World Bank Group reviews

The World Bank is a poor place to spend 3-5 years on a fixed term contract if you have 15-20 years of professional experience under your belt, particularly if you are coming from the private sector. You will be working alongside and perhaps supervising staff who can be negative and belligerent, working with bosses who are outright bullies and dealing constantly with politics and optics between Directorates and Vice Presidencies. I learned nothing technically, aside about how to write in a Washington DC tone which is not an appreciated skill elsewhere in the world. I view my time at the World Bank as a complete waste, and time that I will never get back. Sure looks great on the CV, but if it is true professional growth and development that you are looking for, then look elsewhere. Working for a Fortune 500 in a senior role, I have had to relearn many managerial skills unappreciated, downplayed or even belittled at the Bank: pragmatic and quick decision making, explicitly scoping out what is in and out, execution based on plan-do-check-act (versus the Bank's plan-plan-check-plan approach), open and transparency with my team members and strong internal networking (without having to go to the VP first).

The processes at the WB are their own worst enemy and the management could care less about their effectiveness and/or pain points. Almost everyone there has sold their souls to the organization in order to live in the USA. The king of every day is always the one who is the better politician. Additionally, at the WB professionals become de-skilled very quickly. The tasks are menial and there is a tremendous compression of work everywhere and in every field. You have PhDs oftentimes doing clerical, menial tasks. They are there for the prestige and living in Washington. The environment is also very classist and some feel like slaves. Managers are very angry, narcissistic and controlling. Consultants are treated very poorly and they have no benefits. Once you look closely, it's all pure show. You have graduates from Oxford, MIT and Stanford typing and doing data entry day after day. But they travel around the world and they think that's good enough. The glamour of the organization dazzles many without giving any consideration for how their pitiful, menial tasks are hurting their careers. DC. Folks, it's a world of economists. Almost everyone else there lacks value. I don't believe I would ever return to a place where my spirit and soul would die every day I walked through those doors. By the way, I'm a US citizen so I didn't have to sell my soul to the organization just to live in this country. I've also had REAL job in corporate America and US government so I have a basis for comparison as to how much my own career suffered and lost by staying 4 years at the Bank.