Next week I start working as an attache to the Danish Foreign Ministry during the COP15 in Copenhagen. Although it is a short period of time (December 2 – December 19) the selection procedure and preparation for employees have been very long.
I applied for a position at the end of July this year together with 2000 other hopeful candidates (both Danes and foreigners). In August I received the first invitation to a job interview with Execute, a recruitment company, who had been chosen to find the candidates in cooperation with the Danish Foreign Ministry.
In September, I went to a group interview with seven other well qualified candidates. In this interview we were to prepare a one minute speech about ourselves in Danish, a three minute lecture in English (without papers) about Denmark and be prepared to answer a random question about the UN Climate Change Conference in English (we were expected to read the COP15 website in advance to prepare for the question).
On October 8 I was invited to the second part of the job interview which was a role-play session in the Danish Foreign Ministry. We were to prove that we could handle difficult guests at the conference with a smile :-).
On October 14 I received the final recognition that I was part of the team together with about 300 other candidates – but nothing about hours, start time or job function (and place).
I received my work schedule and job function on November 20 and since then I have been excitedly anticipating the start of the conference. Hours and place of work can still be changed any minute, but so far it looks as if I will be working 8 hours every day in the airport receiving the delegations who arrive, controlling passport and visa and supplying information to COP15 participants.
I am really looking forward to being part of this conference, which is the biggest ever held in Denmark, and I am hoping that the goals for the COP15 materialise.