The only good things about my experience at I4DI was getting to live in DC and understanding what I need to avoid in an employer. There are thousands more experienced people than myself, but I am a person with great background in this field and with exceptional achievements (I am young). However, I stumped when I was faced with this odd environment. This is an organization that provided no support, no training, and unclear goals, and was dissatisfied that their brand new employee was racing to catch up and figure things out. One instance is having a direct supervisor be unhappy when you provide a first draft of a document because you are expected to do it from A to Z in one go. Also, this is a place that can ask you to explain THEIR unique approach to doing things in writing and create concept notes about that, when you have only recently joined and they feel a 15 minute conversation and practically a couple of vague documents suffice for you to conceptualize something marketable and specific. If you can do this, go ahead. For me it was a daily surprise and challenge.
Not only was my contract terminated, but I was rushed to leave the entire country since my visa is tied to my employer. I had one year of work authorization, and due to their inability to 1) be clear, focused, organized about the job description and 2) provide any sort of orientation/training/adjustment period I lost 3 months of my work authorization and of course could not get another job that would sign a 7 month contract.
Finally, the extremely low salary ($41,360 negotiated up from $36,000) for a self made Ivy League graduate and Fulbright Scholar put additional pressures on me, I accepted that for the experience, but apparently they expected to pay this little and have someone much more experienced than myself.
