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This article is written by Pavitra Raja , community specialist at the World Economic Forum

When I was 15 years-old, I told a friend that I wanted someday to work for the United Nations. His response came instantly, in two words: “Big dreams.”

I was devastated at that time, but as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to understand his reaction better. There is still a lot of mystery around how people enter careers in international relations. My own path included nearly a hundred rejection letters from internships, jobs or other opportunities. This often left me confused, disappointed or disheartened.

Skip forward 10 years, and my “big dream” did in fact come true. I’ve not only worked for the UN in Geneva, but have also had the privilege of moderating and speaking at a high-level panel discussion featuring UN-endorsed experts. Today, I have the sheer joy of supporting the shaping of social innovation policy at the World Economic Forum (WEF).

I believe it’s only right that when a generation of public servants manage to navigate the mysteries of their profession, they should help demystify them for the next generation. Though I am a millennial, I quickly learned some crucial lessons as I pursued my dreams in the international sector. Here they are:

Build relationships

“People will forget what you once said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”. That’s something Maya Angelou once said, and it’s worth remembering.

If you truly want to stand out from the crowd, find a way to connect with others, no matter who they are, in a meaningful way

Most executives meet dozens of people every day, but if you can make yourself memorable by connecting with them on a personal level, you will not be forgotten. At a networking event, I recall sharing a rather embarrassing high school story with a woman standing in line behind me. We laughed over our shared mortifying experiences and said we’d keep in touch. It was only later that I found out that she was the CEO of a rather successful non-profit. We get together and share our embarrassing stories with one another even now.

If you truly want to stand out from the crowd, find a way to connect with others, no matter who they are, in a meaningful way.

Learn a second language

Language structures our brains, frames our thoughts and makes complex communication possible. The words, expressions and quirks unique to a language largely define how we see and understand the world. If you’re monolingual, your view of the world will certainly be limited, and so too will your career opportunities in this sector.

Numerous studies have found that bilingualism can improve brain functions such as the ability to focus your attention and perform mental tasks. One study showed that bilingual children were “significantly more successful” than their monolingual peers in problem-solving and displaying creativity when completing tasks.

Another study found that people who speak more than one language can process information more easily and efficiently. Perhaps this will persuade you to pick up another language: most of us in the international relations sector are fluent in more than one in any case.

Invest in identity capital

In her book ‘The Defining Decade’, Dr. Meg Jay introduced the term “identity capital”, defined as the set of skills, relationships and professional resources we build up over our lives. Jay’s advice is to take the job with the most corresponding “career capital”: capital which allows you to build the most relationships, learn the most, and grow the most, but not necessarily make the most money. My career in the international sector started with an internship at the UN, which remains instrumental in building my career capital.

Listen to your gut, build identity capital and apply for any role, big or small

Internships, however, remain a very controversial topic. While there are exceptions (International Labour Organisation, the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund do all offer interns some compensation packages), most internships in the international sector are unpaid, expensive to undertake, and demand a significant amount of time investment without subsequent employment.

So are internships worth it? Investing your time in a UN internship may be worth it if you go the extra mile. I took on extra responsibilities, attended meetings and conferences, interacted with people while waiting to pick up coffee or for meetings to start. This strategy helped me to stand out when I applied for consultancies or short-term or staff positions at the UN and beyond.

Keep your ego to a minimum

As Albert Einstein famously said: “More the knowledge, lesser the ego. Lesser the knowledge, more the ego”. Ego gets in the way of empathy and listening, both of which are critical to learning. But it's not easy to turn off your ego. We have to be willing to look closely at our mistakes and failures, to listen to people who disagree with us, and to allow the best thinking and ideas to rise to the top.

Remember, you never stop learning in this sector and will constantly encounter people of different backgrounds and beliefs. If you think you know it all or you’re always in the right, you’ll not get very far. Keeping your ego in check is essential.

Lead a club or build a network

Negotiation skills, communication skills, project management, people management, leadership skills, networking, event organisation and time management. I learnt all this and more while leading a club at university. The most important skill I learned, however, was how to fail “successfully”.

A club or network provides a lab environment in which one can not only learn what makes an organisation succeed, but what makes it fail, and how to pick up the pieces afterwards. Most successful world leaders attribute their current successes to lessons learnt from their past failures.

Prioritise your wellbeing

It’s easy to lose sight of your own wellbeing in pursuit of a job in this sector, but be vigilant in prioritising your physical and mental health. There is increasing evidence out there that achieving your own goals depends on how mentally and physically secure you are. To ensure I was managing my own mental health and wellbeing, especially during the Covid-19 crisis, I spoke to leading social innovators who are experts in mental health to provide me with some guidance.

Graduates do not have it easy right now, so for those struggling through the first stages of their aspirations or careers, trust me when I say your big dream can come true. These six lessons are there to give you pointers, but the most important thing to keep in mind is that there is no set pathway to success. Listen to your gut, build identity capital and apply for any role, big or small.

Remember, fortune favours not only the brave, but more importantly, the persistent. – Pavitra Raja

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(Picture credit: Unsplash)