vice president

research specialist

journalist

enterprise architect

chief policy officer

Inter-American Development Bank

What is the best part of working at the company?
The generous benefits and compensation were key factors in my decision to stay with the IDB for over a decade.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The upper management and direct supervisors display a very outdated and sexist mindset. Their treatment of employees is reminiscent of a bygone era, where they view staff as mere support rather than valuable contributors. They have a complete disregard for personal boundaries, frequently encroaching on personal time by disregarding scheduled hours and time off. This behavior escalates to the point where they make demands for work and set deadlines during weekends and evenings, showing a lack of respect for work-life balance.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
This is a very sensitive issue. If you don’t have connections in upper management, it's extremely difficult to advance in your career. Despite working at the company for over 10 years, I never had the opportunity to advance to a higher position or receive a salary increase. Favoritism and office politics heavily influence the hiring process, which is disheartening because I am passionate about the work the IDB does. While the company has policies in place regarding fair treatment, herrassement, and HR practices, they seem more theoretical than practical. When it comes to reporting problems, there seems to be little follow-through.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
my typical day was coming in ing my emails then meet with my direct to supervisor to see if there was anything urgent and then we’ll plan a meeting with our team and then we will go on our daily duties.

I worked 5 years at the IDB Group (left in 2017). I loved working for Latin America and my projects were very interesting. I was able to learn a lot thanks to very lazy supervisors and got to travel and do some very relevant field work. My life work balance was excellent and the salary was way more than any job I had before or after that. I actually think this is the only company where people are totally overpaid (thanks to citizens tax payers money!). Lots of days of: 24!

Unfortunately I got there applying online without the much needed "Godfather" that you will desperately need if you want to grow in this organization (which means being friends or family of someone important and influential in Latin America such as President and Prime Minister...). For 5 years I remained a contractor even though my performance was excellent and my salary almost doubled. I just did not have high level relationships to get the so desired "Staff position" that actually should be called the "golden handcuffs" since once you get a staff position, you can be sure you won't learn anything but will have a whole army of consultants figuring out everything out for you. Sounds good? But wait once new divisions chiefs, they will terminate you to put their new friends and then you won't have much room for reconversion as what you will have learnt will be totally irrelevant for any other company.

It is a volunteer job. I can work from home most of the time. it is important that I can  work in the Office when the semester is  going to start and when it is going to finish. I learnt about the association and how can I work with volunteers and other workers. I learnt how to manage 18 languages courses. English and French classes for adults ans Spanish classes for children. I interviewed teachers and organize meeting and create new classes. I have a good relationship with co-workers. I know how to work with people. I know how to ask something and prioritize tasks. The Coordinator and Assistant need to different jobs,  for that reason I know when to ask something or wait. The hardest part of the job is to have enough students and try to maintain all the classes open. The most Enjoyable part of the job, it is to organize activities and classes for people that need to adapt in this country, most of them are from Latin america. It is very important to speak and write in English and the children maintain  their Spanish.

INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK                                                     April 2015 
Administrative Assistant –  Temporary Assistant to the Board of Executive Directors Office for Belgium, China, Germany, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands and Switzerland; responsible for updating the agenda of all the Directors and Counselors; preparing documents for meetings;  receiving and screening incoming calls; performing general office duties.  Additionally preparing the office guideline for temporary assistants.


.Senior Administrative Assistant expertise in providing timely, efficient and accurate administrative support to senior level executives, managers, and office teams; trained in archiving,  processing of  invoices and other bills; preparation of general sales report and balances knowledge of bookstore inventory systems. Knowledge of various administrative tools and programs at IDB’s, OAS, and PAHO. Aquainted in performing a variety of administrative or executive support tasks that are highly confidential and sensitive.

If you are looking to work at a place that resembles the UN, this is the Latin American and Caribbean version of it.
Great professionals and a very well structured management team. There are opportunities for growth and they provide on day one tons of self-development tools. Their knowledge management practice really works, it offers products that are not seen in any company to help staff to keep them updated about about countries, sectors and other topics related to the job. This is an organizations that is structured like a consulting firm, so if you have worked in consulting management you will thrive in this place. 
Top place to work!

If you think you can develop new skills and feel challenged, let me tell you that... This is not the place for you. You won't get any promotion or appreciation if you do a good job nor even if you do the extra mile. They will take advantage of your skills to do someone else's job and you will not get any recognition on whatsoever. There is a lot of "important people" that will basically always go above any regulation. 

Achieving a new position based on your performance will never happen, it is a very bureaucratic environment to work and most people are really mean; they will try to take your job and there are no benefits if you are a consultant. 

If you are on a visa... Can be the most stressful part for most of the foreign nationals that work there, not to say that they will let you know until the last minute if you contract is going to get renew.

I miss working at the Bank, moreso for the exposure to other cultures that I miss out on now. But that was a TOUGH environment, and the lack of job security was palpable among the consultant population. Consultants do so much of the work there, but have little to no authority to make changes or manage activities, and are pretty unfairly compensated as compared to staff counterparts. Add to that, the fact that many consultants are forced to scramble to find work once their contracts were set to expire, and there is a cap on how long you can work as a consultant there. The only security there is in Staff positions, but there are few, and those are very competitive to win.

The IDB is a great place to work if you would like to understand and work to improve lives of people in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Great place to interact with coworkers from around the world and have the opportunity to build and developed projects taking into the account very different perspectives and points of view.

High professional quality and engagement.

The only thing I don't like is the Consultant figure, because it doesn't allow the people that is under that contract to plan a stable life scenario over time.

A company that does great work in LATAM.  The company keeps a Latin culture due to most its employees are from Latin America. This is good or bad depending on how comfortable you feel with it. The company needs to innovate and provide more opportunity to young professionals who want to grow and advance in their careers. Most employees tend to do the same jobs for 15+ years. Which is not bad if you are ok with the same routine, but if you are a person who wants to try and experience different things and learn from different areas this might not be the company for you to stay for very long time or even to start working for.

The place is one of the most desirable to work at and very well located.
A typical day at work will include greetings to the colleagues and assisting the many internal IDB's customers.
The customers from IDB are its employees coming from many Latinoamerican countries, professionals, internship students and others related to their governments, which makes a beautiful variety of culture and language expressions from the whole region.
I did not feel any hard moment while working there. The most enjoyable was knowing that I was coming back, the next day, while it lasted.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Vice president 1 salary reported	$250,000 per year
Research specialist 1 salary reported	$122,250 per year
Journalist 1 salary reported	$4,800 per month
Enterprise architect 1 salary reported	$113,500 per year
Chief policy officer 1 salary reported	$109,500 per year

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