates fear; say “I am continuing my career in international public service” | (Considered for promotion to a framework page but not promoted: this is a one-line narrative move rather than an operational tool. It is integrated into the UN-Transferable-Capabilities page as part of the transition mindset.) |
| Honest market value audit (absorbed elsewhere) | Mariam’s recommendation to do a rigorous reality check on transferable skills before applying | (Considered for promotion to a framework page but not promoted: this overlaps with the existing Skills Self-Audit, Strengths Profile, and Skill Matrix Audit pages, which together cover the same ground with more structure.) |
| Investment-in-self during crisis (stance, no separate framework page) | Theresa’s argument that the right response to career disruption is to invest in skills and wellbeing, not to contract and wait | (Considered for promotion to a framework page but not promoted: this is a stance and a worked example, not a transferable tool. It is referenced as context within the UN-Transferable-Capabilities page’s confidence-shock section.) |
Last updated 2026-05-10.