The UN personal history profile is the profile you complete in Inspira, the UN Secretariat’s application platform, before you apply for an internship or a job, and it works as your resume for every application after that. Fill in every required field, mark each degree as obtained, rate each language in all four skills and describe your duties in full, because the screening reads the profile against the requirements in the job opening.
The name has changed over the years. Older UN documents call it the Personal History Profile, or PHP, and its paper ancestor the P11 form. The Secretariat’s current applicant guide, republished in August 2024, calls the profile “My Profile” and adds a motivation statement to each application. This post uses the guide’s rules and explains the older terms where you will meet them.
What is the Personal History Profile today?
The applicant guide describes Inspira as the UN’s talent management platform. You can browse job openings on the UN Careers portal or in Inspira, but you must create an Inspira account to apply. On first login you complete My Profile, and its mandatory fields must be filled before you can submit any application.
The Secretariat’s 2018 internship fact sheet puts the point simply: the profile becomes your resume, and you use it every time you apply for an internship or a job at the UN. Time spent on it once is saved on every later application.
The P11 is the older paper form, headed “United Nations Personal History”. A 2017 copy hosted by a UN office asks for height, weight and marital status, gross and net salaries for your last post, and three references not related to you. The 2024 applicant guide describes the online application and does not mention the P11. Some calls outside the Secretariat still use the words: Belgium’s JPO page, for example, says preselection is based on the CV, which it calls the Personal History, and the cover letter. Use the form the call names.
How do you fill in the profile, section by section?
The guide and a 2019 tips sheet from the UN Support Office in Somalia give clear rules for each section:
| Section | What to do | What goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Nationality and residence | Upload the personal details page of your passport, with the photo | Your date of birth cannot be changed once the account exists, so enter it carefully |
| Education | Give each degree with its end date and mark it as obtained | The tips sheet says the system rejects an application automatically when a degree is not marked as obtained |
| Languages | Rate reading, speaking, understanding and writing for each language | You count as fluent only if all four are fluent, and you are not considered if you leave out a required language |
| Work experience | Describe your duties, any managerial responsibilities, and the number and kind of staff you supervised | The tips sheet says to list every job, internship and part-time job, even across 20 years or more |
| References | Name people who know your work | The guide says not to list family and friends |
Set aside time. The tips sheet says completing an application and profile from scratch takes up to three hours. The 2018 fact sheet warned that Inspira closed after two minutes of inactivity and that you could lose your data, so write long answers in a document first and paste them in.
What does each application add to the profile?
Each application copies your profile and adds steps of its own. The guide’s sequence:
- Click Apply Now on the job opening, on the Careers portal or in Inspira.
- Say how you learned about the job opening.
- Answer the job opening’s questions, which check whether you meet the criteria it states.
- Confirm your education details.
- Write the motivation statement.
- Review everything, read the terms, and click Certify and Submit Application.
You can copy a draft or a submitted application and change it for the next job opening, which saves time across similar posts. Complete every field marked with an asterisk. If your internet connection is unstable, the guide says an offline application form exists.
Once you submit, you cannot change the application. You can withdraw it, but you cannot apply to the same job opening again. Applications are not accepted after the posting period ends, so leave a margin before the deadline.
What do UN screeners read in the profile?
Two readers, in order. First, the guide says applications go through an automatic screen in Inspira, based on pre-established rules on age, academic qualifications, length of work experience, family relationships, criminal record and others. The UN may also carry out manual reviews, which need a timely answer from you. Second, the hiring managers evaluate the applications that pass and shortlist against the criteria in the job opening.
The job opening marks its criteria as required or desirable. Required criteria are mandatory. Desirable ones are not, but the guide says some or all of them may be needed to make the shortlist. Your answers to the job opening’s questions should be supported by the rest of the application, so a “yes” to “five years of experience in procurement” needs dated entries that add up to five years.
A worked example: making the experience add up
Take an illustrative opening that requires a master’s degree and five years of relevant experience. A candidate has a master’s finished in June 2019 and two jobs: a project assistant role from July 2019 to December 2021, and a project officer role from January 2022 to the present.
- Enter the degree with its end date, June 2019, and mark it as obtained.
- Enter both jobs with exact start and end dates, and leave the current one open.
- In each summary of duties, name the work the opening asks for, and say how many people you supervised, if any.
- Answer the experience question with the total the dates show, and no more.
If the degree were left unmarked, or a job had no dates, the profile would not show what the answer claims. How to read a job posting helps you separate the required lines from the desirable ones before you start.
Motivation statement or cover letter?
The 2024 guide calls the free-text part a motivation statement: briefly explain what motivated you to apply, and add details not already in your application that make you a good fit. Older guidance called it a cover letter. The 2018 fact sheet told internship applicants to match the competencies in the notice in their cover letter and to include the Job ID, and the 2019 tips sheet said a cover letter should be no longer than one page.
The advice behind both is the same. Pick the two or three requirements that matter most in the job opening, and give one specific example from your work for each. Do not repeat your work history, which the profile already holds.
If the role is in your Zorlya feed, Zorlya can draft a cover letter for it in a formal, warm or concise tone, from 120 to 600 words. It writes from the parts of your resume closest to the posting, and the model is told to use only those for evidence. Treat it as a first draft: check every line against your own record, then cut it to fit the statement field.
Questions people ask
Is the Personal History Profile the same as the P11 form?
They hold similar information. The P11 is the older paper form, headed “United Nations Personal History”. The Secretariat’s application today is the online profile in Inspira, which the 2024 guide calls My Profile.
Can I change my date of birth in Inspira?
No. The guide says the date of birth cannot be changed once the account is created.
Can I edit an application after I submit it?
No. You can withdraw it, but you cannot apply to the same job opening again, so review the whole application before you certify it.
Should I list every job I have had?
The 2019 tips sheet says yes: every job, internship and part-time job, even if your career goes back 20 years or more. The automatic screen includes rules on the length of work experience.
What we know and what we do not
The rules above come from the Secretariat’s applicant guide republished in August 2024, its 2018 internship fact sheet, a 2019 tips sheet from a UN field office and a 2017 copy of the P11. We found no official statement that Inspira has been replaced, and the UN Careers help pages need JavaScript, so we could not read them. Each job opening has the final word.
Zorlya does not submit UN applications. The profile and the application are completed in Inspira. Zorlya can score a role in your feed against your resume and draft a letter for it, and one resume for many countries helps you keep the master CV you copy from. For internships, see UN internships.
More on the UN system: UN internships.