What professional background is necessary for a typical protection position?
Although there are specific criteria for each position, we seek people who have a mixture of the following experiences:

• Previous humanitarian or human rights operational experience: previous employment with an international NGO, UN or other such relevant agencies; ideally a mixture of more than one (e.g. NGO and UN)
• Field experience: professional experience in displaced settings such as refugee camps, internally displaced areas or areas of return
• Project management: knowledgeable in the project management life cycle from project design and management to monitoring and evaluation
• Familiarity with participatory and community-based approaches: familiarity with participatory tools and ability to undertake participatory assessments as well as support the development of community-led initiatives
• Training experience:  Proven experience in developing training materials and conducting trainings for a wide variety of audiences, including displaced communities, partner staff and government authorities
• Capacity building: Experience with developing the capacity of partner organizations to improve their own ability to organize and function

What academic background is appropriate for protection positions?
There are no strict criteria as to what type of academic focus is required but IRC does seek out applicants that have a Masters degree or relevant graduate degree.  Following are typical academic backgrounds of successful applicants:

• International Relations
• Human Rights
•  Law
• Development
• Political Science

What type of skills and competencies are necessary for protection positions?

• Technical Competency: Comprehensive knowledge of protection principles with respect to working with refugees, IDPs and other conflict-affected populations; ability to relate human rights issues and perspectives, including gender issues, to IRC’s humanitarian operations
• Communication: Analytical and communication (written and spoken) skills, including ability to convey complex concepts in a clear and concise manner; strong listening skills and ability to interview
• Teamwork: Ability to interact and establish positive working relationships with people of diverse nationalities and cultures
• Leadership: Ability to manage junior staff, plan and organize work in order to meet multiple deadlines; strong negotiation skills and ability to successfully influence others to reach agreements

What about languages?

• English is the working language of IRC, successful applicants must be able to speak and write fluent English for international posts
• Ability to speak local languages is a major advantage; the greatest demand is for French and Arabic speakers

How often are there opportunities in the field and headquarters?

• The availability of positions depends on project funding
• Larger country programs such as Sudan are likely to have more frequent opportunities that smaller programs such as Guinea
• On average, there is one international protection person per country program; in some exceptions, there are 2-5 international hires per program
• The Protection Unit at headquarters is quite small and opportunities are quite limited but do happen occasionally 
• The best way to find out about opportunities is to visit the IRC website or other sites such as www.reliefweb.int

Does the protection unit offer internships? 

• In select circumstances – that is if there is a particular project requiring the specific services of an intern – the Protection Unit in New York will ask the Human Resources Department to post an announcement for an intern
• The country programs determine when and if they require specific protection interns and the Protection Unit in NY and Human Resources will work together to identify the appropriate candidate.
• As with job applications, internship applications must be submitted to Human Resources, not the Protection Unit.