Inter-American Development Bank reviews

Very political. They seem to be constantly reorganizing. Seems like there's a lot of dead weight (I once walked by a room where a woman was taking piano lessons...!?) The bureacracy can be really overbearing. 2/3 of employees are consultants, and it seems nearly impossible to become staff as an American. They have quotas on how many people they can hire from each member country and since they are based in DC there are a lot of Americans in the city's international relations grad programs interning there and trying to get in (SAIS, Georgetown). There's lots of competition, they can replace you in a second. US tax laws also make Americans pay 30% of our consulting salary in taxes, so we cost the organization more (or you take the job and are living in a crappy group house while your European colleagues buy condos and go out for fancy dinners every night). No benefits. The "Research Fellow" position is just a crappy way to pay you less with no benefits and no job security, and we all overwork ourselves since we're fresh out of college (and hoping that will mean they will hire us . . . they won't). Try to get a JPA at the World Bank instead if you can. They pay for health insurance, taxes, and even some retirement savings, or so I've been told.

General: -High bureaucracy and hierarchical environment -A lot of people have been working there for long time (15 to 20 years), some of them keeping old/obsolete practices and antagonizing the efforts for innovation. -Toxic environment in a lot of areas, colleagues complaining about mental health. Non-healthy competitiveness. -Some colleagues have only worked for the Bank in their lifetime and have not made any efforts to keep learning and are just waiting to get their juicy retirement package. -"Work assignments" are being used to also move employees to areas where they do not have experience due to political issues/ convenience. For Consultants: -Maximum of 3 years in consultant positions (you can't have another contract in your lifetime as consultant) -There are consultants that have responsibilities from a staff level position, yet paid as consultants. -No career opportunities, you will need to apply to staff position as someone external, unless you are well connected (favoritism or nationality preference) -When moving to USA, they don't help you with housing. You only get your tickets and a lump sum for reallocation if your contract is more than 17 months. -No budget / access to learning and development courses. You will only have access to generic seminars (to basic for someone who has experience) -Consultants make the "hard work" and often do not receive credit. -Contract includes $250 allowance to pay your medical insurance, but usually you will need to pay extra as it is expensive in the USA. -Remote consultants that work for Washington offices get paid according to their country (location). -Consultants are treated as contractors of vendors, they come and go all the time. -I would not recommend taking a consultant position if you have family with kids, the benefits are not enough. For Staff: -Mobility and growth is hard, you can spend 10+ years in the same position, only getting more workload. -"Machismo" is still embedded in the culture, promoting more men than women. -You can get "work assignments" doing more work and getting payed the same (for years)