How to land a job with HIAS

At the end of 2023, there were 43.4 million refugees globally, with the number of refugees having tripled in the last decade. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, or HIAS, works to provide vital services to refugees and asylum seekers and, in recent years, has increased its programmatic work across Latin America and the Caribbean, the United States, Africa and the Middle East, and Europe. Currently in 22 countries, the organization works across four programmatic areas: Protection services, mental health and psychosocial support, or MHPSS, gender-based violence, and economic inclusion. Their work involves supporting refugees with their initial needs upon arrival in a new country, including airport pickup, housing, food, etc., and then helping them access education and employment. HIAS also runs safe spaces for women and girls and supports survivors’ well-being through case management and psychosocial services. There are often positions being hired in protection services, which involves resettling refugees and providing legal support, as well as programs to end gender-based violence and roll out MHPSS services, according to Juan Manuel Díaz, the organization’s human resources adviser for the Latin America and Caribbean region. However, HIAS can struggle to find qualified candidates in the smaller countries it works in — such as Guyana, the Dominican Republic, or Aruba — where the NGO sector remains small, according to Díaz. The organization currently also has several openings supporting its European projects, particularly in Croatia and Austria. While there can be opportunities for professionals from other sectors looking to make an impact, in other cases, experience with its donors, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, or ECHO, the U.S. Department of State, as well as private funders such as New York Community Trust, can be an asset. Díaz spoke to Devex about the profiles the organization is looking for to support its in-country programmatic work and emergency response roster — where roster members can be asked to deploy within 72 hours. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What job titles is HIAS regularly hiring for? Most of our recruitment is for officers and specialist-level positions. A specialist is a mid-level professional, on the path to becoming a coordinator. Officer positions require between one and two years of experience — this can be any relevant experience such as an internship. In some countries, we accept candidates that have less experience, such as internships. For positions around proposals and grants, we look for people who have experience with our donors. Sometimes these positions are filled internally because we might have people already leading on or having good relationships with our donors. Some regions have their own grant or proposal specialists. What language skills are in demand? English because our [headquarters] is in the United States, but even there we are trying to hire people that also speak Spanish or French because we work in these three languages. We also work in countries, such as Guyana, where some of the population speaks a language that is only spoken in that country, such as Guyanese Creole, or, for example, in the Dominican Republic, we look for people who speak Spanish, French, and even Creole, as this is the language that the [neighboring] Haitian population speaks. In some of our reasonably new offices in Ukraine and Moldova, we have looked for Russian speakers to support translations. What soft skills do you look for in candidates? The first is emotional intelligence, oriented toward awareness of self-wellness. Even when organizations provide toolkits to the staff to manage their own wellness, it’s something they also need to focus on and know how to communicate. Additionally, the ability or flexibility to adapt themselves to changes in the environment. Being able to adjust to technology is also important. We have a lot of new systems and, even though we provide training, if you don’t have these technology-oriented skills, it can be difficult to adjust these new technologies to your position. Finally, decision-making skills, including for making decisions in the field and working with budgets. For professionals looking to transition from other sectors, what experiences can help them stand out? We look for people whose past jobs have involved working in difficult situations. For example, for caseworker managers, sometimes we’ve hired people who have worked in customer service and can demonstrate a sensitivity to working with a population’s needs. Of course, we’ll have some questions to see how aware the candidate is about the situations in the countries we work in, and we definitely need someone interested in these issues, such as migration. We also look for people who like to learn and make time to learn new skills. We have also hired teachers because they have the skills to be patient and to create activities for the population. Sometimes we hire people from communications backgrounds who won’t be working directly with the populations we service, but they still need to be aware of these situations and issues. In the economic inclusion program — we can hire people that have been working in accounting or another financial area. But, in addition to financial skills, they need to have the skills to teach people about finances. For those with less or no experience working in the sector, we also evaluate a candidate’s experience volunteering in any type of NGO. It’s important that they know that there are policies and procedures within NGOs, and most of them have their own. And definitely, we look for people who have done internships in careers oriented toward the field, such as psychology or international relations. How does the organization’s emergency roster work and what profiles are you looking for? Through our emergency roster, we hire not only programmatic staff but also people to work in human resources, finance, or other areas, depending on the situation we’re responding to. We update our roster list every six months, so even if you apply at the beginning of the year, six months later you will need to reapply to let us know you are still available in case of emergency. Where candidates don’t have field experience, we sometimes look for soft skills that show they could work in challenging situations. Additionally, sometimes we have positions where we can hire people without too much experience on the pragmatic side. But still, we are looking for people who understand the risks of working in an emergency. It’s a similar recruitment process, only faster in an emergency. Considerations for the roster can also include language if you are going to be posted to another country, and then the ability of the passport, as sometimes this can be an issue. And then, if your availability matches, the full time that we need you to be there. Priority is usually given to those in the same country or the closest country. Do you have any final application tips for candidates? Most CVs are very long. I would recommend no more than one page for your résumé. Candidates also need to adjust their résumé according to the position they are applying for, highlighting or using the keywords that will help the recruiter identify and match the job profile with their résumé. And don’t add a photo of yourself; it’s not necessary and neither is additional personal information. On the cover letter — this is where a candidate can describe their intentions and motivations in applying for the position. I would recommend that candidates really utilize this when they have less experience. If you have 10 or 20 years of experience in the field, we’ll be looking more at that experience.