employer cover photo
employer logo
employer logo

Inter-American Development Bank

Is this your company?

A complete and absolute disaster - Senior Consultant Inter-American Development Bank Employee Review

1.0
1 Oct 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Colombian empanadas at the cafeteria were really good

Cons

To be hired as a proper staff with benefits you need the right nationality. With former CEO this was a must. If you are from small under-represented countries don't bother coming to this place. Hiring and promotions of some groups intensified in the last few months. Consultants in need of a G4 visa do staff work with no benefits or stability. Staff sometimes abuse them. No visibility is given to those who get the job done. Other times, staff create more work out of thin air that is not even remotely in your contract TORs, and you don't feel in a position to complain. This figure of "consultants" should not exist at all in an institution that allegedly is fighting inequality. The institution lacks professionalism across the board. Deadlines are a suggestion. To approve one miserable thing takes months and sometimes years pass without anything happening, until you get just an "ok". Top hierarchies are overpaid for what they do. Staff is obsolete or mediocre and lacks motivation to improve themselves. The only thing staff do is to push for more money to hire more 'consultants'. In consequence, half of the workforce works underpaid and abused and the other half just drink cafecito in the cafeteria. In sum, the IDB is a disaster, and I don't recommend it unless the new CEO radically alter the status quo.

Explore other reviews about Inter-American Development Bank

5.0
28 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Excellent benefits, culture and opportunity to make a real impact.

Cons

There is bureaucracy across the organization. Vertical career progression can be slow.

2.0
3 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You get to work with elitist Spanish speaking Latin Americans who are xenophobic for people that speak other languages, who have processes, paper pushing and career progression as major objective, not real development outcomes (eradicate extreme poverty & improve quality of life in LAC).

Cons

Bureaucracy. Outdated development agency. Abusive to and misclassifying contractors. People who don’t know what they are doing or talking about. Delivers trash projects and pulls impoverished countries further into national debt. Technocratic and too much focus on metrics, not impoverished people’s lived experience.

1
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All