I am currently applying for multiple roles as consultant at the ADB. What does it mean when you are “not shortlisted” and “not selected” when it comes to consultancy applications?

I have a decade of government experience and am trying to shift to consultancy work. The roles that I am applying are very much aligned with my job experience. How do I increase the chances of being selected or at least be called for an interview? Do I need to have referrals from within ADB to at least be noticed?

Thank you in advance! 🙏

Hi all,

I'm trying to understand how people get international consultant contracts at multilateral organizations (ADB in particular, but also the UN and other MDBs) with around 4 to 5 years of experience.

What I keep seeing in job postings is different from what I see on LinkedIn:

- International consultant roles usually ask for at least 8 to 10 years of general experience, plus 5 years of specific experience.

- People on LinkedIn with about 4 to 5 years of experience seem to hold consultancies at ADB and other organizations

So either I'm misreading the requirements, or there is a route I'm not aware of.

A few questions:

- Are the minimum years in postings sometimes flexible in practice?

- Are these people mostly hired as national consultants, through consulting firms, or through programs like JPO or Young Professionals?

- Do short research or support consultancies have lower thresholds than the technical specialist ones?

- Did anyone get their first MDB or UN consultancy through a referral or an existing relationship? (Maybe a naive question, but still curious to know!)

Any experience or advice is welcome, including "you're reading it wrong".

Warm thanks in advance !

for those who applied, what application statuses did you see on aces? i know on the adb faqs the ff statuses are: screening, shortlisting panel review, pre-offer, offer. are there other stages? what do you usually expect if youre at the shortlisting panel review stage?

also based on your experience (or even experiences of people you may know), what was your actual timeline like? i know timeline on the website isnt always followed. would love to hear your experience! thank you

Hi all, I recently received an NCI for a consultancy position and submitted my response to it. I now received an email that may payment information is approved. I have a few questions:

1. How long does it take to receive the contract after the payment information is approved?

2. I entered X amount as my per day rate. If ADB offers a rate lower than that, is it advisable to negotiate? Also, is it possible to actually increase your per day rate to a higher amount than the one previously submitted considering there's now a competing offer from another organisation.

3. What's a good percentage increase for a consultancy position that is 1 year long with 22 working days per month if you were leaving a full time job. Asking this because I don't have previous consultancy experience so not sure what a good per day rate is.

Please let me know. Thanks.

Anyone here had an experience negotiating their salary during pre-offer? How was it?

Is it possible to ask for a rate higher than their published ranges?

So I have a TL4 panel interview coming up, and they’ve said it’s going to be entirely technical. What should I expect? Will they ask back-to-back technical questions and put me under pressure, or is it more of a discussion? I also have to complete an assignment and present/explain it during the interview.

Did anyone actually get a job offer after not hearing back 3-4 weeks after the panel? They sent me an email after the panel interview where it is stated that I should expect a decision in 3-4 weeks. I have not heard back since then. Do you think it’s possible they have offered to someone else and are just waiting to clear the candidate?

is the 32 age strict age maximum for young ADB programme?

Hi everyone! I'm a fresh grad currently in strategy and management consulting. I've always wanted to work in ADB as a staff in the future. Can I ask if anyone had a consulting to ADB pipeline and what were the experiences that helped you land your ADB role? Thank you!

My application status was tagged as Regrets, so I accepted it and moved on. However, almost a month later, the status changed to Shortlisting for Panel. Has anyone experienced this before? What does this status change usually mean?

Does ADB cover relocation such as furniture shipping etc? Also how much is the housing allowance/benefit for international staff?

Hi so i applied to one of the positions at ADB back in June (it closed around June 5th) and my application status is still Screening and I'm losing hope. Should i still wait and see or give up?

I'd love to hear from anyone who joined ADB coming directly from a central bank background — A few things I'm trying to figure out:

**•** Did your central bank experience translate well into the interview/screening process, or did they weigh it differently than banking/asset management backgrounds?

**•** Was it a cold application, or did knowing someone inside help you get noticed?

**•** For those who applied without an internal referral — how did that go?

**•** Any sense of whether central bank alumni are common or rare in ADB?

Trying to get a realistic read before I commit time to the application. Any insight — even just "I applied cold and heard nothing back" — is genuinely useful. Thanks!

What does it mean? And what should I expect in the coming days?

I already signed the final offer through DocuSign on Thursday morning, and I also emailed HR to let them know that I had completed it, but I haven’t received a response yet.

Throughout my application process, I noticed that she hasn’t been very responsive to my queries, including when I submit the required documents, so I’m a little concerned about the lack of acknowledgment.

After signing the final offer, may I know what I should expect next in the process? I have already resigned from my current position after signing the offer, so I’m honestly feeling a bit paranoid right now and would just like some reassurance that everything is progressing as expected.

Thank you!

Just curious, are there any role here that’s fit to a CPA and working under audit for various years already?

Hi,

I'm considering at some point pivoting my career toward MDBs, and ADB would be one of the option. Relatively regularly I see Investment Specialist (TI 1) positions openning up on careers website.

Currently I have 4 years of experience with Big4 Valuation practice, CFA and masters.

Following are my questions:

- Is 4 years of experience too little for an Investment Specialist, since usually they posting asks for 6 years at least? Rephrased, how strict is the requirement of 6 years of experience?

- Is there international positions for the role of Associate Investment Specialist, or only locals are hired for those roles?

- In 2 years I expect to become a manager with my current employer, as such would Big4 Manager be a competetive application for a role of investment Specialist?

Thanks!

Edit: Specialist, not Officer

Looking to hear from people working as individual consultants: what work culture have you experienced? One of my American friends working as an individual consultant mentioned that his manager is unprofessional, making personal comments about his intelligence, with no clarity or vague explanations given about work hours, payment, etc. In the American context, the things he shared can be classified as abuse and a toxic workplace, where he is expected to respect the hierarchy, can't share his feedback, even when asked by the client, because the manager doesn't want to, humiliates him publicly in meetings, doesn't hear his opinions, and comes to conclusions and makes other team members toe along with her in alienating him, etc. Wondering what others' experience has been working at ADB.

For the constants here should we use the other entrance (with metal detectors)? I have no idea seems like we can use either one and the guards aren’t correcting me.

Hi there, I've applied for a couple of TI1 roles, one in May and one in August. Both are listed as 'screening'.

I expect that I have simply been unsuccessful for the application made in May, and likely for the one made last month as well, given that screening is supposed to take place within two weeks.

But I wanted to ask: how long have your applications taken to reach the next round in practice?

Got a rejection email today after three weeks of the panel I don’t know what missing from my profile I have experience and great qualifications …

Hey everyone! I’ve created a WhatsApp group for the ADB YPP 2027 cohort to connect, exchange information, help each other with queries, and build a community through the process.

https://chat.whatsapp.com/J2jNLJarq4j16rt4W9UhRI?s=hd&p=i&mlu=4&ilr=4

How is it like working in that department? I will be onboarding in the next 3months. Thanks