10 (bad) things you should know before choosing a humanitarian career:

1. You will get paid poorly. Peanuts, for lack of a better word. Humanitarian work is poorly remunerated despite the important work we do. We can barely cover our living expenses, but the CEOs make millions.

2. You will never have job security. Because of funding, what you get is a six-ten months contract subject to renewal at best. You will notice that many professionals in this field are involuntarily "job hopping" trying to find stability.

3. You will find a saturated marketplace because many people with "useless degrees" in the social sciences don't have better job prospects. Thus, an average of 1,000 applicants for a single position.

4. You will find many people in this field "virtue signaling." People who do not really possess a calling for this work and that like to flaunt their good human nature and generosity on social media, but that deep down don't really give a sh*t.

5. Following up on that point, you will find many psychopaths and narcissists who detect fertile ground in this field to prey on the kindhearted. They usually occupy high level positions, and if you report any kind of abuse, you will get fired. Beware.

6. You will have an impossibly high workload. Humanitarian work often involves long hours and high levels of responsibility, which threatens work-life balance and can make you border on malpractice. I remember one time when I had around sixty immigration cases in a single week and I was going crazy.

7. You will experience stress and burnout. You will often be exposed to difficult and traumatic situations, which can take an emotional toll on your well-being. A 7-year-old immigrant girl once shared with me that she and her 2-year-old sister were raped by four men (yes, you read that right) during their journey to cross the US border. Needless to say, I couldn't sleep that night.

8. Tied to that point is the fact that you will probably not be provided with resources for self-care. You will not be provided with mental health support or Trauma-Informed Response Training, which will increase your risks of developing mental health issues and providing poor customer service. Kudos to the few organizations that provide this!

9. You will experience a lot of entitlement from clients that think you have to be on call 24/7. People that because, let’s say, have refugee status, deserve some kind of special treatment, and will make demands in hostile ways, especially if you are a woman and he is a man. Remember to enforce your boundaries!

10. You will experience a lack of recognition and reward for your good work. You will be treated like a cog in a machine and if you ask for a pay raise, it will be denied under the guise of "budget issues." Oh, and they will replace you in the blink of an eye.

After reading this list, would you still consider a career in the humanitarian field?

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