How to land consulting roles at the World Bank

Consulting for a top global development multilateral donor agency such as the World Bank is a career goal for many professionals. But these organizations have very specific — and competitive — requirements for hiring, often making it difficult to even know where to begin. To help consultants gain a competitive edge when seeking work at the World Bank, Devex recently hosted a digital event featuring insights from Roberto Amorosino, a former senior HR specialist for the World Bank Group and an expert career coach. With over 25 years of World Bank experience, Amorosino offered insider tips and perspectives on this unique recruitment process. Here are a few key takeaways from our discussion. Express your interest beyond the application When seeking a consulting role with the World Bank or consulting roles in general, it’s important to go beyond merely submitting an application. You need to explore other opportunities to express why you want to work for the organization and are the right fit for the role itself. “I would always recommend to express interest, not through an application — meaning, not through only an application — but at a different stage. I want to express interest in a given organization [or] departmental unit through connecting with them as a professional,” Amorosino said. Networking is especially important when seeking World Bank consulting roles because many of the opportunities the bank has are not advertised publicly, Amorosino emphasized. Put your best foot forward Whether it’s through an informational interview or in your cover letter, you always want to make your best impression as early as possible in order to separate yourself from the competition, Amorisino suggested. It “may be easier when we reach the interview stage to talk about what we can offer. But still, there's a lot of screening,” Amorisino said, which means CVs still play a crucial role. The key is to not hold back any efforts to communicate why you’re the best candidate regardless of what opportunity comes first. “We need to play our cards, our better cards, as soon as possible … So if we have good story examples, they can demonstrate that we have relevant experience. I will always recommend to talk about this on the CV and the cover letter,” Amorisino said. Aim to keep the conversation going Networking is essential to ultimately landing a role with the World Bank, and the best way to approach this is to have a longer view of how to build on initial conversations, which means focusing on common ground, Amorosino advised. “Try just to talk about the common points that we might have with different people, and try to see if we can contribute to the discussion,” Amorosino said. When it comes to networking opportunities, “we should always have an objective, and the main objective of connecting with an individual, for me, is not to share as much as I can about myself. But the main objective is to understand and actually agree on how to keep the conversation going,” Amorosino said.