John,What exactly do you want to do at UNIDO? Why do you feel working at a consultancy would improve your chances of ending up there? In my opinion there are 2 or 3 things that UN organizations ask for: international experience (especially in developing countries), some development work and good internal contacts in the organization.I really do not see how working for CG or Deloitte would help you get into the UN. Why dont you check other consultancies/NGOs that work in international development instead? Check out this link with a brief list of some interesting firms (in my opinion Emerging Markets Group would be a good choice).Also, many people who work for the UN are insiders, that is, they started working as an intern, made contacts and managed to stay by going to do some field work in a random developing country.This brings me to another question: Why UNIDO? Have you checked out the ILO and the UNDP? Theres a big overlap in the work they do and ILO and UNDP tend to take over a lot of stuff that in general would fall on UNIDO. Also, if you need money and are not willing to work as an unpaid intern (very common in the UN), definitely check out the ILO and WHO who normally pay their interns. Anyhow, in my humble opinion, CG or Deloitte will not help you that much in getting a contract at UNIDO or in fact anywhere at the UN (except if you work at the NGO division from McKinsey but thats another story).Hope all this rambling helped.
