One of the first place I visited upon my arrival to New York was the United Nations Headquarters. I still remember the feeling I had when I contemplated in real life the famous building built by Le Corbusier that I saw so many times in pictures before. At the entrance, the flags of all member states were floating under a deep blue sky. It was extremely cold on that day of end of January of 2011 but I remained a long time staring at them waving in the freezing wind with the UN headquarters on the background.

Who would have told me that, four and a half years later, I would return, this time not to visit the famous General Assembly and Security Council rooms, but to start my first contract as Individual Contractor, in the Web Services Section of the Department of Public Information.

As a “Nomad web developer” I had the chance to live in different places and work with different people. This has awakened in me a deep sensibility and passion for diversity. A diversity that I am experiencing like never before working at the UN: while sitting in front of my computer and doing updates on the French versions of the UN websites, I can hear around me my colleagues talking in Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Spanish, French… In fact, everybody there talk fluently at least two languages. This is just one of the many things that thrill me working at the UN.

Unfortunately, this is a short term contract. As defined in the UN careers website

An Individual Contractor is engaged by the Organization to provide expertise, skills or knowledge for the performance of a specific task or piece of work, which would be short-term by nature.

In other words; I am not a staff member. However, this is a good start. Yet, this is definitively another big step toward the achievement of my goals to help the community with my technological skills.

I have the feeling that this is the beginning of another adventure. Even though my contract will end up at the end of July, I sincerely hope that I will be called again soon for another contract or even to join the staff members for good. Sometimes dreams can come true.

This post is dedicated to a long time friend, and the only fan of my blog! Héctor Bragado without whom this adventure would have never happened.