A nun is a woman who has taken special oaths to dedicate her life to religious work and meditation. A woman who feels she has got the Call of God to live a spiritual life starts living as a nun. They have a burning desire to meet God.
In order to be able to work towards the attainment of the oaths taken, nuns live a life that is devoid of all the worldly pleasures and distractions. Nuns normally live in monastery or a convent. Nuns dress very simply in a particular uniform that is assigned to them by their religious order.
Nuns are found in other religions also like Jainism, Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism.
All nuns have a particular goal they pursue to be able to spread religion and perform service of humanity. They could take  up teaching in a school or serve at a hospital or serve the poverty stricken class of people.

One of the oaths taken by a nun is that she would not keep any money for herself and live a life of paucity. Any money that she earns would be given to the religious order.

There a few steps for a woman to become a nun which start when a woman enters the monastery to become a nun. For a period of 6 months the candidate undergoes a period of trial to understand if she can live that kind of life in a monastery. After 6 months if both the lady and the order think she can live in such an environment, she is given the dress of the order like other nuns. After this candidate starts living a life of a nun for 2 years but does not take any oaths. Once she has lived the life of a nun for two years, she becomes ready to take temporary oaths and these oaths last 1 -3 years. Once she succeeds in that she can take her permanent vows called ‘solemn‘vows.

A nun’s life is highly pious and religious. A nun’s life is devoted to two causes, spirituality and service of mankind.
There are vows which nuns take and they have to abide by. Nuns who are in the Benedictine tradition take oaths of purity, obedience and poverty. Mundane worldly pleasures have no place in their lives. Nuns have to make sure they follow these vows all the time. Their other duties are decided by the Bishop and those duties would be specific to the order the nun belongs to.
Charities, education, helping the poor and needy, performing prayers for spiritual upliftment and earning some money to support the convent or monastery they stay in, are the main jobs of a nun.

Charity:
Charity work performed by nuns include lending a helping hand to the old and disabled people in their work, lending money to the poor people or buying them food and clothing, spreading happiness, and showering love.

Education:
Nuns educate people about their religion and its importance. They also hold lectures and meetings to spread information about their religion and visit other monasteries to exchange thoughts with other nuns.
Nuns also provide education to the less privileged children of society who cannot afford to go to schools for formal education.

Prayers:
Nuns pray for themselves as well as other nuns. They also pray for the welfare of humanity as a whole. Nuns spend a lot of time in praying, reflection, meditation and deep thoughts. They pray a lot of times in the day.

Work to provide financial support to monastery or Convent:
Though Nuns vow to never keep any money with themselves and give it all to the monastery they still work  to raise some money to run the convent or monastery. They bake cookies, stitch vests, make candles or make posters with calligraphy.

The process on how to become a nun starts with the CALL OF GOD as it is called. It is believed that the women who get a CALL from GOD about adapting this lifestyle and following this path of spirituality are the ones who become nuns.
There are a few very important requirements to become a nun.
1) It is mandatory to be a roman catholic
2) The candidate should not be married
3) Children should not be reliant on the candidate
4) There should be no debts like a student loan while the candidate  is about to take her temporary vows in the process of becoming a nun.
5) Earlier women were supposed to be in the age limit of 18 to 25 years but now women up to the age of 40 are accepted. Basically candidates should be mature and understanding.
6) They are required to be healthy with no physical ailments.

Skills like being able to communicate and interact well with a community of people, being happy and content are always desirable. Candidates wanting to become nuns should be able to work with a team and not be dominating or selfish because being a nun is all about living in a community of people.

There is no compulsion to possess a college degree but it is always preferred that women wishing to be nuns possess a college degree.

It is very important for women who want to become a nun to be able to understand that her life will be total abstinence from the pleasures of the world. So she should be ready to give up all the petty things of the world and abide by the three oaths of PURITY, OBEDIENCE AND POVERTY. These 3 oaths are not at all easy to abide by so it is a very important prerequisite that a lady makes up her mind about accepting these oaths. While making up her mind if she can abide by these oaths for the rest of the life, then she can get in touch with some nuns, spend time with them and get to know their lifestyle and make up her mind about living that lifestyle. Once a lady is sure that she wants to become a nun, then she can become a part of a convent and start the process of becoming a nun. The process of becoming a nun is lengthy and starts with a stage called postulancy, followed by novitiate and then goes on to making temporary vows and permanent vows.

Postulancy
In this stage when the lady enters the convent she starts interacting with nuns and living like a nun and adjusting in the community. In this stage the lady is trying to understand if she can become a nun or not and if she is accepted by other nuns
There are no commitments made and no oaths taken. This stage lasts 6 months to 2 years

Novitiate
In this stage the lady is called a novice and she learns a lot about the vows she has to keep for life and spends more time with other nuns. This stage lasts 1 or 2 years.

The next stage consists of taking temporary oaths which can be revived every year for up to 6 years and if the lady decides to leave she is allowed to leave. The lady starts wearing the dress that other nuns wear, called habit.

The stage of taking permanent oaths follows the above stage.
In this stage the lady takes permanent oaths and is called a perpetually professed nun.