Culture at the MDBs (IMF, WB, ADB, IDB etc)

[Anonymous]

What is it like to work at these organizations? I have friends who have worked here and there and most of them seem unhappy with the internal dynamics but very complacent at the same time. What's it really like? Are Americans able to fit in?

[Anonymous]

Hard to get hired, great benefits, very bureaucratic

[Anonymous]

This was ADB maybe a little over ten years back. Just think office politics but country style. Every nationality cluster around their own and tries to promote them. If you are from a small country without a cluster of your country folk forget about promotions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was ADB maybe a little over ten years back. Just think office politics but country style. Every nationality cluster around their own and tries to promote them. If you are from a small country without a cluster of your country folk forget about promotions.

What does country style mean? Clicks by country or language or both? Intl organs are like that. People group by language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was ADB maybe a little over ten years back. Just think office politics but country style. Every nationality cluster around their own and tries to promote them. If you are from a small country without a cluster of your country folk forget about promotions.

What does country style mean? Clicks by country or language or both? Intl organs are like that. People group by language.

Cliques by country, not language.
I was fluent in another language but I was not invited into those cliques due to nationality. Like Koreans for Koreans, Chinese for Chinese etc. as a representative of a smaller country I realized I would never advance.

[Anonymous]

They dont like Americans much

[Anonymous]

Interesting work with knowledgeable, curious people at incredibly slow moving bureaucratic organization. Benefits cannot be beat from time off to health care to the pension. This is why people don't leave - golden handcuffs, health insurance for life and the pension

[Anonymous]

These four organizations are extremely different. Hard to generalize the cultures across them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is it like to work at these organizations? I have friends who have worked here and there and most of them seem unhappy with the internal dynamics but very complacent at the same time. What's it really like? Are Americans able to fit in?

DH works in one of them and he is quite happy. Not American. Very well qualified. Most people we know are PhDs.

[Anonymous]

IDB culture is toxic, cliquey, and abusive. LAC's political (and totally white) class, cashing in expat benefits, selling loans to their network, and waiting to come back into government. Stay away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting work with knowledgeable, curious people at incredibly slow moving bureaucratic organization. Benefits cannot be beat from time off to health care to the pension. This is why people don't leave - golden handcuffs, health insurance for life and the pension

The other reason they don't leave is their visa is tied to their job. Leaving means uprooting your family from the U.S.

[Anonymous]

I know people at the WB and IMF. They're very large organizations, OP. If you're a worker bee and have a nasty boss, your experience won't be great. But if your coworkers are great, or you're high enough on the totem pole that differences are resolved in a calmer way... then it can be great.

[Anonymous]

These places are a cash cow for elite non Americans (even though they are based in the US, go figure).