My experience as a UN intern in NYC was incredibly similar. My department did nothing of note, and the person leading the department would routinely harass, dis

My experience as a UN intern in NYC was incredibly similar. My department did nothing of note, and the person leading the department would routinely harass, disparage and humiliate her employees, sometimes in public. No one was even competent, and people spent most of their time doing nothing. It was one of the most demoralizing positions I have ever had, and was of course paid for none of my time while living in Manhattan, which was a great financial burden. That being said, I'm convinced this line on my resume has worked wonders for me. I have switched industries twice (UN -> Non Profit -> Tech Software Engineering) and in most of my interviews, people still ask me about it after 5ish years. While it would be hard to say for certain that it has gotten me jobs, it does make my resume continue to stand out. This doesn't take away from how unethical it is to not pay your workers, or how insane it is that most of the UN does absolutely nothing but take most US tax dollars and pay their employees (at least in NYC) an incredibly insane amount of money to do nothing. Edit: I want to make clear that there are hugely productive and beneficial parts to the UN like UNHCR which runs refugee camps throughout the world. I personally met the head of UNHCR, who was then a former Prime Minister of Portugal, and he was one of the most impressive people I've ever met. He ran over 150 refugee camps and knew each of them by name, location and how many people were there. Incredible person doing a very important job. But this is the exception, not the rule.