Internship Report

Jessie GUO Jie

MPhil Student

Department of Politics and Public Administration

The University of Hong Kong

The two-month internship in UNDP has come to the end. It has been such a memorable and rewarding time, and I really wish I could stay longer in this place.

Ever since the time I saw the announcement of the internship opportunity in UNDP, I had the feeling that it would be a perfect match of my study background and my personal interest. As a student majoring in Public Administration, I am quite curious about how a big organization like UNDP operates and coordinates internally, with local government and with other UN agencies. I also expected to experience UN from an insider’s perspective, other than the big name on the news headline.

With curiosity and excitement, I came to the UN Compound, a beautiful 3-stories red building surrounded by green trees, and began my two-month exploration. I worked in the HR Department of UNDP, which manages the Human Resources issues for all the national and international staffs in UNDP as well as some other UN agencies. When I arrived, I met the busiest time in HR Department, which urged me to get familiar with my work as soon as possible. My first task was to assist in the recruitment of many positions processing at the same time. As a new comer, I had little practical experience in HR work, and was totally confused by many special terms and abbreviations used in UN system. Besides, there are many SOPs and rules to follow when doing every piece of work. At the beginning, it really took me much time and effort to get familiar with the daily work, though some of them seemed quite trivial and routine.

Luckily, I could always get support and guidance from my supervisor Ms. Wei Wenjing, who has been nice and patient all the time, and is always generous to share her experience and insight with me. From her supervision, I gradually learned to be attentive to details and be result-oriented, and started to recognize the important role of HR in such a big organization like UNDP. By participating in the whole process of recruitment, from screening CVs, arranging written test and interviews, to preparing all sorts of documents and writing interview minutes, I not only gained practical experience of HR work, but also got an overview of the operation of UNDP, especially on its talent management aspect.

In this internship, I also got the chance to work with people from different departments and programme teams in UNDP. Interacting and coordinating with people has largely enhanced my interpersonal skills, and made me many friends during the whole internship. Most of people here are nice and helpful, and gave me a lot of support in my daily work. I have learnt a lot from my work, and also from the people around.

The past two month has been a very rewarding time in my life. I have gained valuable knowledge and experience for my future study and career development, and I have known UN much better than before. I would like to express my appreciation for my supervisor and colleagues in UNDP----Ms. Wei Wenjing, Ms, Li Ning, Ms. Yan Wen and many other staffs that I worked with----without their guidance, support and friendship, the internship will not have been so fruitful and memorable. Above all, I would like to give my gratitude to the Peace and Development Foundation in Hong Kong, for giving me the most valuable opportunity to work in UNDP and granting me the full financial support.