Q. What is the purpose of the Summer/Winter Internship (SI/WI) and how long have you offered such employment?
A. The Bank Internship (BI) has been in existence since the early 1970s during the Summer. The Winter session of the BI was implemented in December 2001. The purpose of the Internship is to provide graduate students with a chance to gain exposure to the work of the World Bank Group in the hopes that some will be interested in returning to the Bank for a career after completing their studies.
Q. What is the advantage for the World Bank in hiring interns?
A. The advantage for the Bank in offering these opportunities to students is that we get temporary assistance from students who are typically very knowledgeable in particular fields. They bring a diversity of ideas from universities around the world.
Q. What do interns do at the Bank?
A. The job descriptions for interns vary. Some interns research particular projects while others actually help design projects and occasionally they participate in Bank missions.
Q. How many internships do you have?
A. We typically receive about 5,000 applications each year for the Summer and 2,000-3,000 applications for the Winter. The number of interns hired for a given year is approximately 150-200, depending on the needs of Bank managers and their budget circumstances. Managers are usually asked to submit their summer vacancy information to our office by end-March and their Winter by mid-late November.
Q. What requirements and screening processes are used?
A. Applicants must be full-time students, currently in their Master's or PhD programs and must be returning to school in the Fall in the case of the Summer Internship and returning to school in the Spring in the case of the Winter Internship. All applications received are downloaded into a database, which uses a powerful search engine to identify applicants who meet the particular requirements a hiring Manager is looking for to fulfill a Summer or Winter Internship position.
Q. Do you have set quotas for nationalities, gender, etc.?
A.There are no set quotas for the Internship. Interns can be selected from any country which is a member of the World Bank Group, so the composition of nationalities and gender varies from year to year.
Q. What fields of studies are most in demand by the Bank?
A. The most common fields of study are economics, finance, human development (public health, education, nutrition, population), social sciences (anthropology, sociology), agriculture, environment, and private sector development.
Q. How are interns paid?
A. Interns are paid on an hourly basis for the actual hours worked -- they are not paid for weekends or public holidays unless they actually work on those days. The salary is determined by a market comparison based on education and work experience and may change from year to year based on current market rates. The only variation in salary among interns is that U.S. nationals are paid a gross salary for tax reasons and foreign nationals are paid a net salary. Interns are responsible for their housing and subsistence from their salaries.
The acknowledgement for the Summer and Winter indicates that we should wait until May and November respectively to hear about the outcome of selections. Why does it take so long to be contacted about an assignment?
Given the busy work schedules of managers, the deadline for the manager's selection for their vacancy is normally end-April for the Summer Internship and end-November for the Winter Internship.
Q. Will I be notified if I am not selected?
A. They will not send out any notice if you have not been selected. They typically receive about 5,000 applications each year for the Summer Program and 2,000-3,000 for the Winter Program, they only able to acknowledge that your application has been received. If you have applied on-line, this acknowledgement is forwarded to you as soon as your application is successfully transmitted.
Q. How can I find out about the status of my application?
A. Unless you hear from the Internship office, they do not have any information to share with you. They will contact candidates immediately once a manager informs this office of their selection for a particular vacancy they wish to fill with an Intern.