 Hello, my name is Miklos Gaspar and I'm the head of digital communications at the IAA. We are live from Vienna, our headquarters, and this is already the 11th session in a series of lives where we discuss what it is like to work at the IAA and what the recruitment process, how the recruitment process works. As you perhaps remember by now, we also answer some of the questions you may have. Please put these in the comment box and we get to them at the end of the session. Last time, we had three safeguards inspectors as our guests and they talked about their impressions of the work, why they came to the IAA, what they most like about their jobs. This time, we will focus more on the responsibilities of safeguards inspectors and what's required for somebody to launch a successful application. So we call this, what safeguards inspectors do, part two, sorry. On that note, let me introduce you to our panel of three great colleagues. So first we have Pablo, a safeguards inspector from Spain, next to him Patricia from Uganda. She's a safeguards evaluator, which means she looks at the effectiveness of our safeguards implementation. And last but not least, Susan from the US, she heads our safeguards training section. So welcome to you all and Pablo, let me ask you the first question. Why is the role of the safeguards inspectors so relevant today? Hello everyone. The IAA is the only global organization with the mandate to verify the use of nuclear material and nuclear technology in the world. So we, the safeguards inspectors, are responsible of carrying out these verification activities that is verifying that there is no diversion of nuclear material from peaceful activities or there is no misuse of nuclear technology. So that's the reason why safeguards inspector work is so relevant. So I'd like to understand and explain to the audience what that means in practice. So Patricia, could you tell us what a typical day in the life of a safeguards inspector look like? Thank you very much and hello everyone. An inspector's typical day varies depending on where they are. So we have work at headquarters, which is here in Vienna, which is mainly office work. And then we have what to me is exciting work in the field. And the work in the field varies depending on the type of facility you're visiting, the amount of nuclear material at the facility, and the scope of your activities. So one can have very long, mentally challenging and physically challenging days where you're carrying around equipment and verifying lots of material. And other days where it's quick, easy work where you get to finish your job quickly and get to explore a new country, visit people, get to know different cultures, different languages, and different types of food. So we have a broad spectrum of what you would consider a typical day in the life of an inspector. Thank you. So most of the time, when you go on the field, you would go to nuclear power plants or fuel cycle facilities. Is that right? Yes. A significant amount of our time is in nuclear facilities. So how long does it take at a typical inspection, let's say at a power reactor? Is it like a few days? So again, it depends on the scope of your work. Typically expect a full day of work. So you're starting at about six o'clock to leave the hotel and getting back at about six o'clock in the evening. Okay. Thank you. And typically do this alone or in groups? How does that work? So it depends on location. So there are activities where we are doing work alone. And there are activities where you have teams of up to eight, nine people. Yes. Again, it's very broad. This would like depend on the complexity of a facility? Yes, it would. And the amount of material in the facility as well sometimes. Okay. So you mentioned at the beginning that some days are spent at the office, like for the rest of us, other days are spent on the field. So Pablo, for you in a typical month, how many days would you be on the road? I'm afraid there is no, as Patricia was saying, there is no standard day or typical month for savers inspector. Normally we do the calculation per year. So maybe inspectors usually spend up to 100 days per year in the field. So this can be a trip of maybe three days or a trip of three weeks up to one month, depending on the location, characteristics of the inspections, maybe multiple inspections in one trip. So that would be more than one third of your work per year? Approximately one third of our workload would be in the field. Okay. So Susan, turning to you, what are the minimal requirements for applying to this job? Do people need to have a nuclear energy background? Thank you and hello everyone. The minimum requirements are really a university degree in a science field such as physics, electrical engineering, chemistry, or in international relations with a specialization in nuclear or non-proliferation. The next minimum requirement is five years' work experience. So within that we look for people who have some hands-on experience perhaps in a facility in a research laboratory doing experiments. It might not be if a person comes from international relations with a specialty in non-proliferation. They might have worked on safeguards in different areas or for example at the state regulator. Thank you. And I forgot to say this at the beginning, but we are doing this session because right now we have a recruitment drive for safeguards inspectors at the P3 level, so sort of mid career level, and when Susan mentioned five years of experience that reminded me of this. So those of you interested, check out on our webpage all the details. So one of the things some people mentioned at the last session, that's why Susan we decided to invite you, is that they really appreciate all the training they get once they've joined the IAEA. So could you tell us about that? What does the training program consist of? What competencies and technical skills does it help people like Pablo who's got many skills already, but to have even more to develop? Yeah, so the training program for new inspectors involves about a six month training course which is called ICAS, introductory course for agency safeguards. And this course really covers the basics of the legal basis for safeguards, nuclear material accountancy, what is nuclear material, nuclear fuel cycle facilities, as well as technical training on safeguards equipment. Some of the other components that we stress throughout this course are things such as analytic skills, teamwork, and importantly communication because as Patricia and Pablo both mentioned a lot of the work is in the field and importantly a safeguards inspector has to communicate not just within the teams here at the IAEA, but with our colleagues in the state, the state's authority as well as the operator at facilities or locations outside of facilities. Thank you. So once you've done this training, what is really expected of inspectors and what kind of support system do they have should they need more help in the job? Maybe I'll start, but I'd like to turn it over to my colleagues. So upon completion of ICAS, there is a comprehensive inspection exercise and then inspectors go from the training section where they have had an assigned mentor from their section into operations. And then from there, I'm going to turn it over to my colleagues now. Thanks. If I can add something to what Susan mentioned. So after the training, the first assignments of a new inspector are always supervised by a more experienced inspector. So a new inspector is not asked to perform a complex inspection autonomously from the first year, let's say, then concerning support from the Department of Safeguards, we are obviously a team and the whole department is supporting activity. So for example, we have experts that help us to prepare detectors and analysts that help us to study all the safeguard relevant information that is collected by the agency. So this is obviously a very complex job. One individual does not work alone. So we have all support from the team. Thank you. So you mentioned that initially you are supervised. How long does that last? After how many, I don't know, months or years, you are able to do things on your own. So in my experience, so I had a mentor that would help me during the first year and maybe within the first year I would already be coordinating inspections by myself, maybe with other colleagues, not completely alone, but I would already start gradually to have increasing responsibilities both in the field and maybe other analytical or evaluation work in headquarters. It's important to add that because we have different divisions and different divisions cover different countries which might have varying types of nuclear facilities. It's not uncommon for one to have to retrain when they move from one division to another because of the different types of facilities you experience there. So I think the work of an inspector, you're always learning. It's just an ongoing learning process. Thank you. Susan, you want to add something? Yeah, I just wanted to add on Patricia's note in the sense of it is an ongoing learning process and training is available for safeguards inspectors as well as the analysts in the team and other support staff throughout the department. Specifically looking at for the inspectors, what do they need as they go to more and more complex facilities or take on new tasks throughout their career from a P3 to P4 to P5 and what is that those needs in the department? Thanks. Thank you. So turning to the questions we've been receiving from our audience, one of them asked about an age limit for applying for jobs at the IEA. So I can actually answer that. There is no maximum age limit except that a retirement age at the IEA as across the UN is 65. So if you are 65, don't apply, but otherwise no restrictions. Another question we received, you both mentioned Patricia and Susan, communication, the points of communication. So does this mean that you need to speak many languages in order to be able to go to the field and work with these operators? Certainly not. What is more important is your ability to use basic communication because there is places where they don't speak, like I've been to countries where the official or common languages are not any of the languages I speak, but one needs to appreciate that and be able to figure out alternative ways of communication. It means they will always have a basic level of English. You need to use easier to understand sentences and speak slowly and even try to use pictures to communicate what you need to appreciate in the fact that the other side, they are very technical and intelligent people. It's just that you have a language barrier there. Okay, thank you. You want to say something? No. Okay, that's good. Good, thank you. So another question we have received is perhaps for us and maybe Susan, I'll turn to you with this. To recap again, what are the requirements for the job? These are listed in the job description, but let's go through them. Yeah, so the requirements for the job are, we really look, again, it's in the job description, basically a degree in a technical field, five years, or international relations with a specialization in nuclear nonproliferation or nuclear energy, and then five years experience in that area. Building on that, there are specific areas of competencies, including the technical and scientific credibility in the area of safeguards would be an asset, but we don't expect people from outside to have that. One of the things that we look for is really analytic skills, how to collate a lot of information, process that information, to think about that for problem solving. As we were talking before, the started critical thinking is a really important skill set, as well as creative thinking and curiosity. Those aren't listed in the job description, but from our standpoint, those would be important competencies. Thanks. Thank you very much. Very interesting answer. Somebody also asked how they can apply. Well, if you go to i.org slash employment, you will see all our vacancies there. But we are going to put just to make sure a link to this particular bulk recruitment for safeguard inspectors into the comment section. Next question is perhaps for Pablo. They are asking whether you travel all around the world or there are specific countries that you specialize in. For most of the inspectors are assigned to a division and a section that covers a certain area of the world. So there are a number of countries. It can be from one or two countries to maybe tens of countries. And we most frequently travel to those. So we are, of course, more familiar with the facilities, the state, the state-specific factors of that area. But this changes over time. So we are subject to rotation so that inspectors at the end of their career may have covered different areas of the world. Eventually we can go, even if we are assigned to a section, we can be, I would say, as guests, inspectors covering a country outside this section. Well, this is mainly because the agency works in a non-discriminatory manner. We apply homogeneous safeguards to all countries. So any inspector should be able to cover any country and perform the same type of activities all over the world. So basically to sum up, let me see if I got this right. You are saying that in theory, well, the job is the same everywhere because the requirements are the same in different countries. Therefore, it would be easy for people to get redeployed. But in practice, there tends to be a focus on a few countries. That's correct. In practice, we are assigned to a number of countries, a section, and we work most of the time in this section. Thank you. Susan, I'd like to ask you the next two questions. Somebody is asking if a bachelor's degree is sufficient to apply. Another person is asking whether we also offer short-term positions if they just want to be an inspector for two to four years. Yes, a bachelor's degree is absolutely sufficient to apply. So please go ahead and apply if you're interested. And short-term for two to four years. So this is getting into the agency policy. It's a non-career organization, so there's a seven-year contract limitation. So if you were to come and be an agency inspector, we'd like to keep you for those seven years. That's our goal. That's right. You've heard Susan explain all the time we will invest in you in training, so we would like to keep you for as long as possible and allowed. Another person asking, not sure which of you would like to take this, if they're a nuclear pharmacist, is there a relevant background for this job? I don't know at the moment if or who of my colleagues have a nuclear pharmacy background. But I can explain that from my experience, we have verified facilities where medical radioisotopes are produced by medical pharmacists. And we need to obviously evaluate the nuclear material and the characteristics of this facility. So we also need to have this type of expertise in the house. So I think that candidates with this type of background would be very welcome to apply and their expertise would be valued by the Department of Safeguards, yes. To that particular question, so the education of background is one thing and then five years of experience. So it's up to this individual as a nuclear pharmacist to assess the application, the vacancy notice, to see if they can sell the relevant background. On the front, it sounds like they're suitable candidate, but you need to sell it to us. So you need to look at the vacancy notice and tailor your relevant experience so that you can also convince us that it meets that because it's two things, education and five years minimum of relevant experience. Patricia said something really key. Just because you meet all the requirements, still all the minimum requirements, still do your best to sell yourself to us, as she said. So write a cover letter that we're sure to the hiring managers why you should be shortlisted and why you're really good fit for this role. We get many, many applications for these kind of jobs and we need to make a selection at each step of the process. Somebody was asking which countries we recruit from. Let me take that really quickly. The IEA recruits globally. So there are no restrictions, no visa to come out to Austria. None of these things apply. So wherever you are from, please apply and we will consider your application. Another question somebody's asking is they don't have five years of experience, but they would like to take like sort of a quick program to catch up. Is that then sufficient? The five years experience for the P3 inspector is a minimum requirement. So if you don't quite have five years experience, I really stress that you look at the job application, you look at the job description. If you're interested, you say, yeah, I'm interested. I'm gonna make sure I get more experience to strengthen your application at a point when you're ready to apply. I think as my colleagues are saying, it's important to look at the job description, understand the role, where you fit. But it's good even if you don't have the experience yet and you're interested. Now you know you need to go get that experience and then go ahead and apply. Thanks. Thank you. Somebody's asking, they've been working as a nuclear operator for three years. Is that relevant experience? Sounds like relevant experience. You need to sell it to us. Right, and I guess if you've done other things because that three as part of the at least five is super relevant. But if that's all you've done, then just wait two more years, right? Yeah. Okay, thank you. Somebody's asking about radiotherapy technologist, nuclear medicine physician. So Pablo, perhaps you could continue your train of thought about radiopharmaceutical pharmacist. So in principle, yes. Multidisciplinary teams we need to build in the department of safeguards. So all these nuclear related operators related to pharmacy, radiotherapy, et cetera, are relevant for us. And again, I think they are welcome to apply and we will be happy to evaluate their proposals. So thank you very much. We look forward to applications. Again, as I said earlier, because some of you have asked still from any country in the world, we welcome applications. So thank you very much, Pablo, Patricia, and Susan. You've been an exciting panel. And this ends our 11th session, which means that for a full year, we've got one more to go. So next month we'll have our season finale where we will address some of the frequently asked questions that we have received during this 11 months that we've been doing these HR lives for. And my guests will be three seasoned people from our HR department. So see you then, bye-bye.