 Okay, so give us the sign. Yeah, we will. Great. My name is Nicolas Gaspard and I'm the head of digital communication at the IAEA. We are live from Vienna, our headquarters. And believe it or not, it's been a year since we started doing these HR lives for you. So in this 12th and final episode, we will revisit some of the questions that have come up most frequently. If you have a question that we're not covering in this panel, please just put them in the comments box and we'll get to them at the end. So let me introduce you to the panel. This time we have three top experts from our HR division. First next to me, I have Rachel from the US, she's our gender expert. Then Neva from Slovenia, who heads our learning and development unit. And then Domenico from Mexico, who is a recruitment and talent outreach officer and has been one of the main driving forces behind this series during the last year. So Rachel, let me start with you. A question people frequently ask is how do I know if my expertise fits an open position at the IAEA? Thanks, Nicolas. So our biggest recommendation in that regard is to read the vacancy announcement very carefully. There's a couple of different sections on the vacancy announcements that you want to make sure you're looking at. So that's the functions and the key results that are expected. You'll also find information under the section, competence and expertise and qualifications, experience and language skills. So if you're looking through that and you're thinking about your background and your experiences, you should be able to tell whether or not you're a good fit for that role that you're looking at. Thank you. And perhaps just to add to that, something we've said over and over again in these lives is that a lot of information, in fact, all the information you need is there in the job description. So as Rachel just said, if you don't find the first time, read it again and it will be there. So now, Neva, turning to you, if I've realized I'm actually a good fit for this post, but perhaps I'm too young or too old, is there an age limit for applying for jobs at the IAEA and also for internships? Thanks, Nicolas. So the agency doesn't have an age limit as a minimum per se, but having said that, you do need to consider the number of years of experience that are indicated in the vacancy notice to make sure that you meet those. In terms of the maximum, we currently do have age 65 as the mandatory age of separation, so you do need to take that into account. And there are some specific types of contracts, like the JPO, junior professional officers, where there is a requirement to not be older than 32 years, but there's other additional limitations that apply to those as well. In terms of internships, Miiglos, the minimum age there is 20 years of age. The candidates have to have completed at least three years of their studies, and they can apply up to one year after the completion of their either bachelor's, master's or PhD degree. Is there a maximum age for internships? As long as they meet the qualifications as specified, meaning they have completed their PhD, there is no maximum age beyond the 65 as we have for the SNAP as well. Thank you, and I do have a question about 65. So if that's the retirement age or you call it age of separation, well, does that mean I can get employed probably not 65 minus one day? So what's, is there some time? So it will depend a little bit on the type of position that we're recruiting for and whether or not it's a fully competitive or non-competitive recruitment, but yes, the 65 age is a hard line. So you can work at the agency until the last day of the month in which you reach that age. Okay, thank you. So now what I've learned is I fit the job description. I am between, well, I'm below 65, so I would apply, but actually I fit my profile. It's more than one job descriptions. So Domenico, can I apply for more than one post at the same time, and will all my applications be considered? Is it a hindrance in any way that I've applied for more than one? Perfect. Thank you for asking that question because this is a very common question that we get. Candidates may apply to more than one position if they believe and if they have reviewed and free to mention, they have checked the different sections of the job description. They see that their qualifications meet that job description. If it's more than two, more than three, more than four, they can apply to all of them. They need to make sure that they are meeting those requirements because this is going to be evaluated in the next stages of the recruitment process. So I encourage candidates if they feel and they meet those requirements to apply. That will not affect if you don't pass one of the recruitment process of one of the positions. That result will not affect your application in the other two or three applications. So please feel free to apply to as many as you feel that you are qualified. Okay, great. Thank you. So what you're saying is that each evaluate independently and there's no bearing, negative bearing, but might there be a positive bearing? If let's say for one competition, I made it all the way to the end, but then I didn't get the job, does that have any positive impact? On another post, I may have applied for a payroll. At the end, it are independent recruitment processes. So if you are successful in one recruitment process, that doesn't mean that it will affect positively to the other one. They are completely independent. Thank you. Rachel, back to you. A question you'll forget is should I have a nuclear background and international experience in order to successfully apply for jobs at the IAA? Thanks, Miklos. I've heard this question a lot as well and of course it depends on the position, but as I'm sure many of you watching can imagine, we also have a lot of different positions that don't relate to nuclear or need a nuclear background. I'm not sure any of us on the panel here have a nuclear background. Of course at the agency we have communications colleagues, we have HR professionals, so we also have lawyers, so legal backgrounds are great. Social science backgrounds can be very useful and we also have technical cooperation positions that can be very useful for people who have worked at other international organizations in the past. Another thing we often hear is international experience. How do I need to have that? How can I justify having that? That can also come from working on an international project at a company or working with different companies. So it doesn't need to be in the UN environment to show that you have some sort of international experience. Thank you. So you've mentioned sure the jobs like legal or HR or comms that are not nuclear, but we also have, if I understand correctly, technical positions that do not require a nuclear background. So could we say again that this is in the job description? If it says you have a nuclear background, you do. If it doesn't, you don't. Yes, maybe if I may add here yes, but it will depend completely on the requirements that are stated in the job description. We have had positions even in nuclear security that they don't require nuclear experience at all. They may need program management. They may need other aspects that are part of the technical field, but are not specifically in the physics or in the chemistry, for example, areas. So it will be describing the job description. Great. Thank you. And also if I recall correctly, either in the previous or the two episodes ago, somebody from safeguards told us that well, you don't have to have nuclear background, but if you don't, you have to show some interest while you care about nuclear. Right, so that's another aspect. Okay, thank you. Neva, you are next again. From which countries does the IA recruit people? Thanks, Mika. So we recruit our professional staff members globally. And actually we work really hard to make sure that we have a very diverse and geographically diverse staffing, let me put it that way. Not just geographically diverse, but also gender diverse. For the GS staff, so for the general service positions, we do recruit only on local basis, which means that you would need to have a right to live in Austria if you wanted to apply for a job at the headquarters, for example. Could you just explain what those positions are? The GS positions. General service positions are usually administrative type or technical positions that are assisting in the delivery of the agency's mandate. Thank you very much. Domenico, how do I make sure that my application was submitted and the IA received it? Perfect. So once you identify one position that you are interested in applying, you need first to create a profile in our career webpage that will ask information about your profile, your education, et cetera. But after that you will need, after you complete your profile, you need to apply to a specific position where you will need to share your knowledge or even some past experiences that relate to that job description. After that, you submit your application. You should receive, well, all applications after you submit your application, you would receive a confirmation email saying that you have applied to that position. Great, thank you. So that's an automatic email. If for some reason you don't get it, get a touch with us. Yes, right. Okay, thank you. Rachel, how should candidates who are invited for an interview prepare? Great question. So I'm again going to say go back to the vacancy announcement. So you want to make sure that you really review that, especially if you've applied for multiple positions as Dominique talked about before, make sure you're looking at the right one for the interview that you've got coming up, and really take a look at all the different things that are expected of you in that role. One tip that I like to share is that you should have an example for each of the things that's on the vacancy announcement. If it says you should be able to X, Y, and Z, then come up with an example of a time when you have done that. What was the situation? What was the task that you were required to do? And what were the results of that? Even better, if you have some examples of something you learned by doing that that you can share and what you would change for the next time, that's really great. And if you can bring those examples to the interview and have those in mind for the different parts of the vacancy announcement, you'll be pretty well prepared. You can also take a look at all of these past sessions that we've done. There's a lot of resources on the website. Yes, that's right. In fact, we've had one session specifically on preparing for interviews where we gave lots of tips about preparing for what are called competency-based interviews, which is what Richard has just summarized. So if you've not seen that and you are invited for an interview, be sure to watch it. Okay, our next question is to Domenico. How long does the recruitment process take? What does it mean? My application is under consideration. Okay, under consideration is that your application is under review of the panel members. So you may be in fact to your application, the panel members normally or the hiring manager will review all the applications that they receive, and they will compare your answers, for example, to the preceding questions based on the skills that are required for you to be successful in the job description. It can be, so that means that you are under consideration. Normally the recruitment process lasts around six to eight months. In fact, this is a big opportunity area that we have identified as an organization and based on the feedback that we have received even in these HRLI videos. So this is something that we are working on. We know that it's long, but also because we are receiving a lot of applications, that it's thanks to the candidates that are very interesting. But just keep that in mind because the process is lengthy. A related question also to you. We do not receive any feedback on the outcome of the recruitment process, and if so, well. Yes, you will receive feedback. And in fact, since this year we have introduced a survey that candidates after they receive a letter about the outcome of their application, they receive a letter that they can share also their feedback on the recruitment process. It may take up to the six months that their whole recruitment process will last. So we are working right now on that to make a better experience to the candidates that we know that it's our main opportunity area right now. But so in terms of that letter, I mean that letter we say if you've got the job, you didn't. So when they ask for feedback, we don't really give feedback. We don't supply it. We don't say, yes, that's accurate. We don't say the reasons why. Right now it's a general feedback email. What we are trying right now to do is to work on making it a better experience because we know that this is kind of the pain point that all the candidates are passing through. And we want to solve this as soon as possible. Okay, thank you very much. The last question I have prepared quite a few online, so we'll get to it in a second. It's for you, Neva. What benefits does the IEA offer its employees? Thank you, Nicholas. So if you do get hired by the agency, we are part of the UN family. And as such, the salaries are determined within the UN common system framework. And the salaries are there for public and available on international civil servants website. ICSC.org, so you can actually find those there. In addition to the salary, of course, we offer a very attractive location package. We offer help with Visa to make sure that you can come and work in Austria, a very generous social security package, including health insurance, life insurance, as well as pension. And on top of that, if applicable, things such as rental subsidy, education grant for the children that come with you, as well as six weeks of annual leave. Those are just some of the examples. Thank you very much for that. So we've got a lot of questions, and I'd like to try to get through as many as we can. So brief answers, please. Dominico, when a vacancy is closed, why is it that it's sometimes reopened? Sometimes it's reopened because we didn't receive enough applications or we didn't receive a qualify for the technical skills that we were looking for. So we were normally, to make it competitive, we are at least making sure that we have 12, 10 candidates that can pass to the next stages. So if we don't meet that threshold of 10 to 12 candidates, we will not continue with the process and we will be re-advertising the process. Okay, so this means if I've applied for a job and I see it reopened, it doesn't mean I'm out. It just means there are not enough people. It doesn't mean nobody, as you said, there are not enough candidates for it to be competitive enough. Yes, that's correct. Very good, thank you. The next one, very briefly, because you've touched on this already, do you provide intermediate feedback during the selection process? Not right now. Generally, how long does the screening take? That will depend. Normally it will take around four weeks to six weeks, depending on the volume of the application's work, too. I mean, as a hiring manager, I can say, I sometimes get 250 candidates applied for a job. So imagine the time it takes to go through those and give just this to everybody. So that's why it's only because it takes a really long time. Rachel, next question is for you. What's the Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellowship Program? Thanks, Miiglosh. The Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellowship Program is a program that provides support for young women who are studying master's degrees in nuclear-related topics. So this is something that the agency has recently launched. There's actually quite a lot of information about it on our website. So I would recommend that you go there if you're looking for extra information, because it's quite detailed. And you can find that under the gender page on the agency website. There's a lot of information for you. Thank you. And, in fact, we've just launched a new round. Applications are open until the end of September. And I think it was on Friday that we actually published an article. So if you go on the front page of i.org, you see the top article. Maybe by the time you get there, the second article will be about this. And that will take you to all the pages that Rachel has mentioned. Next question. As a new master in science graduates in international relations, how do I get a job at the IA without working experience? Because almost all the jobs I've seen so far require some working experience. So this is true. We have certain levels with certain prescribed years of experience. So, for example, a P1 job, a professional-level job that's advertised as a P1 requires zero years of experience. P2 then requires two years, P3, five years, and so on. So there are options for someone that does not have lab years of experience to also apply for a job. Having said that, I think maybe an internship is a way in that way you can get a one-year of experience to start with and then take it from there. Not to say, but then, you know, gaining an internship with the agency is automatically leading to a job with the agency, which they'll need to apply for an actual vacant position, but it is a way for you to gain that experience with the agency. So when you apply for a job, internship counts into a number of years of experience? Next. Correct. And not just internship with the IA, internship anywhere. Good. Next question. How much does networking influence the selection process? That will not affect your application. At the end, the panel members are people from different areas. It's not if you know the hiring manager. The hiring manager will have other people that will be evaluating the process. So it's important that you feel calm, that this is a very transparent process, and that not only one person will review the process. In fact, the selection process, it has a lot of layers of approvals and people will review each of the stages and the assessments that were used in the whole process. Sorry. If I may just add the primary guiding principle for any of the recruitments is the best person for the job. What I wanted to add to this panel members, we actually have to sign that we don't have any, you know, we're not friends with the people that apply if we are. We wouldn't really push our posts as panel members, I think you guys would look for somebody else. So there are lots of magazine in place to make sure it's a clean process. Rachel, how long does the process of selection for internships take? I'm passing it on an ego. Well, as I mentioned it will depend also in the number of applications but it will be around 3 months, 4 months, depending on the number of applications I must OK, so anyhow it significantly less that for a job. Yes. I mean I must say, advertisement here if you apply for an internship at communications it takes whatever a month for our recruitment process as the person you cannot see who is behind the camera can attest. OK, next question. Do you encourage outsiders to apply or do you only look for candidates who are already rostered? Neva? Very much encourage outsiders to apply particularly encourage people from geographical areas that are underrepresented and women. OK, Rachel now for you, is there any age limit for the fellowship program? I believe, yeah, I do meet the criteria for the fellowship and those are listed on the website and it's most important that you're working on a degree that's related to nuclear science. So I think that's normally the main criteria for people that they need to keep an eye on but again check the website there and make sure that you meet all the criteria that's listed. Yes, it's like we said for an internship if you go back to an internship or school you're late running your career and then you would qualify here and there as well, right? I would not say that I'm 100% sure I know that all the requirements are in the page so I would encourage people to check out the website. Sorry about that. So it took us one year and 12 sessions to have a question that you could not fully answer. Anyhow, thank you for joining us this time and for those of you who've been with us for a year for all these episodes. Please if you've missed any take a look at them through our recruitment page remember if you've not yet done that sign up for a newsletter. As for going forward, we are exploring new ways to continue to communicate about the ways to apply to the IA why it's like to work here and stay tuned by our social media account and our website we'll tell you what's coming up next year. So stay tuned and thank you for your interest throughout the year. Bye.