Decoding the possibility of an extension

[finsalscollons]

I am thinking about applying to a job vacancy and, since I have family, I would not be interested in a job that has only a remote possibility of extension beyond the one-year initial appointment.

Mind you, I KNOW that extension for a UN job position is NEVER GUARANTEED. And I know that the chances cannot be assessed beforehand and change from job to job, according to many circumstances that cannot be controlled. But I have been always intrigued by the fact that different job announcements have different sentences describing the possibility of an extension (which are usually included after "Special Notice").

I have identified the following sentences in job announcements:

• Sentence A. "Appointment against this position is for an initial period of one year and may be subject to extension"

• Sentence B. "Extension of the appointment is subject to extension of the mandate and/or the availability of the funds."

• Sentence C. "This post is financed by project funds. Extension of the appointment is subject to the extension of the mandate, job performance, and/or the availability of the funds. "

• Sentence D. "This post is funded for a finite period of one year and may be subject to extension."

(Most jobs I have applied include sentence A. The post I am currently interested in has sentence C and its purpose is to implement a custom software application called ASYCUDA. I have noticed that every ASYCUDA job position includes "sentence C", no matter where in the world.)

I have always been intrigued by the use of different sentences but I have never been able to find out if they have different meanings. More specifically, my questions are as follows:

Question 1: I have ordered A to D according to my estimation of the possibility of extension (from highest to lowest). However, am I right?

Question 2 (the most important for me): For jobs with sentence A and C, what is the a priori possibility of extension is? (for example, high, average, low, remote). I know that you can't say this beforehand but a rough estimate would be very useful. If this is not possible, any information about this topic would be useful too.

Thank you,

[NevKen]

I am thinking about applying to a job vacancy and, since I have family, I would not be interested in a job that has only a remote possibility of extension beyond the one-year initial appointment.

Mind you, I KNOW that extension for a UN job position is NEVER GUARANTEED. And I know that the chances cannot be assessed beforehand and change from job to job, according to many circumstances that cannot be controlled. But I have been always intrigued by the fact that different job announcements have different sentences describing the possibility of an extension (which are usually included after "Special Notice").

I have identified the following sentences in job announcements:

• Sentence A. "Appointment against this position is for an initial period of one year and may be subject to extension"

• Sentence B. "Extension of the appointment is subject to extension of the mandate and/or the availability of the funds."

• Sentence C. "This post is financed by project funds. Extension of the appointment is subject to the extension of the mandate, job performance, and/or the availability of the funds. "

• Sentence D. "This post is funded for a finite period of one year and may be subject to extension."

(Most jobs I have applied include sentence A. The post I am currently interested in has sentence C and its purpose is to implement a custom software application called ASYCUDA. I have noticed that every ASYCUDA job position includes "sentence C", no matter where in the world.)

I have always been intrigued by the use of different sentences but I have never been able to find out if they have different meanings. More specifically, my questions are as follows:

Question 1: I have ordered A to D according to my estimation of the possibility of extension (from highest to lowest). However, am I right?

Question 2 (the most important for me): For jobs with sentence A and C, what is the a priori possibility of extension is? (for example, high, average, low, remote). I know that you can't say this beforehand but a rough estimate would be very useful. If this is not possible, any information about this topic would be useful too.

Thank you,

In short - If you are applying for project based positions, it will all depend on the project manager and how he/she have allocated budget in regards to human resource - given the project plan/schedule timeline there are always stakeholders involved and things are not easy to anticipate whether the project will be on time regardless of strict hard work, there won't be any extra demands or layers of requirements that a project must include, etc etc In the end it's your rapport with the team, how you make yourself the weakness for the team that they cannot go ahead without you. Remember no matter what, after all he himself have to secure his job before he/she try to secure yours or ther team members.

[finsalscollons]

Thank you very much, NevKen, for such a useful information.

I guess I was mistaken until now. I thought that fixed-term contracts (I usually apply to P2 or P3 jobs) were not project-based positions but your message seems to imply that they can be.

Only one more question: How to know when a job is a project-based position? Are all the vacancies that have a sentence like "appointment is for an initial period of one year and may be subject to extension" project-based positions? Or only those vacancies that say "financed by project funds or funded for a finite period"? In other words, do all the sentences A to D above (in my first message) correspond to project-based positions or only some of them?

Thanks a lot,

[NevKen]

I guess I was mistaken until now. I thought that fixed-term contracts (I usually apply to P2 or P3 jobs) were not project-based positions but your message seems to imply that they can be.

P2 P3 etc is a classification (P=Professional) and any number standing next is the levels in that classification. UN only hire on a fixed-term - Short-term max for 364 days and anything above 364 days is considered long-term - max limit 3 years.

How to know when a job is a project-based position?

UN run Programmes and Projects to implement them, so it's hard to say where one ends up exactly - it all depends on your profession actually and the classification in general (G or P). Vacancy at any Programme, you will notice the same thing worded as ''funds'' and vacancy at any Project, you will notice it as ''budget''. So your (4) points for extension is subject to either funding or budget in reality.

If you have good communications skills, good at English and understands the rhetorics in any draft, you may know exactly what they want and where you will be.

Focus on VA wording, how the poster (hiring manager) worded the VA. If the vacancy announcement is well drafted, with proper wording or it looks like cut/past from different VAs. What all this tells ....

[cenzo]

Now that we are talking about decoding and copy/paste posted jobs, can anybody understand what does it means in the job post # 114391 ?

"Notes: Please note that this is a temporary job opening, open to internal and external candidates. The position is available until 31 March 2017." ???

Also, at the top it says "Regular" position, but it is posted as temporary. Well, either it is a big mess or I don´t understand nothing about this.

[NevKen]

Now that we are talking about decoding and copy/paste posted jobs, can anybody understand what does it means in the job post # 114391 ?

"Notes: Please note that this is a temporary job opening, open to internal and external candidates. The position is available until 31 March 2017." ???

Also, at the top it says "Regular" position, but it is posted as temporary. Well, either it is a big mess or I don´t understand nothing about this.

114391 is 114391, temporary means temporary contract, regular means full time under the said contract. If things seems complicated, leave it for others and move to next opening.

[finsalscollons]

Thank you very much, NevKen. I appreciate the information you have given me, which is useful for me.

[cenzo]

Now that we are talking about decoding and copy/paste posted jobs, can anybody understand what does it means in the job post # 114391 ?

"Notes: Please note that this is a temporary job opening, open to internal and external candidates. The position is available until 31 March 2017." ???

Also, at the top it says "Regular" position, but it is posted as temporary. Well, either it is a big mess or I don´t understand nothing about this.

114391 is 114391, temporary means temporary contract, regular means full time under the said contract. If things seems complicated, leave it for others and move to next opening.

Ok, I will leave it for others, Nevken
Specially if it says "The position is available until 31 March 2017".
Maybe with the rush to answer, you didn´t saw that part...

[NevKen]

Now that we are talking about decoding and copy/paste posted jobs, can anybody understand what does it means in the job post # 114391 ?

"Notes: Please note that this is a temporary job opening, open to internal and external candidates. The position is available until 31 March 2017." ???

Also, at the top it says "Regular" position, but it is posted as temporary. Well, either it is a big mess or I don´t understand nothing about this.

114391 is 114391, temporary means temporary contract, regular means full time under the said contract. If things seems complicated, leave it for others and move to next opening.

Ok, I will leave it for others, Nevken
Specially if it says "The position is available until 31 March 2017".
Maybe with the rush to answer, you didn´t saw that part...

If the position is available until the time you said it is (which is something 2017), then why to wasting time at first place.