I would strongly discourage young professionals from joining the IFC. While it has generous perks for staff who have been around for a while, the organisation is moving to short term fixed contracts for all staff, and pushing staff towards the regions, creating great instability and a lot of your career opportunities at the discretion of your manager. The situation is even worse for colleagues on contract work. I didn't find the IFC to be a meritocracy. In my experience, a lot of junior staff carried huge workloads while lazy and/or incompetent senior staff took the credit for their work and flew around to deal signings and conferences. There are some great managers of course, but many are very poor and have limited people management skills. Professional development within the organisation is limited. Because it is difficult to fire staff, the lazy staff/poor managers remain in the organisation and create a toxic environment for everyone else. I also experienced discrimination based on my nationality, and as a staff member without a family. Local staff in country offices often have to do the same work as international staff but for much lower salaries/benefits, and instead of rewarding field experience in country offices at the end of your contract, often jobs in DC are given to those already in DC, so you may find yourself stuck if you aren't working somewhere you want to stay permanently. There are extremely limited promotion/progression opportunities within the IFC - to be promoted a new job has to be advertised and you have to apply for it, so you need a supportive manager. This also means many of the job listings on the IFC career website already have candidates identified, although that is not noted. This wastes a LOT of time and is also not a transparent/fair process. Note, if you enter as an analyst, you will need a masters degree to progress beyond the GE level, but the IFC will provide no support in obtaining this, and will not guarantee you a role on your return. Finally, if you decide to leave the IFC/your contract is not renewed I found that the experience is not valued in the market/private sector, and you may not be able to stay in the location you were based in with the IFC, so have to form your professional network again. The World Bank HR and tax office are unhelpful and unresponsive - sometimes taking over a month to respond to calls or email queries on important matters like tax requirements, visas and pay which created unnecessary stress and uncertainty. Payroll is also unreliable - I have seen multiple situations where the wrong benefits were paid and it was just lucky I / the other staff members noticed so that this could be corrected.
