 Hello, my name is Vikras Gaspar and I'm in charge of digital communications at the IAEA. We are live from Vienna, our headquarters, and this is the fourth session in our series of lives where we discuss what it is like to work at the IAEA and explain our recruitment process. We also as part of these sessions answer some of the questions we have received from applicants and if you have any questions put them in the comments box and we hope to respond at the end of the session. This topic is an opportunity for young professionals and indeed there are many. So let me introduce you to our panel of young professionals today. First we have Shu Lingli from China who works with data integration at our department of safeguards. Next, Sushant Karel from Nepal who is an intern at the division of budget and finance. And this month our HR expert is my friend Anadima from Romania who advises departments on various strategic and operational recruitment issues and other HR matters. So welcome to you all and my first question is to Shu Ling, please tell us what motivated you to join the IAEA. Thanks, Mikolos and hello everyone so this is Shu Lingli, I have been working as a level two professional staff in the department of safeguards since 2019 and I used to be an intern in the department of nuclear safety and security in 2017. So four years ago I graduated with my PhD in nuclear science and technology from Tsinghua University which is one of the most prestigious universities in China. After graduating I needed to consider my future career path apart from continually in academia or join a nuclear industry. I was seeking for some other options and higher platforms to broaden my experiences in this field, especially some work that cannot be done elsewhere. So it was certain deputants that I attended a workshop introducing IAEA. And it came to me that I realized this international organization was the unique professional career I was searching for because I can serve the whole world to achieve the sustainable goals which will benefit everything on earth. So that motivated me to start applying and unfortunately I got an intern opportunity in the transport safety unit in the department of nuclear safety and security. And then my advisor gave me the opportunities to do some real meaningful work during my internship. For example, I was involved in the revision of the IAEA safety standards which are used for the transport safety for the radioactive materials all around the world. And it gave me the feeling like even though I was in my early stages of my career but I can still contribute to IAEA's mission personally for the peaceful use of the nuclear technology. And what's even better is my advisor always encouraged me to get out of my office to attend as many meetings as possible and to meet more people in different teams. And that's how I learned a lot of new things about the nuclear industry around the world. And all those good experiences gave me a planted seed in my mind to come back to work in the future. So I kept applying after I was back to China after my internship. And I did have several failures before I got my current position. But now I'm here with my P2 position and I'm very glad, I'm very lucky that I get that. Thank you. Thank you, Shuying. We are very lucky to have you. Sushan, what motivated you to apply for the IAEA? Thank you. To be specific, I applied because I really wanted to work in the UN finance sector. Immediately after my graduation from my master's in the UK, I started looking for opportunities around the UN finance sector and went on to do internships in a couple of places before getting accepted by IAEA. So two major things that mainly motivated me were the year-long trainee program that the internship offers, where you can not just come in and leave in three months and not learn much, but actually get involved in the department, learn quite a lot about the department operations and stuff. And the second thing is the financial support that we interns receive, which is not very common in the UN system. So these are the two major things that motivated me. Thank you. Thank you very much, Sushan. So you have both said it's about making a difference, it's about getting the opportunity to do real work. Anna, what can a student get out of an internship at the IAEA? Thank you, Miklos. The purpose of the internship program at the International Atomic Energy is to provide the students that are studying towards a university degree or just receive their first degree the opportunity to gain practical experience based on their interests and studies and to be further exposed to the work of the agency and the United Nations. The internship program at the International Atomic Energy is for a minimum of three months and the maximum duration is one year. To be eligible, candidates must have at least 20 years of age and completed at least three years of full-time studies at the university or equivalent institution towards the completion of their first degree. Thank you. And can you tell us how many interns do we have at any given time? So yes, of course, currently we are delighted to announce that we have 100 interns from 45 member states. That's great. Thank you very much. So Sushan, can you share with us what it's like to be an intern at the IAEA and if you could perhaps highlight what you enjoy the most about your internship? Of course, on top of the things you've said so far. Sure. Thank you. Being an intern in IAEA is definitely a very enriching opportunity. You get to experience a lot of things. Me personally, I work in the program and budget department under the budget and finance division and I get involved in the budget divisions and all the financial side of the agency. Other than my work itself, the most important thing or the most exciting thing about the internship experience is the diversity that you experience. You have interns from almost every part of the world. Your interactions, your social interactions, your professional interactions with interns are really interesting. You get to learn a lot, not just the work side but also social side. So I would say that's the most beneficial thing from my internship. Thank you. Well, what about interacting with people who are not interns but slightly older? Yeah. Hope you get something out of that. Yes. Very good. So Shuying, what is it like to be at the IAEA as a young professional when in fact a lot of our staff are top experts? So what is it like to work with them? Might it be intimidating sometimes? Thanks, Nikolai for the question. So actually the IAEA is quite an ideal place for the young professionals because IAEA heals a great importance to innovation and many jobs here are quite challenging but it's suitable for the passionate young professionals. So take my position as an example as an associate data integration officer. My job facilitates the advanced software tool which comprises a suite of capabilities for integrating different data sources to enable the secure and the collaborative analysis within the department of safeguards. And IAEA has quite good environment like everyone respect each other for their expertise regardless of the age difference. I was supported to give two tech talks on the nuclear physics and the nuclear field cycle introduction to over 60 staff and consultants in my division and most of them are with different technical backgrounds. And I received a lot of feedback saying like my tech talk helped them to better understand the safeguards mission which made me very happy because I see the value of my work. And also I never be afraid of lacking years of experience to do my work on the contrary I see them as the opportunities for me to learn and grow. And more advanced or more experienced staff always give me guidance or advice on my more challenging works. For example, when we were having the training courses to the inspectors and analyst on our tools I learned a lot from my team leader and team mates on how to better support the users. And when I was supporting the state evaluation groups in the preparation of analytical reports I got the chance to work with many subject matter experts in house. And I think that's the most enjoyable part of my work is that you got the chance to work with all those talented staff coming from different parts of the world with different expertise and background but they all share wonderful experiences and ideas to you. And I can feel how my knowledge and skills grow through these technical projects have been done with them. Thank you. Thank you. That's very clear. So I'd like to ask you both now what advice you may have for people watching us who are possibly considering an internship or applying for a job as an professional. Sushant, please start. Thank you. One advice that I would have that I also myself faced when I was applying was when you listen to the organization International Atomic Energy Agency you just think that it's a place for nuclear engineers, people with science background or like physicists or something like that. But I had the same thing in my mind but you have a lot of different internship and job opportunities available for you. In different fields like I myself, I work in finance, I have my friends who work in HR from like conference services or like any single or every different type of work area. So that one thing I would advise to any applicant would be to not narrow down based on the organization but also see that IAEA has almost for any degree background an internship offer. So that would be my advice. Thank you. Thank you. So that indeed has stuff well beyond nuclear topics. Yes. That's your message. Thank you. Shuin, what advice would you have? Thank you. So I have to say actually to get a job here is not an easy thing for many young people but it's not impossible. I got to know that because I was rejected several times before I got my current position. So here I want to share my motto with you, the audience in front of the videos. In Chinese it's called Yang Wang Xin Kong, which means you think big, you aim high but you stay down to the earth. To have a job here is already a big goal but it's a good goal like it's very motivating and keep us running to become a better person. And try to align yourself with the IAEA's mission for the peaceful use of nuclear technology and make sure that's what you want to devote your career to worse. Because of that you will know you will be satisfied and delighted with all the achievements you will make in your future work. But what's more important is you keep your feet on the ground. Try to see all the opportunities being offered to you. For example manage your time well and try to learn as many knowledge and skills as possible and explore the world more because those will all become your treasures when you are applying for a new job. And when you see some interesting job, don't be afraid to have a try and always believe in yourself. Yes sometimes you might be rejected but you know you will be better next time. So try to learn from the failures and I'm sure if you keep running like that you will be qualified in the near future to be part of the IAEA and we will be here waiting for you. Thank you. Thank you, Shuring. So perseverance is your message to us or to the audience. Very good. Anna, could you summarize for us what the process is like to apply and eventually get selected as an intern? Sure. So we encourage you to take our online internship programs and the application can be done online is a very straightforward application as long as you apply for the internship program that you are interested in and actually answer all the mandatory questions part of the application. Nevertheless, you also need to submit two letter of recommendations. So as I said, please check our website, get to know a bit more about our work and do not hesitate to apply or even in course to write to us to find out more about what we do if you're interested in a specific program. Thank you. Do we do remote internships? That's perhaps a question that people think about now in the days of COVID. So basically we don't offer home-based internships but only full-time attendance in our headquarters here in Vienna. And also we have other internship programs open in one of our laboratories such as in Sabresdorf in Austria or in Monaco. So what happens if somebody gets selected from a country from where travel is restricted to Austria? We usually defer the internship program start date until the successful candidate can join us here in Vienna. Okay, thank you. So now would come the time when we would be taking questions live from the audience. So let me ask the panel a few of those. So Sushant, could you share with us how you applied for the IAEA? What were the steps you went through? Yeah, sure. Initially, as my colleague mentioned, I found the vacancy announcement in the internship section of IAEA from where I did submit my details, my work experience details, my academic details, all the mandatory questions. I answered everything. And after, I would say within a month, more or less, I received an email from IAEA which said that I'm selected for interview. Soon after two weeks or three weeks after that, I had my interview. And a month after that, I got an email saying that I'm accepted. So all in all, the process took me more or less three months, two months, approximately. But it depends, I think, as some of my colleagues were selected even earlier. So I think it depends on the time where you apply. So that was my process. Thank you. Thank you. So Anna, is that typical in terms of the timeframe? Yes, I just want to mention that usually the completion of the submission of the internship program, on average, we take about six to nine months, sometimes sooner, as Sean here mentioned. So we try our best to finalize the process within six months, I would say, more or less. OK, so it can take quite a while. Anna, any tips you have for people, what they can do before applying to increase the chances of being selected? I think one thing that I would encourage everyone to do is maybe to join our live session, check our online webinars that we have, try to approach us to chat or write to us if you want to find out a bit more about the internship program and not only. And also to find out about our work, what we currently do, what projects we have in the pipeline that might be interest to you, especially if you're coming from a very specialized technical background. Thank you. We have perhaps time for one more question. So Anna, this would be for you again. So far, we've talked about internship, but one of our viewers was interested in the JP or junior professional officers program, if we could speak more about that. Sure, thank you so much. So the purpose of the junior professional program officer is to assist the International Atomic Energy Agency in its activities and to provide opportunities for a young professional wishing to pursue an international career, to acquire the on-the-job, let's say, professional experience that may lead to a career in international organization or furthermore elsewhere with other international organizations out there. The junior professional officer program is designed for young professionals that are below the 32 years of age upon initial appointment with the International Atomic Energy Agency. They must be nationals of one of the member states with whom the agency has signed agreement and therefore the candidates are recommended by the member state. They have to possess the required qualifications, meaning they have to have a first level university degree. And a minimum of three years of relevant experience based on the job description that we usually share with the member state. Thank you. There was something really key you said that I'd like us to explain perhaps better to people who don't know. There really are only a handful of countries that have an agreement with us. Yes. Currently, we have only signed agreements with 12 member states, but we are pursuing to actually sign more agreements and obviously expand our portfolios inclusion of other member states as well. I just want to also mention that the junior professional officer program is fully funded by the government of the member state. And usually the initial duration is for one year with the possibility of extension to the second year. Thank you. So really to sum up that why the junior professional officer opportunity is only available to candidates from 12 different countries. For all our other positions, applications are open, whether it's for internship or other junior positions, which are called P2, as you mentioned earlier in our UN lingo. So we look forward to hearing from you. So for now, thank you for joining this session. If you have any further comments or have recommendations on topics that you would like us to discuss next time or next few times, please drop them in the comment box. Also, as I said at the beginning, this is the fourth of such session. So if you missed it, you can watch our lives, well, which were lives, on what it's like to join the IA from non-nuclear fields, what it's like to work at an international organization, and then the previous one on moving to living in and working in Austria. These are available via the links in the comment section. So once again, thank you for joining. To find out more about the IA as a place of work, go to IA.org slash employment, sign up to our newsletter, and join us again in September when we'll be discussing the ups and downs of our recruitment processes. Thank you and enjoy the rest of August. Bye-bye.