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Inter-American Development Bank

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Mixed realities - Senior Specialist Inter-American Development Bank Employee Review

3.0
11 Mar 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The IDB is a great place for those interested working in Latin America and the Caribbean. It has an outstanding position in the region, access to goverments and projects can be really interesting. The Bank is well funded and it offers competitive salaries and career prospects. Some jobs are really rewarding.

Cons

IDB has some of the advantages of Latin America -friendly atmosphere, human relations- but also several of its limitations -nepotism, lack of strategic vision. Your career management depends almost entirely on having good relations with your boss and build up a network. Of course networking is important in every organization, but in the IDB, it seems overwhelming. There are not clear HR rules, and you may be praised and rewarded by your job if your boss likes you, or completely crashed and humiliated for the exact same job if he does not, as there are no clear criteria for evaluating performance (of course there is a formal career point system, but it is easily overlooked). Most internal positions are filled through 'lateral transfers' , which means most positions are not even published for internal competition, and staff devote then a huge amount of energy to networking and align themselves not to corporate objectives, but political (office politics) ones.

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 Outdated development agency.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.

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