ASEAN Secretariat jobs are the posts at the secretariat of ASEAN, and its own website is the place to look for them. We could not read that website: its firewall refused our first request, for its robots.txt file, so we read none of its pages. This post covers the other regional bodies in Asia and the Pacific whose careers pages we could read: the APEC Secretariat, the ASEAN Foundation, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) and the Pacific Community (SPC).
These bodies belong to groups of countries or economies, and three of the four we read tie at least some of their posts to membership of the group. Check that line in a posting before anything else.
Where are ASEAN Secretariat jobs posted?
We cannot tell you from its own pages. We read only pages a site’s robots.txt allows, and we ask for that file first. The ASEAN Secretariat’s server answered that request with an access-denied page from its firewall, so we stopped there. We did not read its vacancy pages, its eligibility rules, its grades or its pay.
What you can do is open the Secretariat’s website yourself, in a browser, and find its vacancies there. A copy of an ASEAN posting on another site may be out of date or not real, so apply only through the route the Secretariat’s own posting names.
How do the ASEAN Foundation and ERIA hire?
Both bodies carry ASEAN in their remit, and both publish their openings on pages we could read.
The ASEAN Foundation’s careers page names two ways in: a staff or consultant position, or its internship programme. It says roles are usually announced when new programmes begin. Its process, from the page:
- An application window of one to three weeks.
- Interviews, usually online, and a written test. Some roles start with the test.
- One to three months from start to finish.
- Only shortlisted candidates are contacted.
The internship is unpaid. It is open to diploma students, master’s students and recent graduates from ASEAN Member States and ASEAN’s Dialogue Partner countries, runs all year and recruits every quarter. The Foundation also lists a hybrid working model among what it offers.
Read the label on each listing. On the day we checked, four of the six listings were calls for suppliers, such as an event organiser for a regional forum and a hotel and meeting package in Thailand, which are for companies, not for job seekers. Beside them were a graphic design consultancy and a Project Admin Consultant for the Scam Ready ASEAN programme, based in Indonesia.
What does ERIA list as jobs?
ERIA’s career page describes the institute as an international research institution where economists develop policy recommendations for economic integration among the economies of ASEAN and East Asia. It splits its jobs into two lists, International and Local. The international list held six posts when we read it, among them an Economist for trade data analysis, a Health Economist, a Programme Manager for health, Economist or Senior Economist posts in digital and in finance, and a Policy Fellow or Senior Policy Fellow post for Thailand and Vietnam. The Local list showed no posts in the page we read.
How does the APEC Secretariat hire?
By email, from its member economies. The APEC careers page says the Secretariat was set up in Singapore on 5 February 1993 and has a team of more than 70 staff from APEC’s 21 member economies, who support more than 70 fora.
Its rules, from the same page:
- Recruitment is open to candidates from APEC member economies.
- You send a cover page, a CV and the completed APEC job application form to the Secretariat’s HR email address.
- Only shortlisted applicants are told.
- Internships are open to candidates from member economies, who send a CV and the internship application form. English is APEC’s official working language, so applicants must communicate well in written and spoken English.
- The Policy Support Unit, which does APEC’s policy analysis, recruits on merit from member economies and posts its jobs and internships on the same page.
Read the dates as well as the titles. On the day we checked, the page listed a Communications Manager (Social Media and Content) post closing on 30 November 2026, and a Policy Support Unit Researcher post whose closing date, 31 August 2026, had already passed. The Communications Manager posting asks for a bachelor’s degree and 5 to 7 years of experience in social media and digital communications, and repeats that only shortlisted candidates will be notified. It prints no salary: the careers page says only that successful candidates are offered a competitive remuneration package.
How do the Pacific Community and the Pacific Islands Forum hire?
The Pacific Community sets out its process on its careers pages. The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat’s vacancy site is built by a script, and we could not read it.
The SPC careers page says its headquarters are in New Caledonia, it has four main offices across the Pacific, and more than 35 nationalities work there. Its FAQ page sets out how to apply:
| Step | What SPC says |
|---|---|
| Documents | A resume, a cover letter and answers to the job’s screening questions, for every job |
| Screening answers | At most 2,000 characters for each question. Attach a PDF if yours are longer |
| Completion | No email confirms that your application is complete, so check it before you submit |
| Selection | Applications are assessed against the essential criteria in the job description. Assessments can include a case study, a presentation, psychometric tests and reference checks |
| Outcome | Every candidate is told the result, but SPC cannot give personal feedback |
| Languages | English and French. You need at least a working knowledge of one when you apply |
SPC assesses applications against the essential criteria in the job description, so answer each screening question with an example that matches one of those criteria, the way scoring your resume against a competency-based posting describes.
What does SPC say about pay, leave and scams?
SPC lists its benefits without figures for pay: 25 days of annual leave, 30 days of sick leave and 12 public holidays a year, medical and life insurance, and a provident fund with a 10% employer contribution. International staff who meet the criteria can also get relocation, a housing allowance, education assistance for up to three children and home leave every 18 months. The page adds that additional benefits may include a tax-free salary.
SPC also runs a programme for Pacific Island Professional Officers: internationally recruited posts with a 364-day term. Only nationals and residents of Pacific Island countries and territories may apply, and they must work for a Pacific Island ministry, a similar agency or a recognised NGO, with their employer’s signed agreement to release them and take them back.
SPC warns that people have pretended to recruit for it and asked candidates for money. It says it never asks for payment or financial information, and that its staff write from addresses ending in @spc.int.
Where does the Pacific Islands Forum post?
The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat posts its vacancies at careers.forumsec.org. The site’s robots.txt allows reading, but the page is empty until a script runs, and SPC’s vacancy list at careers.spc.int is built the same way. We did not run those scripts, so we read neither list. The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency’s website answered our robots.txt request with a bot challenge, so we stopped there too.
What should you check in a regional body’s posting?
Four lines, in this order:
- Who may apply. APEC recruits from its member economies, SPC’s professional officer posts are for nationals and residents of Pacific Island countries and territories, and the ASEAN Foundation’s internships are for ASEAN and Dialogue Partner countries. If your country is not a member, read the eligibility line before the duties.
- International or local. ERIA lists the two separately, and SPC’s extra benefits apply to international staff who meet its criteria.
- The language. APEC works in English. SPC works in English and French.
- The documents. APEC wants its own application form, and SPC wants answers to screening questions. A CV alone will not do for either, so keep a master CV to copy from, as one resume for many countries describes.
How to read a job posting covers the rest of a posting. The Asian Development Bank hires on its own rules, covered in development bank jobs, and African Union jobs shows how another regional body sets its rules.
Questions people ask
Can I work for the ASEAN Secretariat if I am not from an ASEAN country?
We could not read the Secretariat’s rules, so we cannot say. Read the eligibility line in its own posting.
Does the ASEAN Foundation pay interns?
No. Its careers page says the internship is unpaid.
Who can apply to the APEC Secretariat?
Candidates from APEC’s member economies, for both staff posts and internships, on its careers page.
Do I need French to work at the Pacific Community?
No. SPC’s FAQ page asks for at least a working knowledge of English or French when you apply.
What we know and what we do not
The facts here come from the careers pages of the APEC Secretariat, the ASEAN Foundation, ERIA and the Pacific Community, SPC’s FAQ page and one APEC posting, read on the day we checked. The ASEAN Secretariat’s firewall refused our request for its robots.txt file, and the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency answered with a bot challenge, so we read neither site and did not try to get around either block. The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat’s and SPC’s vacancy lists load only through a script, and so does the SAARC Secretariat’s website, so we read none of their postings. No page we read printed a salary scale.
Zorlya does not apply for you. It collects roles from 130+ sources, and jobs appear in the app after you sign in, where the sources are listed. When a role is in your feed, Zorlya scores it against your resume, gives the reasons for the score, names its source and links to the original posting, where you apply. How it works shows the steps.