EP#11 | Meet Cornelia Moussa, HR Director from WIPO

Impactpool Career Podcast

In this episode we interview an interesting person with enormous experience from different UN organizations. Currently, she is the Human Resources Director for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Don’t miss out on a great learning opportunity! In this podcast Cornelia Moussa, HR Director from WIPO, talks about the very specific work environment in the development sector, like how the different UN Agencies’ mandates has a huge influence on the organization’s culture: “The UN is not a static body, it’s always subject to a great deal of change, partly driven internally by mandates changing and partly also driven externally by member states, by the environments that we have to respond to, deal with”, she says. Cornelia Moussa has been in the UN system since the late 1970’s. She has held management positions for agencies such as UNFPA and UNRWA, both at headquarters but also in field offices in the Middle East. Listen and you will be rewarded with many important career tips, irrespective if you already are on the inside of the development sector or if you are a prospective job applicant. Some of the topics discussed in this episode: About WIPO Why WIPO is an excellent organization and why IT skills and Intellectual Property (IP) are extremely important in the age of digitalization. Why Geneva is a great duty station. Important lessons for an international career, e.g. Personal traits critical for success: Continuous professional development: ”The UN is a fast-moving environment. Things change, technology changes, jobs change, processes change, and also one has to keep in touch with professional development” Additional language skills On the Application process and the job Interview - what to think about to leave a good impression? “It is very important that the application is tailored to the job and very clear” How to prepare for competency based interviewing The research you need to do beforehand On Patience: “I think many people apply for many UN jobs and this is quite normal. It usually doesn’t happen the first time that they succeed, but interviewing is also about practice. So I think people have to be patient and they get better and better, and eventually they will succeed” The Challenges of development careers, e.g. To work in an extremely resource constrained environment. operating in sudden crises (like 9/11) and armed conflicts Managing a dual career family